HSF for new conroe? and 6400 or 6800?

[cu3ed]

Hi first quick question,

Currently i have a P4 3.2 (oc'ed to 3.6) and at the time got a Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler, which i always though did an excellant job.

If i get one of the new Conroe chips will it work for it?

Also, im wrecking my head as to either go for the 6400 or the 6600, yes im trying to do this on some sort of a budget, will i see as much of an improment of my current intel as i would like to believe? even if i just get the 6400?

Thanks for any help.

 

[oweneades]

Depends what you use the pc for. In encoding and gaming (where you are cpu limited) you will notice a considerable difference between your cpu and a E6400/E6600.

Personally I would take the cheaper E6400 over a E6600 simply as I would not be able to justify the extra expense considering the performance difference out of the box (circa 5-10%)

 

[Noni Juice]

Yep, 6400 will do you fine!

 

[cu3ed]

lol, great being told the cheaper one is alwasy a good thing, and you think the Zalaman HS will do the job ok.

Im assuming (i am NO expert) i can still overclock the 6400 alittle?

 

[oweneades]

The E6400 should overclock very well indeed. Probably see you the nice side of 2.8ghz with decent ram and motherbaord setup.

I am looking at the E6300 myself. but completely confused by the mobo choices.

 

[cu3ed]

yea the Asus seems to be popular, but till need decent ram too, man it was only a year ago i was getting lost in all of this lol.

 

[oweneades]

Just remember if you want to overclock you need ram capable of decent overclocking potential.

For example the 6400 has a 8x multiplier (266x 8 = 2128mhz) so to run at stock you will only need DDR2 PC4200 memory (266mhz) however if you want to overclock you will need PC5400 (333mhz) or higher.

EG: In theory with pc 5400 memory you can take the E6400 to 2664mhz (8x333) without overclocking the memory at all. However any futher and you really need to look at PC6400 memory (400mhz). This ram at least should be more than capable of seeing you past 3ghz (if the cpu is capable).

Obviously then you need to factor in whether the motherboard you have in mind actually has all of the neccessary settings you need it to to overclock.

I have heard nothing but good things about the gigabyte 965P DS3 however it is quite pricey if you want to stick to a budget.

I also like the look of the Abit AB9 although I have doubts about its overclocking potential. However it is cheaper than the DS3.

 

[cu3ed]

Well i was looking at the G,skill PC2 6400, (2GB), seen a lot of users here seem very happy with it, seems like a good price too!

Even more confused about the Motherboard no lol, the Gigabyte has a good price!