E4300, low power CPU for desktop

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vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:13 pm

Just saw the E4300 appear on TigerDirect. I am wondering if the "In Stock" listing is correct though.

CA_Steve
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Post by CA_Steve » Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:46 pm

It's on zipzoomflyas well, although well above the expected $166 price.

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:34 pm

I did an online chat on the NewEgg site, asked them if they would have the E4300 soon. Answer was the person on the line had no knowledge of stocking information such as that.

I decided to go ahead and order from TigerDirect. So hopefully next week I can start building my new quiet desktop, which I've been putting off for about a month. Ordered a Scythe Ninja from Egg for cooling. I'll post a few benchmark numbers of my own when I put it together.

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:53 am

That is cool. Please fill us in.

DO you OC btw?

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:16 pm

Wasn't planning to overclock it permanently but I'll play around with that some. My main design goal is a quiet medium power system that does double-duty as an HTPC. So it will be on 24x7 and leaving it overclocked would just be more heat and power wasted.

I noticed that NewEgg is now listing the E4300 at $189, which is even more of a first-buyer ripoff price than usual for NewEgg. On the other hand it does show it with free shipping which evens things a litte. Meh. Anyhow mine won't show up until Tuesday, the disadavantage of living in NorCal and ordering from TigerDirect is the long ship-times. The DS3 I ordered from the Egg will be here this evening.

Scrooge
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Post by Scrooge » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:36 pm

I just looked at both on Newegg and the E4300 is $189 while the E6300 is $188. That's just wonky...

wpb
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Post by wpb » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:19 pm

The price is supposed to drop dramatically in February to something like USD $113.

I think NewEgg's high prices are due to their initial limited supply (i.e. Intel's wholesale price per unit is higher for limited quantities). My experience with NewEgg is that their prices drop signficantly once they can wholesale purchase more units.

I would definitely wait about a month. This will be an amazing CPU for a little over $100!

Scrooge
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Post by Scrooge » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:34 am

Oh yes, I'm aware of how Newegg prices new products, I'm just amazed it's actually MORE than an E6300...

cienislaw
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Post by cienislaw » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:04 am

wpb wrote:The price is supposed to drop dramatically in February to something like USD $113.
...
I would definitely wait about a month. This will be an amazing CPU for a little over $100!
not in february, but in q2, which means we have to wait for it utill april at least.

Ren
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Post by Ren » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:35 pm

Mines at 2.7ghz Stock voltage, my mobo maxes at 300FSB. I'm using a passive XP-120 in an Antec Aria, I couldn't be happier.

Spare Tire
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Post by Spare Tire » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:57 pm

Perhaps it would be worth waiting for the e4400? Depending on how much it will cost. Because selling an e6300 to get a e4300 is not much of an upgrade. How much will the e4400 cost?

GamingGod
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Post by GamingGod » Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:58 pm

I read that the 4300 would be $113. and the 4400 would be $130. But that seemed a little to close on the pricing to me.

kaange
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Post by kaange » Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:54 pm

Given that the E4x00 CPUs have a FSB limit of 800MHz, would it make sense to pair them with a 945PL Express chipset m/b (since we're saving $$ here)?

Greg

dragmor
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Post by dragmor » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:25 pm

kaange wrote:Given that the E4x00 CPUs have a FSB limit of 800MHz, would it make sense to pair them with a 945PL Express chipset m/b (since we're saving $$ here)?

Greg
Only if your not intending on overclocking. The early reports are 100% (1.8 > 3.6) OC on good MB with high end air (ninja).

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:44 pm

We have all kinds of folks interested in this chip. It's not always about money, or going the fastest, or the most quiet. Everyone is looking to balance their needs to different values.

For me, this chip will give similar performance to E6300 and use less power. So griping about how the current pricing seems unfair, really doesn't matter to me. I could buy an E6300 and get the same performance, but pay for it in heat. If your intent is not overclocking but just mid-range performance, this looks like a good CPU. Some may want to wait for price drops. For me the convenience of having it right now is worth a few bucks.

My E4300 should arrive tomorrow night. Haven't built a PC since 2001 this should be fun.

kaange
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Post by kaange » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:18 pm

So what are the overclocking restrictions on the 945PL chipset?

I was looking at m/bs like the Asus P5PL2 and Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3

Greg

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:02 am

My E4300 arrived, just poppped it in the system and started XP loading.

Amazingly the Scythe Ninja seems to stay at room temp. I haven't hooked up the fan on it.

The Watts Up? meter is around 100 Watts so power consumption looks okay. I assume it will be lower when I am done with the install and EIST can kick in.

The hottest thing in the system is the chipset heatsink, the DS3 has a pretty dinky heatsink compared to the Ninja. I'd like to put a bigger one on there, but it seems like there's not much space for it.

Just wanted to throw a prelim mention in the thread, should have some harder data tomorrow night.

dvdmonster
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Post by dvdmonster » Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:48 am

vincentfox wrote: The Watts Up? meter is around 100 Watts so power consumption looks okay. I assume it will be lower when I am done with the install and EIST can kick in.
Thanks alot for the infomation but but it's really useless to us without knowing the specs of your setup. That with a 8800GTS GFX? 3 SATA drives? 256 Mb ram?

Mats
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Post by Mats » Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:17 am

The E4300 have both EIST and C1E.
The reason why it doesn't overclock like the E6300 is probably because it uses a newer package with fewer capacitors.
It is possible that it actually would overclock even better than the E6300 if it had the same package since it got a newer stepping.

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:21 am

Hey man I said it was a prelim quicky. Got the OS loaded, updated, ran AquaMark. Got a score of 87,951. Which is 4-5 times higher than my old system.

System is Antec Solo, Corsair HX-520, Gigabyte DS3, E4300, Scythe Ninja, 2 gigs (2x1g dual-channel) DDR2-800 GSkill RAM, XFX 7600GT XXX card, WD 250gig SATA drive, LiteOn DVD-RW. I think that's about it.

Oh yeah I am powering the chassis fan on low speed but not using the fan that came with the Ninja, at the moment the CPU heatsink is passive except for chassis airflow. Heatsink never seems to get warm to the touch. I did have to dig out my metal-file and rub off one edge of the Ninja mounting bracket as the DS3 has some capacitors at an inconvenient spot.

I see the Watts Up? go from around 76-80 Watts idle to 120 Watts when running AquaMark. I have no idea how to tell if the C1E or EIST features are enabled and doing their jobs. Well they are enabled in the BIOS but I'd like a little more information while the OS is running.

Next task is pull the XFX card out and see if I can fit my Zalman 80D-HP passive heatsink onto it. The factory heatsink/fan is pretty noisy.

EDIT: forgot to mention haven't gotten as far as overclock testing yet. Also did not change the BIOS settings for RAM so I guess the memory is running "underclocked/undervolted" since it is spec'd for DDR2-800 at a higher voltage like 1.9-2.0 Volts. I am just running everything at stock speed and default settings at this point, seems to work great.

Mats
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Post by Mats » Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:42 pm

vincentfox wrote: I see the Watts Up? go from around 76-80 Watts idle to 120 Watts when running AquaMark. I have no idea how to tell if the C1E or EIST features are enabled and doing their jobs. Well they are enabled in the BIOS but I'd like a little more information while the OS is running.
Use Intel TAT for maximum heat and checking the actual CPU speed.
Windows + Pause will also report the speed, although not change/refresh when the speed changes.

MC FLMJIG
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Post by MC FLMJIG » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:35 pm

Stock V please.

Also the 6300 is a tad better than the 4300. Higher FSB. They will also be opening the 2 "hidden" cache soon for the same price! :shock:

dragmor
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Post by dragmor » Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:49 pm

kaange wrote:So what are the overclocking restrictions on the 945PL chipset?

I was looking at m/bs like the Asus P5PL2 and Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3

Greg
Last I time looked into the 945 boards alot of them werent happy with C2Ds, but its been 6 months (different power circuits or something).

You can probably got from 800 to 1066 without problems.

vincentfox
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Post by vincentfox » Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:44 am

Yes, I verified EIST and CxE are working using RMClock.

Mats
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Post by Mats » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:06 am

MC FLMJIG wrote:Also the 6300 is a tad better than the 4300. Higher FSB.
True, even though I'd care more about the higher multiplier.

kogi
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Post by kogi » Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:44 am

Ok, New Motherboard

E4300 SL9TB 01/02/2007
Gigabyte 965P-DS3P
2gb of A-data 667
Scythe Ninja w/nexus

Currently stress testing
266x 9 = 2.4ghz
Ram @ 266
Voltage at bios 1.225v
Full load temp 52c

*NOTE*

Currently the only correct temp monitor is intel TAT. All others show 15c less
Last edited by kogi on Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

CA_Steve
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Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jan 26, 2007 12:00 pm

Local newspaper has Fry's ad with e4300 + ECS P4M800PRO-M V2 motherboard combo for $150. Almost makes me want to buy it and toss the mobo on eBay for $10. No comparable listing on the fry's website...

The good news is that reasonable prices are starting to appear.

Ken5d
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Post by Ken5d » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:14 pm

CA_Steve wrote:Local newspaper has Fry's ad with e4300 + ECS P4M800PRO-M V2 motherboard combo for $150. Almost makes me want to buy it and toss the mobo on eBay for $10. No comparable listing on the fry's website...

The good news is that reasonable prices are starting to appear.
Just to be clear, this is the OEM version of the e4300. So, no 3-year warranty (Fry's said 1-year), and no HSF (which most people here probably don't care about).

Oh, and no Core 2 Duo Intel Inside sticker. :D

kaange
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Post by kaange » Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:02 pm

dragmor wrote:Last I time looked into the 945 boards alot of them werent happy with C2Ds, but its been 6 months (different power circuits or something).

You can probably got from 800 to 1066 without problems.
There are a few 945 boards that are now C2D compliant but the major limit for O/C seems to be the max 667 memory support (doesn't the 975 chipset have the same limitation?). But perhaps the 945 could still be a decent budget O/C choice as long as the bios is implemented with most of the O/C options of the higher series boards. Does this sound reasonable? (I'm a noob to O/C so pardon the ignorance)

How do you get around the FSB limit of the CPU?

kogi
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Post by kogi » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:26 am

dragmor wrote: You can probably got from 800 to 1066 without problems.
No you can't. I've tired with a asrock conroe-dvi board. Max FSB I could get was 220mhz stable.
Seems to be a common problem with 845 boards. You'll have to do a pin mod to go to 1066.

k

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