Is it worth getting the E6600 over the E6400?

[Psychotic Emu]

I'd stick with a 6400. A 7 times multi is just getting too low in my opinion. I know the p5b can do over 500 fsb but that is getting pretty high, and will you ram still be able to run 1:1? If you want a really high fsb and you have the ram for it then ye, 6300 will probably clock just as well as a 6400 (if not better as weirdly shown in an anandtech article)
Also, if it bothers you speedstep will do bugger all going from a 7-6 x multi on a 6300

[ytrewq]

Yes its definetly worth getting it, shame about the price difference but thats life i suppose, its one hell'a fast processor

[Chunkers]

I would balance the cost of an E6600 and the bundled (free) fan against any additional spend you plan to make in order to overclock as E6300/E6400 and then factor in the risk (i.e. overclocking is not guaranteed).

I thought about this and by the time I added up all the extra cooling / overclocking gear (fans, big HSF, PSU, fast memory etc) I thought it would be better to get an E6600 and use the stock cooler and bog standard components. To have a better CPU, achieve a modest overclock and have more potential for the future seems better to me.

I see people buying pricey high speed RAM, expensive cooling solutions and mb's and only achieving a benchmark they might otherwise have achieved by spend the same money differently on standard components with no risk.

Just a thought

Chunks

[manne_29]

I agree with chunkers on that. Why spend all the extra money on modding a overclocked E6300, when you can get a E6600 and run at stock or modest overclock and have a more stable and futureproofed platform.(meaning that your E6300 potential is maxed out and you still have more headroom inE6600 for later.

[shaithis]

Most of these CPUs are hitting 3.4-3.6GHz easily though.

Thats twice the speed of the E6300. While a lot of people don't need that power, its very nice to have if you do any AV encoding or other CPU intensive task on a regular basis

[Psychotic Emu]

Its up to you mate.
Personally I have a E6400 at 3.2 on stock vcore, so no elaborate cooling.
My £130 worth of 2gigs of ram is overclocked 0%.
My mobo 1066 strap (no overclocked board) and has no increased voltages.

There is plenty of room for me to go messing around in the future with better cooling and more volts all over the shop to have fun when I find the frame rates lagging in the future. I think spening the extra cash on graphics did me the world of good (£158 7900 gto (GTX!)).