CPU for gaming E4300 or E6600

[rob4001]

With the price drops coming in soon this may bring the E6600 into my price range. I was going to buy an E4300 and overclock it. The E6600 may be more tempting but not sure how much difference in performance an overclocked E4300 or E6600 would make to games.

[nichomach]

For me, the increased FSB speed of the E6 would be worth having, don't know whether you'd see benefit from the additional cache, but I'd rather have it than not.

[shaithis]

You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them in games if running the the same speed.

[chuckskull]

Depends how confident you are overclocking and what motherboard you're buying. I was in this position a few months ago and went for the 4300, it sailed past 3.0 with no problems. The E6600 has more cache, but soon E4320's with the same cache should appear for similar money anyway, and that cache is only worth 2-5fps at most. I play stalker at 1280x1024 with the details running at maximum no problems with my E4300/8800GTS.

Unless you have a lot of money going spare(I sure as hell dont) then anything you save going for the E4300 can go toward, a chunkier graphics card or perhaps a 4gig RAM kit instead of 2GB.

[jamena]

why not go for the 6320 ... get the cache and the fsb but on the other core for not much more than the 4300?

check the specs in compare:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Compa...233&CPID=17065
for £6.58 more you get 60Mhz cpu clock, 266 extra on teh fsb and twice the L2cache ... no point in the 4300 imho
caveat lector

...edit...
if you're planning to overclock though things might be different:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardw...ict225476.html

So early indictation that a ~2.9ghz e6x20 beats a ~3.3ghz e4x00 by 2-13%? in games? Here's a little table of the FSB you would have to hit on each of the 4 processors to hit these frequencies:
CPU - FSB - (OC difficulty)
e4300 - 367mhz - (medium)
e4400 - 330mhz - (easy)
e6320 - 414mhz - (hard)
e6420 - 363mhz - (medium)

so perhaps the e4400 or e6420 would be better wrt overclocking?

[Mad-Max]

If you have the money then get the E6600 but if your sort on the old cash flow then get the E4300 and OC it

Personally I'm getting the E6600 and oc'ing it

[EtheAv8r]

Well the higher multiplier may benefit better overclocks on the 4300, hopefully it should easily go from 200 to 266 clock speed (FSB in old money) taking it to 2.4 whereas you have to take the is to 342 on the 6320 to hit the same speed, maybe a tougher task?

[chuckskull]

With C2D the multiplier is everything when it comes to clocking. and E6320 is going to need a motherboarboard capable of 500+FSB to max it out and those aren't easy to find. The lower FSB on the E4300 is a good things as it makes for a higher multi. 9 in this case. Which means you can hit 3.0 with a poutlry 333 FSB and 3.6(assuming the chip/cooling can take it) with 400, which is well within the reach of the cheaper boards.

[0iD]

Personally I got the E6600 & it's a fine chip, overclocks with minimum effort. Rock at 3.6