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Pentium dual core vs core 2 duo

Dist

Dist

Dist

Soldato
Joined
1 Jun 2005
Posts
5,152
Location
Kent
How much difference is there between a pentium dual core and a core 2 duo? I was planning on playing battlefield bad company 2, thinking I had the very minimum in CPU power because I thought my E2180 was a core 2 duo at 2GHz, however I only just found out it is a pentium dual core and not a core 2 duo. It still runs at 2GHz but will it be a major thing and I wont be able to play BFBC2, or will it may just run poorly?

I originaly planned to upgrade my CPU when I had the money, but the tuniq tower was such a pain in the ass to install I don't want to remove it and try and install it again over a new CPU.
 
main difference between Pentium dual core & core 2 duo is its amount of Cache it wont make much of a difference. you mite want to overclock it to 3Ghz then it will run BFBC2 fine
 
Th3D0n said:
main difference between Pentium dual core & core 2 duo is its amount of Cache it wont make much of a difference. you mite want to overclock it to 3Ghz then it will run BFBC2 fine
Click to expand...

I have no experience with overclocking. Had enough pain just getting my RAM to work (default voltage on my motherboard couldn't power 2x 2GB of DDR2, had to fiddle arround to get a hidden page in the bios to let me up the voltage, and even then 1 of my modules doesn't work correctly (it may work and im just not voltaging it right, i dont know)).

If i realy have to overclock I may have to give it a try, but it is just a bit of a hassle.
 
Dist said:
I have no experience with overclocking. Had enough pain just getting my RAM to work (default voltage on my motherboard couldn't power 2x 2GB of DDR2, had to fiddle arround to get a hidden page in the bios to let me up the voltage, and even then 1 of my modules doesn't work correctly (it may work and im just not voltaging it right, i dont know)).

If i realy have to overclock I may have to give it a try, but it is just a bit of a hassle.
Click to expand...
it cud be loads of reasons why your ram isnt working proper try making sure the timings are right

With a E2180 its easy and will save you upgrading
Try chaging your FSB to 334Mhz
vcore to 1.45
Whilst doing this, change the multiplier on the RAM to keep it as close to the speed you ram is ment to run at!

heres a bit more on it
creed said:
e2140 should OC close to, if not as well as, e2180 - people often getting 3GHz+ with this chip. To go further make sure the ram is running at the right voltage (my geil, the ULL stuff, is 2.1v - 2.3v).

Up your FSB and MCH voltage by 0.1v and then the vCore to about 1.425v - 1.450v and try increasing the FSB. Whilst doing this, change the multiplier on the RAM to keep it as close to 800MHz as possible to rule out that causing a problem with the OC.

Next, run Prime 95 or Orthos for 10 mins and if all fine (i.e. no crashes or BSOD) go back into bios and up the FSB by 5 or 10MHz and repeat. If it starts to crash then increase the vCore.

Monitor the CPU temp at load using CoreTemp and if it goes above 73ºC under load then u should reduce the vCore as this is the thermal limit for that CPU. These chips like voltage so dont be afraid to get near the 1.5-1.6v mark (if temps allow) - although lower volts are of course better for temps and longevity.

Once you reach a stage at which u cant go any higher due to temps or any higher and it crashes then run Prime/Orthos for 8hrs to ensure it is fully stable.

After that u can try increasing the speed of the ram by changing the multiplier (note this may require more voltage and can lead to instability of OC).

Gl and enjoy.
Click to expand...
 
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Well here is what I have, not sure how good it all is for overclocking. The main thing i worry about though is that this system is critical for my uni work, so I don't mind overclocking if needed to run what I have to, as long as it doesn't get anywhere near the possibility of breaking.

Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ ReaperX HPC 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel (OCZ2RPX800EB4GK)
Asus GeForce EN8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Seasonic M12 Modular 700W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply

I can't get into BIOS right now to check what everything is currently at, but CPU-Z shows my memory as
1x 2048MB
DRAM Freq = 401.3MHz
FSB : DRAM = 1:2
CL = 6.0
tRCD = 6
tRP = 6
tRAS = 18
CR = 2T

Not sure what voltage thats running at, but 2 sticks wouldn't run at the default for my motherboard, and since that RAM is under warrenty up to 2.1v, I think I increase the V to 2, or 2.05 or something. I didn't go to 2.1v as I assumed that due to it being overclocking RAM, it may be under warrenty at 2.1v but i dont think it should need that if i dont overclock.

My 2nd stick of RAM may be fine, it just happens that when I removed the stick in my 2nd slot I had no more problems, I never tested putting that in slot 1 and removing the other stick to see if it is an issue with the memmory or the voltages.
 
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Dist said:
Well here is what I have, not sure how good it all is for overclocking. The main thing i worry about though is that this system is critical for my uni work, so I don't mind overclocking if needed to run what I have to, as long as it doesn't get anywhere near the possibility of breaking.

Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ ReaperX HPC 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel (OCZ2RPX800EB4GK)
Asus GeForce EN8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Seasonic M12 Modular 700W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply

I can't get into BIOS right now to check what everything is currently at, but CPU-Z shows my memory as
1x 2048MB
DRAM Freq = 401.3MHz
FSB : DRAM = 1:2
CL = 6.0
tRCD = 6
tRP = 6
tRAS = 18
CR = 2T

Not sure what voltage thats running at, but 2 sticks wouldn't run at the default for my motherboard, and since that RAM is under warrenty up to 2.1v, I think I increase the V to 2, or 2.05 or something. I didn't go to 2.1v as I assumed that due to it being overclocking RAM, it may be under warrenty at 2.1v but i dont think it should need that if i dont overclock.

My 2nd stick of RAM may be fine, it just happens that when I removed the stick in my 2nd slot I had no more problems, I never tested putting that in slot 1 and removing the other stick to see if it is an issue with the memmory or the voltages.
Click to expand...

Run your ram at 2.1v it will be fine;)
and your spec looks fine for overclocking
i had E2180 overclocked to 3Ghz for 2 year and it never died on me
as long as your cpu temp dosnt go to high it wont damage your cpu
 
What is safe temps to run it at? (and by safe I mean easily safe, even during the 3 days of hot summer we get a year). I'm not sure how to check my CPU temp in windows, but I have 2 probes in my case, one of which says 26 and another 30 (If i remember right, one of them is case temp, and I cant remember if I put the other on my HDD or my heatsink)
 
You can monitor your CPU temp with a program called Core temp. It reads the temperature from a diode in each Core of your CPU.

Most Intel Core 2 CPU's are specced to 75 degrees or more. They throttle back at high temps to protect themselves. It is possible to cook them , but if the heatsink is attached properly it isn't easy!
 
download OCCT it will tell you your cpu temp.
safe temp for your cpu is 70C underfull load. Use
OCCT to stress out your cpu after you have it overclocked to see if its stable and that the temp isnt getting to high
 
I may have a go at this tommorow then. I'll start on trying to see if I can get my 2nd RAM module to work, as going from 2GB to 4GB should be noticible, then if that works I'll try adjust the CPU. I may also try improve my RAM timings but I think my CPU is by far my biggest bottleneck at the moment.
 
Whats the best way to check that RAM is stable? when I had problems with 2 sticks of memmory i think i used the memmory tester on my vista install disc, is there a better way?
 
Got my RAM working, but no way to test it (found out I don't have any media to burn memtest on to). Turns out my bios was version 0401, which was the initial release, I never knew I had to upgrade the BIOS to correctly support >=4GB of RAM. I have no idea how I originally managed to run it with 4 GB before it started blue screening.

Now its just a wait to see if I bluescreen again after the bios update. Hopefully I can find a mem tester usable in windows itself, since although my motherboard can flash off a USB drive, I can't boot of it (so no mem tester on a usb stick).
 
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