core 2 duo

[shoe16]

im am soon going to be getting a core 2 duo and i was wondering which one i should get within a $200 price range and what board is best for overclocking with it

 

[DOM]

How much do you wanna spend on a mobo ?

 

[Chewy]

e6320 or if you can e6420... you be overclocking I take it? yeah just read that humm you could try a ds3 but you would have to update to the latest bios for the eXX20 c2duos.. they have 4mb cache so its just like an e6600 when you reach its clocks.

 

[Mussels]

I dont know about those new chips chewy mentioned, but i know a Gigabyte DS3 mobo combined with an E4300 will get you some fast, easy overclocks if you pair it with some DDR2 667 ram.

 

[bruins004]

Take a look at this guide.
It will help.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=30822

 

[shoe16]

i am looking at around 100 for a mobo (a little more will be fine)

 

[Kursah]

DS3's are in that price range...Do some research to find what you want. We can suggest, but we don't know exactly what you want. I recommend you read some reviews, find out how far you want to go, what you plan to use it for, and such. It's best to look at many aspects of a PC when planning on OC-ing, good Power Supply, Case with multiple fans, and good airflow, decent memory, etc.

Check out bruin's link for sure, it's got some excellent info. When you're done there, check the link in my sig, it'll give you a good idea of what you need to plan out in order to be successful and happy instead of pissed and dissapointed!

 

[shoe16]

ok ill take a look. thanks for the help

 

[hat]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042 - the DS3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115014 - The E4300, mad overclocker, but if you don't wanna overclock to astronomical amounts it comes with a decent motherboard that can overclock somewhat...

 

[shoe16]

would i be better off with the 1.86 e 6320 with 4 mb of shared memory

 

[DOM]

What kind of OC are you looking to get out of the CPU ? And do you have an idea of what RAM you'll be using ?

 

[Kursah]

Depends on how far you wanna go, to get my e6300 1066 bus (2mb version) up to 3.36, I had to set my FSB to 480. A similar 4300 w/ an 800mhz bus can do it with way less fsb. If you go the 6300 route then plan on getting a better MB, better memory...better generally = more expensive. Granted I'm happy with my decision, it's not the best bang for the buck anymore.

Ya need to set some goals..you're kind of vague, so I can only give vague answers. Read up some more, figure out what you want..what OC you want. Learn the differences between DDR2 667 and 800, the differences between 4300's and 6300's, etc..

 

[shoe16]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820227125 <---- the ram i will be getting and im not really sure what you mean by what type of oc i want. i pretty much want to get the best for gaming and the best value

 

[Kursah]

Alright found some info, for an e4300 to hit 3.3ghz, it'd need to be at approx 366FSB, so that's quite a drop in FSB comparted to my 6300, which means you can get away with slower, cheaper memory and a lesser quality board not capable of high FSB speeds. The road you choose is your own, hope this helps ya in your decision making process!

 

[shoe16]

will upgrading to 4 mb shared make a huge difference (e6320)

 

[Kursah]

I've heard it helps a little, and in the future it may help more, but not massive. It kind of depends on what you plan on doing with your PC. From what I've heard from my friends and what I've read on TPU, it's not really something you'll notice. More of a nice feature to have.

 

[Chewy]

it should help in video editing more so than gaming.. I tested verses a e6600 user, he was faster at video editing than me (we were @ same or close to same ghz, I have bad memory cant remember the exact speeds elc.. he was very active on tpu back than and I forget his name atm:shadedshu ).

That ram you picked out should work decent for you.. I got fairly frappy end of the gold sticks.. not very good ocing/timings on my pair. with the prices of ram theses day maybe you'll find something better (if you really need it), I can hit 3.3ghz on my e6300 bu that overvolting the ram to like 2.2/2.3 5-5-5-12... not good, but stable.. ram gets quite warm around that volt. its perfect to pair up with a higher multi cpu though.. who knows you'll prob get beter sticks than mine too.. mine are pretty bad, but hey they work

humm, I gonna crash now. been a long hard day.

 

[shoe16]

thanks for all the help guys i think im going to go for the e4300

 

[Kursah]

Good choice! Keep us posted on the rest of your build! Don't forget cooling! The stock cooler does "okay"... I like my AC Freezer Pro 7, does great, and was like $25, worth every penny. But there are others out around that price, read up on 'em!

 

[hat]

L2 cache over 2MB is really pretty much to add a couple centimeters on the E-penis... "I got 4MB cache and you only got 2MB har har," which in the gaming world means nothing, but if you do a lot of encoding or something it would be better.

Cache size really doesn't matter with the Core2 chips since the Core2's don't use netburst... what's why the AMD processors never had much L2 because they didn't use netburst. You will see an improvement from 1MB to 2MB cache, but from 2MB to 4MB is pretty much just E-penis.

 

[shoe16]

Good choice! Keep us posted on the rest of your build! Don't forget cooling! The stock cooler does "okay"... I like my AC Freezer Pro 7, does great, and was like $25, worth every penny. But there are others out around that price, read up on 'em!

yeah im going to get a thermaltake bigwater right now im having trouble deciding on a mobo and vid card. looking to spend around 150 on a card

 

[raymerjacques]

hmm, maybe you should wait for quad core cpu's ?

intel is launching there second range of quad core cpu's and amd is launching their quad core soon. if you can't afford a quad core, then atleast you will be able to afford a good dual core since dual core prices should drop when these new cpu's come out ...

 

[Ketxxx]

From what I've seen the extra 2MB cache makes very little difference in terms of performance, so if it were me I would pick a E4400 (10x multiplier) use the money saved for a decent 3rd party cooler, and pick up a abit AW9D MAX mobo, or if you want an nvidia chipset based mobo the Abit FATALITY FP-IN9 SLI is a nice choice, however you will have to have a strong stomach to put up with that embarressing fatality branding crap plastered all over the board.

 

[shoe16]

From what I've seen the extra 2MB cache makes very little difference in terms of performance, so if it were me I would pick a E4400 (10x multiplier) use the money saved for a decent 3rd party cooler, and pick up a abit AW9D MAX mobo, or if you want an nvidia chipset based mobo the Abit FATALITY FP-IN9 SLI is a nice choice, however you will have to have a strong stomach to put up with that embarressing fatality branding crap plastered all over the board.

yeah that would be kind of hard to deal with, but i do want a nvidia chipset and sli would be nice

 

[Wile E]

yeah im going to get a thermaltake bigwater right now im having trouble deciding on a mobo and vid card. looking to spend around 150 on a card

Which BigWater system were you looking at?