Which Core 2 Duo?

[skyf]

I'm looking at buying a Dell Dimension 9200. The big question is which processor to get. I basically use my PC for word processing, strategy games and sometimes a first-person-shooter (nothing much heavier than America's Army or Battlefield 2). Will the 1.86Ghz E6300 with 2MB be sufficient, or would I get noticeably better performance from the 4MB E6600?

Also, is 1GB of RAM sufficient for this type of system?

Sky

 

[badge]

Will the 1.86Ghz E6300 with 2MB be sufficient, or would I get noticeably better performance from the 4MB E6600?

You are asking about the e6300. Here is e6400 compared to e6600. I think the difference would be noticeable.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=433&model2=432&chart=184

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

IMO for now, C2D E6300 would be sufficient, but of course E6600 will get you better results, with a bit xtra cash to burn though...

As for ram, IMO 2gigs is better (faster loads etc.)


BTW, i got no idea what gfx card you are gettin, but you might want to use higher performance card, or you buy cheap one now and wait till DX10 cards released

 

[skyf]

That's an interesting point. Am I better off spending an extra $150 to get an E6600 instead of an E6300, or spending an extra $190 to get 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB?

As for the video card, I'll spend the extra money and get the GeForce 7900GS, which is the best that Dell offers for the Dimension 9200.

Sky

 

[fredgiblet]

With the games you play a 6300 is more than good enough, and the money would be MUCH better spent on a second gig of RAM.

 

[13thmonkey]

That's an interesting point. Am I better off spending an extra $150 to get an E6600 instead of an E6300, or spending an extra $190 to get 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB?

As for the video card, I'll spend the extra money and get the GeForce 7900GS, which is the best that Dell offers for the Dimension 9200.

Sky

$190 for an extra 1GB, you are being ripped off if you pay that

Build your own if you can.

E6300 should be fine.

 

[dobby]

firstly a the 1.86 core 2 duo if perfectly suited to you should not waste so much money on something you won't need.

the c2d range are 40% morepowerful than the pendtumd ranges counterpart. so the e6300 is 40% faster than at least a 805 PD also it was rated equal as a AMD fx62 for media, if i were you i would stick with the e6300.

also if you only do small amounts of ganing and you do not wish to upgraped to vista 1gig will do fine, (make sure its a least ddr2 677) but for real gaming or 64bit use you willneed at least 2gigs. it is much better to buy the extra ram than upgrade to the e6600 (its just not suited to you)

ps DO NOT BUY DELL they are hell to upgradeand always use cheap own brand parts. (learn how to build one your self im 15 and i can do it)

 

[blackbart]

So me being somewhat of a gamer, should I go ahead and get the 6600? Is there enough of a performance gain between the 6400 & 6600 to justify $100?

 

[chrone]

13thmonkey's rig:
E6600 - Asrock Dual 775 VSTA
2Gb Dual Channel DDR400 Twinmos
Gainward 6600GT AGP - Xi-Fi Extreme Music + Gainward Surround Headphones
Seasonic S12-600 - Antec P180B (ATX Extension cable used)
AG Neovo 19" LCD 1280*1024
Mitsubushi 19" CRT 1280*1024

i was and am planning to upgrade to e6600 & Asrock Dual 775 VSTA, but still unable to decide to buy or wait for windows vista. i'm just curious and want to hear from people who is using the cpu and pcb, then decide it to upgrade or wait for next couple months.

is it worth for the money? are you satisfied? is the temperature cool (below 38 celcius degree perhaps)? is it fast and furious?

 

[13thmonkey]

13thmonkey's rig:
E6600 - Asrock Dual 775 VSTA
2Gb Dual Channel DDR400 Twinmos
Gainward 6600GT AGP - Xi-Fi Extreme Music + Gainward Surround Headphones
Seasonic S12-600 - Antec P180B (ATX Extension cable used)
AG Neovo 19" LCD 1280*1024
Mitsubushi 19" CRT 1280*1024

i was and am planning to upgrade to e6600 & Asrock Dual 775 VSTA, but still unable to decide to buy or wait for windows vista. i'm just curious and want to hear from people who is using the cpu and pcb, then decide it to upgrade or wait for next couple months.

is it worth for the money? are you satisfied? is the temperature cool (below 38 celcius degree perhaps)? is it fast and furious?

No problem.

Its currently 25-28C here and my E6600 is running at about 38C so +10-12 Ambient with stock HSF at idle. At full dual prime load it'll hit 45 which is what I have set the fan to ramp up at, this will drop the temp to 38, and it'll ramp again. It takes about 2-3 mins to get back up to hot temp again. I can adjust the 45C to 60C I think in Bios. Temps taken with Speedfan 4.29 which seem to match with the BIOS.

Playing BF2 (1280x1024 med settings) it doesn't trigger fan speed rise, it gets to about 43C and stays there, with ultra high sound settings which were unplayable before.

With regards to benchmarking, i get exactly the same score in 3dmark06 that I did with my XP3200+, but that is because I am greatly GPU limited (6600GT), so I'm not too concerned about that. Haven't been able to complete a PCmark test, its missing something (video compression?) and so won't give me a result. However trying to convert a 4Gb 2hour DVD (from the TV) down to 2Gb took 16 minutes in total using DVDshrink.

I ran all of the Sisoft benches last night, on all CPU tests I match (slightly exceed 1-2%) the std E6600 on a 'proper' board. On the RAM latency tests I am 123ns Vs 92ns for aE6700 on PC2-5200 and a speed factor of 90.2 vs 79 (whatever that means) lower is better though. On bandwitdh tests I am showing about 66% of the bandwidth of PC2-5200 which is to be expected.

If you look at the reports (3 I think) on anandtech they have compared FPS at various RAM speeds, and there is not much difference 3-5%.

However I bought this in the knowledge that it would help me convert to PCI-E, DDR2 and SATA without having to buy everything all at once. And so I am perfectly satisfied with its performance. I suspect I'll get a new Mobo when I have to change graphics card as the PCI-E is only 4x (which is lower bandwidth than AGPx8), although I might live with that for a while too, i know I'll get some benefit and would probably be ok up to at 7600GT Given that the 7800+ (a 7900GT really)from gainward was looking to be saturating AGPx8.

With regards to overclocking, I've done a little, not sure of real world effect given the RAM and 6600GT so stopped trying.

If you want me to run anything specific let me know.

I've also replied to the PM. Reply to the PM from now on, I've replied to here in case anyone else was interested. If anyone is interested, start a thread, or continue mine of 'conroe build and all is well' and PM me to let me know that I should have a look at it.

Thanks, glad to be able to help.

Trying not to Hijack the thread, apologies to the OP.

 

[zoridon]

For battlefield 2 you want 2 gigs or ram period. I have run it on a socket 754 2.4 ghz athalon 64 (comparible to a 2.2 ghz socket 939) with 1 gig of ram at 1280x1024 with all setting on high with no aa and it stutters. Same system going to 1.5 gigs of ram and the stutter goes away. I'd also go with the E6400, if its $100 less and upgrade the vid card. Between 2 gigs of ram and an updated vid card and an E6400 you will fly past any current game bottlenecks. As stated before you can do better buy biulding the system yourself unless your totally lost doing it.

 

[tirefire]

Funny, I can run BF2 at the same settings on my S754 1.8Ghz Athlon 64 with 1GB RAM and an X800 XL just fine.

What video card were you using w/ that setup?

 

[zoridon]

a 7800gt, are you sure your set on high with maximum view distance?