Can memory equal the difference?

L2 cache is the cpu's own memory. Technically bigger cache is better but not that much. Take E6300 for example overclocking it to 3Ghz and it becomes faster performance than the X6800, even though it has half the L2 cache of that of the X6800. So using certain memories do not compensate the L2 cache , nor increasing it's quantity.

Usually high performance pc of today, requires 2Gb of ram for gaming. It also depends on the system and what you use it for. If you use regular pc for internet and related stuff then a low-end generic ram would be good enough. You would only need 512Mb for regular pc use like browsing and office stuff.

For high-performance and gaming pc, 1Gb would be enough but for better gaming and higher res, 2Gb would be needed. Also if you overclock your cpu, it's good to get them high quality rams from Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin, etc. 2x1Gb rams for overclocking like DDR2 667 and 800 can be purchased for around $250.

I heard that Intel is changing all E6300 and E6400 procs to 4mb L2 cache and keeping the price the same in 2-3 months, is this true?

Cache is just like everything else where the more you have the return is diminished at a given GHz. As you raise the GHz of the CPU the cache performs faster making up the differance of more cache. Thats why the E6300 OCed performs nearly as well as the X6800 at the same GHz. This said if you underclocked the X6800 to the E6300 GHZ the X6800 with more cache should show better performance.

Now your question is about memory which my example of size of cache is important to remember because memory to the HD is the same. See the faster or larger cache makes up for time needed to access the memory so does the speed or size of memory make up time for accessing to HD.

The problem is with memory however is how the given program uses the larger amount of memory if at all. Can more memory make up for the size of cache the answer is both yes and no. The answer can be changed to always yes if you use an HD caching program like ram disk.

That's true, but what he said is that the 6300/6400 are being replaced and that's not true, just the 6320 and 6420 are being added

about the quadcore xeon's onsocket 775..do you know at least the speculation around its price?

hey everybody thank for your replies I am gonna decide, the e6400 will probably be the choice.
regards