Performance Difference?

[Swaye]

Greetings all, i was wondering if the performance difference between the E6400 and E6600 is really significant?i'm looking to build a new gaming rig and was wondering if it's worth the extra cost?

Any Feedback would be greatly appreciated

regards,
Swaye

 

[myocardia]

If you're not going to be overclocking, or are planning on buying a pre-built system, get the E6600. If you're planning on overclocking, get the E6400.

 

[Cheex]

Yeah the E6600 runs good and stable at stock speed but doesn't overclock as well as its younger brothers.
The E6300 and E6400 have a much higher headroom to support better overclocking.
They can also both be overclocked to E6600 speed, the only difference then would be the size of the cache (2MB vs 4MB).

 

[Swaye]

Hmmm i see but at stock i'm guessing the E6600 blows the E6400 out of the water?

 

[myocardia]

Well, it depends on the application. But, yeah, it has twice the L2 cache, and is 266 Mhz faster. If not overclocking, I'd definitely get an E6600.

 

[Swaye]

i see thanks for the advice..cheers mate..

The specs i'm aiming for if i manage to pull together suffiecient funding ;

E6600
X1900xt 512mb
2gb Corsair DDr2
Gigabyte DS3
Antec 500watt
Seagate 250gb Sata2

 

[myocardia]

I noticed that you're planning on buying a DS3. If you are planning on overclocking, you'll definitely want a different motherboard. The Conroes (C2D's with 4MB of L2 cache) overclock horribly on the P965 chipset, compared to the 975x chipset. You'd either want an E6400 with that motherboard, or an E6600 with an Asus 975x chipset motherboard.

 

[Swaye]

i dont really plan on overclocking so i think it would be just fine right?cause i'm squeezing every last penny out on this purchase..

 

[deadseasquirrel]

If you're really trying to squeeze pennies, go with the cheapest CPU. The 6300. This shows why. Depending on what resolution you play at, the difference in performance between these processors is almost nil. Even when overclocked. Granted, it depends on how CPU-limited the game is, but, for example, see how COD2 gets pretty much the exact same fps at 800x600 whether the 6400 is at 2.1ghz or 3.4ghz? I'm assuming you'll be playing at a res higher than that where it will matter even less. Go cheap if you're mainly interested in gaming.

 

[Kango2020]

Sheesh. These arguments are getting so stale. You will be very happy with the E6600. And the DS3 is a great MB, you'll like it even if you decide to OC later. Your system specs will give you many months (maybe even years) of pleasure. Good luck.