E6420 or E6600

hexen · Post by **hexen** » Sun May 06, 2007 6:10 pm

since the intel E6420 has the same amount of cache as the E6600, is it worth the performance difference to buy the E6600? (for a DAW)

and what about temperature difference between a E6600 running on stock frequency, VERSUS a E6420 slightly overclocked to same frequency as stock E6600 (which is around 2.4ghz)
has anyone compared the two temperatures?

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:48 pm

I'd like to know too.
I originally had a e6400 that had no problem at 3.2ghz with quite low volts. Then I sold that one and went crazy and bought an e6700. Now I am wondering if in reality that the e6700 will be any better than the e6400. From what I have seen, the new e6600's don't overclock well and the new e6420's are pretty good overclockers. So, I would probably suggest the e6420 becuase it will probably overclock better than the e6600 and I would think that at the same clock speeds, they would have similiar temps and need similiar volts.

Derek

haugland · Post by **haugland** » Tue May 08, 2007 2:56 am

If you OC the E6420 to 2.4GHz (as the E6600) without upping the core voltage, the power consumption and heat dissipation should be the same for the CPU. While there is no guarantee that you can reach a certain frequency without overvolting, I would assume that you can OC the E6420 to at least 2.4GHz without upping the core voltage.

If you overclock a Core 2 CPU, you will have to OC the motherboard aswell, so the motherboard will use more power and the chipset will run hotter. The chipset speed will have to be raised from 266 MHz to 300 MHz to reach 2.4GHz with an E6420, but I have no idea how much extra power this will require. Some chipsets are able to reach close to 500 MHz, so running at 300 MHz shouldn't generate too much extra heat.

dnoiz · Post by **dnoiz** » Tue May 08, 2007 4:36 am

A E6420 @ E6600 speeds should be no problem what so ever (that's an increase of the FSB from 266 to 300) as long as you have a decent motherboard (Asus, Gigabyte) with a P965 chipset (probably a NV chipset will do, but I don't have experience there) and (A-brand like Corsair, G-Skill, ...) RAM qualified for 800 (PC6400) operation. As mentioned earlier, if you're lucky, you don't even have to change any volt settings.

I have my E6600 @ 3Ghz without raising vcore, for 3,2 Ghz it needs a little bump. I'm sure the E6420 should reach 3Ghz easily.

Good luck.

hexen · Post by **hexen** » Tue May 08, 2007 3:12 pm

well im planning to run the cpu passive with a Ninja revB, so even small differences between the two cpus are important

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Tue May 08, 2007 4:25 pm

I vote overclocked e6420. I would say that only maybe 1 in 1 million will not overclock to 2.4ghz. 2.13 to 2.4ghz is hardly an overclock and cpu temps should be roughly the same. However, the e6420 will give you better performance because you will have a higher FSB and higher ram speed. Therefore, with the e6420, you should have similiar temps and the same clock speed, but with a higher FSB and ram speed.

I vote e6420!

Note: you will not need ram rated higher than pc2-5300 ddr2-667mhz for your overclock.

Derek

hexen · Post by **hexen** » Tue May 08, 2007 5:00 pm

derekchinese wrote: Note: you will not need ram rated higher than pc2-5300 ddr2-667mhz for your overclock.

Derek

i read that its better to use the 533mhz ram with C2D (as opposed to 667mhz) cause it is the same core frequency as the bus speed of the cpu .

although maybe that only applies to running it a stock speed (no OC)
so i guess in the end it comes down to the price difference between the ram (for OCing the 6420) or the cpus

eitherway i plan to get ddr2 800mhz cause its relatively cheap

and yea, i think i might grab the 6420 (although nothing is written in stone)

accord1999 · Post by **accord1999** » Tue May 08, 2007 7:45 pm

hexen wrote:
i read that its better to use the 533mhz ram with C2D (as opposed to 667mhz) cause it is the same core frequency as the bus speed of the cpu .

although maybe that only applies to running it a stock speed (no OC)

Even at stock, faster memory has some (small) benefits for a C2D.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory ... ide_4.html

Iron_Dreamer · Post by **Iron_Dreamer** » Tue May 08, 2007 9:46 pm

FWIW I just set up an E6420 system (on a P5B Deluxe), and was able to OC it to 3.2GHz on stock voltage (1.35V). But more impressively, it could run 2.8GHz on just 1.23V.

hexen · Post by **hexen** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:52 pm

accord1999 wrote:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory ... ide_4.html

well i guess it depends for what application cause even from the link you provided; look at the third and fourth bar-graphs (sandra2007 and sciencemark2.0 latency ) show that 533mhz ram (with better timings) performs better than 667mhz ram with lower timings.

hexen · Post by **hexen** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:55 pm

Iron_Dreamer wrote:FWIW I just set up an E6420 system (on a P5B Deluxe), and was able to OC it to 3.2GHz on stock voltage (1.35V). But more impressively, it could run 2.8GHz on just 1.23V.

what kind of cooling @2.8ghz ?
(just curious cause im planning on running the cpu passive)

Iron_Dreamer · Post by **Iron_Dreamer** » Wed May 09, 2007 9:03 pm

It uses an Ultra 120 (not the extreme version). Load temps only get to about 50C with an S-Flex at 600RPM, or 60C fanless. Since the fan doesn't add any appreciable amount of noise to the system, I kept it on for peace of mind's sake. I was getting 58C load (Orthos, small FFT, after 1+hour) at 3.2GHz, with the fan.

hexen · Post by **hexen** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:44 am

Iron_Dreamer wrote:It uses an Ultra 120 (not the extreme version). Load temps only get to about 50C with an S-Flex at 600RPM, or 60C fanless. Since the fan doesn't add any appreciable amount of noise to the system, I kept it on for peace of mind's sake. I was getting 58C load (Orthos, small FFT, after 1+hour) at 3.2GHz, with the fan.

thats impressive, nice job.

i just noticed that the price difference here in canada between the two cpus in question is only $32.
cause of this im thinking maybe just grab the E6600....

E6420 or E6600

E6420 or E6600

Depends on the voltage