The Best current CPU for Overclock IMO

[nlel1975]

I figure its the E6320 or E6420 as its pretty new so should still be a good overclockers wheareas the E4300 and E6600 have been available for awhile and apparently the newer chips aren't so good for overclocking basically its a lottery depending on which stepping you get wheareas the current E6320 & E6420 steppings should all be good.

Comments...

 

[nlel1975]

Well I wasn't born yesterday lets put it that way.

 

[nlel1975]

Well if I was buying a CPU now with the intention of overclocking it I would go for an e6320 or e6420 as they will probably give you the best chance of getting a good chip... I`m not saying you still can't get a good E4300 or E6600 but your probably more likely to get a good e6320 or e6420.

By I good chip I mean a E4300 that can do 2.6-2.7 ghz, or a E6420 that can do 2.66ghz or a E6600 that can do 3ghz. Not extremely high overclocks but reasonable.

 

[nlel1975]

I`ve decided what I`m going to do... I`ll get a P35 DS3 and risk a new but cheap E4300. If it goes to 2.66ghz 333x8 or 2700mhz 300*9 I`ll be very happy. I`ll probably settle for 2.33ghz if thats all I can get out of the chip I get. If it doesn't do at least 2.33ghz then I`ll sell it in July and get a Penryn 2.66ghz CPU for £ 93.

 

[nlel1975]

After much deliberation and changes of mind I`m going for the e6420 because it seems they are all on the same stepping at the moment (I think) so the majority of them should be able to achieve a very good overclock eg 3ghz+ it seems the only thing you need to worry about is the heat as they get hot at 3ghz on stock cooling.

The other CPU I nearly went for was the e4300 but it seems there are good steppings and bad steppings and the early ones were generally better. Thats not to say you can't get an e4300 now that will do 3ghz its just harder with an e4300 then a e6420 IMO becuase e4300 generate even more heat as they require more volts to get 3ghz stable and there are many reports of people not getting more then 2.7ghz out of them saying the e6300 or e6400 they had was easier to overclock requiring less volts.

So I figured for £ 33 more it was worth it for the extra cache and the increased likelyhood of getting 3ghz... the most I was expecting out of an e4300 is 2.66ghz @ 333x8 but some reports saying Gigabyte boards don't o/c them well or they couldn't get it higher then 320 (with the 9x multi I presume) then others say they got 3ghz @ stock. So there appears to be a difference between chips which is less noticeable with the e6420 at present.

What a lot of them don't say is whether it was orthos 8 hours stable which is a number 1 priority for me but I don't mind shelling out for an aftermarket to keep 3ghz cool if it looks a bit hot with stock cooling.

Just take a look at the latest postings on the official e4300 for reports of people having a hard time with their e4300.... there is very little or none of that on the e6420 thread - you would expect there to be some bad ones or is it just that the e6420 bad eggs aren't getting mentioned... someone must have a bad e6420 surely!

The closest you get to a bad e6420 overclock is someone running the stock cooler and not wanting to run higher then 2.66ghz becuase the 70C heat generated when running at 3ghz... so it seems if your going to splash out on a decent cooler you might as well get the e6420 and a decent cooler is pretty much a necessity with the e4300 to get anyway near the same stable speeds as an e6420.... although not many people will want to run a stable 3ghz e6420 at 70c under load for too long.. a percentage of e4300 just won't be stable at 3ghz without crazy voltages and decent cooling.

 

[nlel1975]

All sounds pretty academic arguments for the sake of 20 or 30 quid. I've got an E6600 running at 3150 with an Artic Cooling Freezer Pro7 in a hot room with a CPU temp at idle of 39 degc and under full load of 45 degc. The longevity of a CPU is so short these days you can practically replace them every year, my case and power supply cost more than the CPU. My personal thought is that the E6600 is probably the sweet spot for price / performance, and that is based on gut feel only and possibly the upright air exposed moist digit technique of estimation.

Denno

Well I have read that some of the newer E6600 steppings aren't as good as the old steppings whether that means they can't hit 3.4ghz or 3.0ghz I don't know... to some a CPU that only does 3ghz is bad.

Certainly the fact you can often overclock a e6420 to 375x8 is better in some ways then a e6600 at 333x9... the e6420 will allow you to achieve reachable goals with a higher fsb... which is good if you have faster ram = more performance.

 

[nlel1975]

same here just need better cooling

you probably got a good chip... but its possible to get a not so good one thats all I`m saying /read the countless others in the e4300 official thread lately who have artic freezers etc etc and can't get to 3.0ghz...

I know some chips are better then others its been the same since the Celeron 366 and P3 650 days... I had a Celeron 366 that did 550mhz stable and 2 others that only did 458mhz... and a P3 650 that did 866 and another that only did 806mhz.

With the e6420 there is more chance that you will get a good chip as they're all the same stepping atm and there are few if no negative posts about the e6420 in the official thread - I suppose there is always the possibility that bad ones aren't being reported and the possibility that bad ones exist but I would say the odds of getting a good e6420 are higher then getting a good e4300... the e6420 needs less volts then a e4300 anyway.

With this in mind I would spend the extra £ 33 or whatever to get 2mb more cache and a higher odds of a good chip...

 

[nlel1975]

Fingers Crossed [Delivery in progress]

Matthew

Good luck lets hope you get a good one and have no problems.... there are still some going about which do 3ghz fairly easily as the previous poster says but there are also the others which struggle to do 3ghz without loads of voltage... its a lottery so don't be to surprised if you find yours doesn't hit 3ghz easily. I would set my expectations lower so as not to be too dissapointed.

With an e6420 you get an extra 2mb cache and the higher possibility of achieving 3ghz as long as you have ram capable of 375mhz (which some ddr667 will do). I`m pretty sure the e6420 is a better bet when aiming for 3ghz.

 

[nlel1975]

I don't know what a lot of volts is for these cpus, but I need about 1.425v to hit 3ghz (i might get away with less, but i've not had time to experiment). I'd probably be happy though to put anything up to 1.45v with stock cooling and 1.5-1.55v with top end air.

I regard 1.425v as a big voltage increase from stock for 3ghz (but not for a typical e4300)... which increases heat which is bad when your on stock cooling... the e6420 usually does 3ghz with less voltage maybe 1.38v which means less heat as less worry when it comes to stock cooling.

Many people won't risk overclocking there e4300 to 3ghz when it requires 1.425v becuase of the heat generated and others don't want/expect to increase voltages that much to get 3ghz stable.

I guess if your happy with the heat generated (you said elsewhere that it is under 65C under load) then fair enough... I wouldn't regard 65C as particularly high when they are capable of going up to 80C before shutdown.

Just remember the life expectancy and overclock ability may deterioate at a faster rate the higher the temps are.

 

[nlel1975]

Well I though initially i'd try it at a lower voltage to see if I could get it stable at around 1.4v. But almost as soon as I got into the BIOS I thought......why not go the other way? What's the absolute most I can get out of this chip? Life expectancy be damned.

I'm trying 3.15 at 1.45v doing Superpi32m to start with (I always use that as a quick indicator), but if that works i'll probably just trying creaming the thing. If I can get 3.4+ at 1.55v I'll probably grab a Titan Amanda and let it fly.

PS Temps under superpi fluctuating between 52 and 55C.

As I said before I think you got a good chip even if it does require 1.425v as long as its stable its good try to lower the voltages to reduce temps although yours aren't bad anyway.