Overclock e6400 2.13Ghz or buy e6700 3.2Ghz?

[BobLoblaw]

Hey guys,

I currently have a E6400 C2D 2.13Ghz and I'm looking for a boost. I was originally considering getting a better heatsink and overclocking it, then I saw the E6700 3.2Ghz. The E6700 price is about $90 now and the heatsink I have looking at for the OC project on the 6400 is about $50.

Question: Do I buy the new processor or OC my existing one

[redwudz]

I wouldn't even consider OC'ing a 2.3Ghz CPU. You could OC the E6700 easily enough, though, and get a bit more performance. What CPU cooler were you considering? If you don't plan a OC or plan just a mild OC on a E6700, $50US may be overkill.

The next question would be what you mainly plan to use the CPU for? But assuming you are considering OC'ing, I suspect you want faster encodes. A quad core is usually faster for some encode formats, such as H.264 or Xvid/Divx. For MPEG, not much difference. For just editing, doesn't make a lot of difference either.

One other important consideration is your motherboard. I assume it's compatible with both CPUs?

[BobLoblaw]

Yeah, it's a socket 775 mobo, so both cpus should be compatible (Although my current cpu is 'Conroe' and the new cpu is 'Wolfdale' - would that matter?). If I buy the E6700, I'm not planning on overclocking at all to be honest, as it is 3.2ghz stock. If I was to OC the E6400, I would probably try to get 3Ghz from it.

I'm mainly using the computer for video and sound editing, and playing certain games. I have a 450 GTS video card with is bottlenecked by the processor on games like CoD:Black Ops and Crysis (Performance monitor shows 100% CPU load, while my 4GB of RAM is only at 45%). I'm hoping that the e6700 eliminates this problem to some degree. The true answer is, of course, to buy a new machine, but I can't do that just yet.

[aedipuss]

too bad the q6600 isn't readily available anymore. i have a couple systems using them and they are nice, easily o/c'd at stock voltage to 3ghz. the wolfdale you are looking at will run cooler than the older conroe and at the faster speed. if it's just a stopgap for a little while it might be worth doing, but the new sandy bridge and upcoming ivy bridge are miles ahead so saving now for a complete system soon may be advisable.

[TBoneit]

Yeah, it's a socket 775 mobo, so both cpus should be compatible (Although my current cpu is 'Conroe' and the new cpu is 'Wolfdale' - would that matter?). If I buy the E6700, I'm not planning on overclocking at all to be honest, as it is 3.2ghz stock. If I was to OC the E6400, I would probably try to get 3Ghz from it.

I'm mainly using the computer for video and sound editing, and playing certain games. I have a 450 GTS video card with is bottlenecked by the processor on games like CoD:Black Ops and Crysis (Performance monitor shows 100% CPU load, while my 4GB of RAM is only at 45%). I'm hoping that the e6700 eliminates this problem to some degree. The true answer is, of course, to buy a new machine, but I can't do that just yet.

Hi, You are making the assumption that &&% socket will take any 775 CPU. Not so.

You need to visit the motherboard makers CPU support page to see what CPU can be used. If iy is a Brand name computer they are even more limited in what can be used.

Good Luck

[aedipuss]

his m.b. is listed in his specs if you had looked.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5NE_SLI/#CPUS

[TBoneit]

Well, so many profiles seem to be out of date I've gotten out of the habit of looking to be honest. OOps.