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Worth upgrading an E4300 with only £100?

benlanky

benlanky

benlanky

Associate
Joined
1 Aug 2005
Posts
477
Afternoon

I've been looking to change my processor for a while now and decided on an 8400 a while back (when they were under a ton) but then couldn't get it as more urgent things needed my cash :(.

So, I now have a spare £100 again but the prices have gone through the roof... is it worth me getting something now (and what?) or should I try to save some more, knowing that the £100 will disappear into my overdraft any time now :rolleyes:

Thanks

ps. my 4300 isn't working at 3ghz any more, I upgraded to Vista and haven't been able to get it over 2ghz since...
 
overclocking rings fear for me for some reason.I have never tryed it,But it seems to much hard work,If you have to overclock your ram aswell. but my amd x2 6000 seems ok for now.
 
Blackwhite said:
I would go for E7400 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-271-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793
Easy you can reach 3.0 GHz and I'm quite sure 3.5 Ghz with no problems.
Click to expand...

That's the one I was looking at, will it be a decent improvement for gaming? Only use my pc for gaming (fps mainly) and a bit of surfing but I really feel like my little 4300 is slowing the whole thing down.

Could I re-use my Arctic Cooling thingy, or is the Noctua the one to go for now?

Thanks

edit: just seen the Noctua prices, think I'll stick with my Freezer 7 for now...
 
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I have an E4300 running at 3Ghz on vista, runs everything fine. Although, there would be an improvement in GTA4 if I got a quad.
 
ben,

Can't see why Vista would interfere? Vista on the media centre and I can overclock the CPU in there. I'd wait

The AFP7 should be fine. The Noctua is good but it is pricey.
 
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There's a E6600 in the classifieds for £77 which is tempting.

Alex - maybe you could sprinkle some of your overclocking pixie dust on my 4300 then?
 
Why can't you get past 2Ghz with Vista? My E8500 works at 4.5Ghz be it on XP Home or Vista 64bit. Has'nt made the slightest difference to overclocking. Have you got the latest bios? If not get it, clear cmos after flashing and start from scratch. I had a E4300 at 3.4Ghz on a Gigabyte 965p board. If you could get it back to 3Ghz+ you would see a bigger difference by getting a new graphics card.
 
Funny you should say that pastymuncher, I was just looking at 4850s for around the same price.
It may not be Vista that's the issue, the problem just coincided with vista being installed. However, I've had exactly the same issue with my gfx card, any overclock and it's a rapid bsod fail. Maybe you're right about the mobo.
 
benlanky said:
There's a E6600 in the classifieds for £77 which is tempting.

Alex - maybe you could sprinkle some of your overclocking pixie dust on my 4300 then?
Click to expand...
Yeah can do. Only thing is I'm away over the next few weeks again!:mad:

What motherboard have you got? Are you sure you're not forgetting something in the BIOS? I couldn't get mine to OC then I rememebred to check the memory multiplier. You need to set it as close to your memory's rating as poss.
 
Asus P5B. I'll find an overclocking 'how to' somewhere and check I'm not doing anything daft over the weekend.

So, to conclude, if it will oc to 3ghz again keep it & buy a new gfx card?

Cheers
 
benlanky said:
Worth upgrading an E4300 with only £100?
Click to expand...
Hey benlanky,

seems I joined the thread a little late but I'm suprised no one didn't twist your arm a little to swap out your 65nm E4300 for a newer 45nm E5200! :p

Intel Wolfdale Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail

£57.49 inc

I dare say you could have then sold your older CPU for £25-£40 squid to offset the E5200 upgrade cost . . . . so at the end of the process you would have spent about £30 and snagged yourself a nicer CPU that should hit around 3.5GHz! :cool:

e52003500mhzeerp6.gif


The difference between an E4300 & E5200 isn't front page news but it would be worth £30 just for the extra performance and having a newer chip to play with! . . . at least that's how I see it! :)
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hey benlanky,

seems I joined the thread a little late but I'm suprised no one didn't twist your arm a little to swap out your 65nm E4300 for a newer 45nm E5200! :p

I dare say you could have then sold your older CPU for £25-£40 squid to offset the E5200 upgrade cost . . . . so at the end of the process you would have spent about £30 and snagged yourself a nicer CPU that should hit around 3.5GHz! :cool:

The difference between an E4300 & E5200 isn't front page news but it would be worth £30 just for the extra performance and having a newer chip to play with! . . . at least that's how I see it! :)
Click to expand...


Wayne, it's simply not worth it mate. It's more of a sidestep than anything. I did enough testing with the things in my E4300/E5200/E6600 thread. If he can get that E4300 back to 3Ghz+ he would see a bigger gain from a new graphics card. There's no guarantee that a E5200 will get past 3.2Ghz either as other folks have found out. Very hit and miss with them.
 
Hey pastymuncher, remember the forums are a place for people to express their personal opinions, there is no right or wrong but simply what works for the individual.

The question of "worth it" is also very subjective and depends a lot of how much spare time you have and whether or not you enjoy swapping out hardware, personally I feel swapping out a 65nm 1MB dual core for a 45nm 2MB dual core is worth it for a small price, it's a better chip and uses less power although I agree with you in principle it's a micro-upgrade! :cool:

Anyway I think benlanky is probably happy with what he has and with a little research and tinkering will be able to get the older chip up to 3.0GHz without too much trouble, combined with a faster GPU should see him happy! :)

I just love the E5200 man and combined with my gEEky silicon interest and love of ripping my machine apart for a dust and new hardware installation makes the approx £30 fee involved worth it to me personally but from the sounds of it the 65nm > 45nm conversion process doesn't float your boat! :p
 
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