overclocking upgrades on the cheap?

[hardflipman]

hi, right i'm going to be upgrading shortly and was just trying to get a good motherboard and cpu.
i was thinking perhaps of getting a e2160 and upping the fsb to 333 or maybe a bit more - the ram i have corsair value 5400 2x1gb
this seems to offer a pretty good "bang for buck" any opinions? i had originally been thinking of the q6600 but the vast difference in price makes me doubt the wisdom of that.

what's a good motherboard again preferably cheap although i would probably quite like firewire but not 100% neccessary. i read a review of an asrock 4core 1333 viiv which seemed pretty decent and likely cheap but i can't find anywhere selling it :-(

anyhoo, comments most appreciated

[hardflipman]

hmmm, no replies yet :-(

so how about changing the question a bit. is the cost saving of a 2160 worth it over getting an e4400? i'd hopefully be overclocking to 333fsb...

and any advise on a suitable cheap motherboard would be handy
thanks

[Fraz]

It's prob easier if you say what your total budget is, and get people to make suggestions based on that.

[alsenior]

an asus p5k or a abit ip-35

the p5k costs £73.97 but is overdue and has been for a long time

the ip35 costs £84 and has a better bios 2 1394 headers and there support forum is on here as well

[shaithis]

Firstly, it seems that the newer E21xx CPUs are not reaching the speeds the E4xxx and E6xxx CPUs were reaching.....You should still be virtually guaranteed 2.8-3.0 GHz but not a lot higher.

Saying that, they are damn cheap, so 3GHz for 40-50 quid is a total bargain......but I would consider picking up a second hand E4xxx/E6xxx if you can get one in the same ballpark.

Go for an Arctic Freezer Pro 7 - best bang for buck cooler around IMO

Also, steer clear of Asrock if you want to overclock.

If you go the ABit IP-35E route, be warned you need to hack a bit off of an freezer pro 7 before it will fit on that motherboard.

[hardflipman]

thanks. as for budget as cheap as poss really. although i wouldn't want to spend more than 150 i suppose. i already have a zalman 9700 so i'd imagine that would be fine and i have a corsair 530watt psu so again should be fine.
i suppose i was just after something that's good value for money. i use to have an abit bp6 back in the day with dual celeron 366 running at 550. rock stable and no fancy cooling or voltage mods or anything required. i guess i just want something that's as simple to OC as those...

i was thinking of a gigabyte mb after having less than satisfactory experiences lately with abit motherboards...

oh and forgot to say that ebay is a no goer, i'm using my company to buy the stuff so i need proper receipts etc

[Pob255]

Another thing to realise is that the e2xxx have half the cache of the e4xxx (both L1 and L2)
The e6xxx has twice the L2 cache of the e4xxx but the same L1 cache (if i remember correctly)
Which means a e2xxx is never going to be up to the e4xxx or e6xxx speeds

at £50 a e2160 has a x9 multiplier which means you can just get it to 3ghz at a 333 fsb
at £75 a e4400 has a x10 multiplier which means a 3.3ghz at 333fsb
Remember you'll need a good motherboard to get high fsb and still be stable.

It might be an idea trying to get a hold of a asus P5B motherboard (965 chipset) as they were know for there good overclocking, have only been replaced by the p35 chipsets because they can take faster memory and CPUs (not really an issue here) and as they have gone out of favour you should be able to get them cheaper.

[hardflipman]

hmmm, doesn't really seem to be much in it between p5bs and p35 based boards.
maybe i might foray back into the land of abit and go for an ip35.
the question really is whether the extra performance from the e4400 is worth the cash, i'd mostly be gaming and web surfing and perhaps a wee touch of photoshop/lightroom now and then