processors core2 duo 6300 / 6400, which one to get?

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 13:53

Hi guys

i'm thinking about buying the following rig and i was wondering, is there any merit to buying the allendale 6400 instead of the 6300 processor chip?

also do you think this rig offers value for money?

any and all feedback would be most appreciated

gdev

Graphics
GX-043-OK OcUK Galaxy GeForce 7900 GS OC SILENT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-043-OK)
£129.99

RAM
MY-092-CS Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS)
£149.99

motherboard
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£91.99

Optical drive
CD-040-NE NEC AD5170 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige) - OEM (CD-040-NE)
£18.99

Hard disk
HD-093-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ST3160811AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-093-SE)
£35.99

Processor
CP-127-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-127-IN)
£142.99

Case
CA-027-AN Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN)
£28.99

PSU
CA-026-EN Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-026-EN)
£41.99

Subtotal £640.92
VAT £112.17
Total £753.09

Yucca · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:10

Do you want to overclock or just use it as normal?

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:11

umm i don't know if i've got the minerals to over clock so i'd probably leave it as normal...

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:13

but i will also be using it as my studio pc for making music on a dual monitor setup (sorry forgot to say about that)

FreeStream · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:44

Overclocking is easy!!!

You will get either of those chips up to 400x7 or 8 easy!

2.8ghz, stock volts, that will thrash anything out there.

I'd say E6400, or if you want to be more brave and get the FSB higher the E6300

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 15:22

so does that mean the 6300 has a faster bus speed than 6400?

oweneades · 22 Oct 2006 at 15:29

gdev1981 said:
so does that mean the 6300 has a faster bus speed than 6400?

no just a lower multiplier.

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 15:31

umm what does that mean? :confused:

hp7909 · 22 Oct 2006 at 15:40

WikiPedia said:
The CPU multiplier is one way for processors to run much faster than the clock speed that the motherboard or RAM allows. For every tick of the front side bus (FSB) clock, a frequency multiplier causes the CPU to perform x cycles, where x is the multiplier.

So, for example, if the FSB has a clock speed of 133 MHz and the CPU multiplier is 10x, then the processor would run at 1.33GHz. This means a processor can be run much much faster without having to increase RAM speeds or motherboard speeds and worry about desyncs, or other speed related issues.

The CPU multiplier is frequently used by PC enthusiasts to overclock a CPU to get somewhat higher performance from it.

One downside of the multiplier is it only increases CPU speed. In the previous example there is a multiplier of 10x, but RAM still runs at 133 MHz, so the computer can only access memory at 1/10th of the processor speed, 133 MHz, the speed of the FSB. Because of this, many overclockers prefer to have lower multipliers with higher FSBes.

gdev1981 said:
{snip}Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS){snip}

Get this RAM instead...

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL) £139.99

& you might need/want a beefier PSU, 450W's or more

kitten · 22 Oct 2006 at 15:43

gdev1981 said:
umm what does that mean?

The multiplier multiplies the FSB to get the CPU frequency.
Higher multi means a lower FSB to get desired CPU frequency
Lower multi means a higher FSB is required

ie;
multi x FSB = CPU freq
7 x 400 = 2800
8 x 400 = 3200
7 x 457.14 = 3200

silversurfer · 22 Oct 2006 at 16:12

If your buying expensive ram get the cheaper cpu or vice versa

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 17:49

ok guys thanks a lot so conroe has a lower multiplier therefore uses more of the fsb to get its cpu speed right?

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 17:51

so ram limits the fsb

therefore you need a higher mulltiplier to get good performance?

FreeStream · 22 Oct 2006 at 17:56

gdev1981 said:
so ram limits the fsb

therefore you need a higher mulltiplier to get good performance?

Depends on what chip you get.

Conroe LOVES high mem clocks, thats why people try and get the highest FSB possible.

A E6400 is perfect for this as the 8x multi allows for 3.2ghz at 400fsb and nearly 4ghz at 500+ but only a few ever pass 3.6ish.

400x8 is easy to acheive, esp on a decent aftermarket cooler. Someone with a DS-3 will post the settings you need to use to get to that speed.

CR.

gdev1981 · 22 Oct 2006 at 18:13

so thats why people are telling me to get 667MHz ram, because the 6400 doesn't need 800Mhz, right?

and that way i can get ram with a lower latency? right?

also do i need 512mb on my graphics card?

thanks a lot mate

gdev