So I had been reading threads around here and I noticed that many people had been argued for the e4300 and 4400 for the best OC'ers on the c2d platform? Maybe I misread something but it was in the "vote for the best c2d thread" that had a poll. Now I had been playing on buying an e6600 but I don't want to toss money down the drain if there's better performers for cheaper. Can anyone toss some insight in here? It's definately gonna be oc'd to at least 3.0ghz minimum.

The E4k serise is the best CHEAPEST Oc'ers out there but you can also oc the 6k series for better performance than the 4000's.

A e6400 with hit 3.2GHz without much effort, just a nice cooler. With the multiplier at x8 you need 400FSB to hit 3.2GHz and run DDR2 800 memory at 1:1. e6300 will run 2.8GHz at 400MHz FSB with 1:1 memory. I am assuming you will be using DDR2 800 Ram if you are looking at cheap CPU's, You are probably going to get cheaper memory over the higher 1000 or higher memory.

The E4XXX series is really budget but they have a higher multiplier. E4300 is x9 which means you'd have to hit. 3.6GHz to hit 400MHZ and 1:1 memory. That might be hard to do. The e6600 is nice but might take some effort to overclock past 3.2GHZ. not sure.

Shadow pretty much hit the nail on the head, they're the cheapest and easiest for the board but the e6xxx series generally overclocks higher if you've got a board and memory that'll do it.

As a percentage of increase in performance the e4300 will, with very good cooling, have a higher percentage increase from stock overclock than a 6600. My overclock on this 4300 is just about at 80%. The 6600, however, will achieve a much higher overclock than a 4300 is capable of. 3.6GHZ is not out of the question and much higher is very possible.

I made this little table based on numbers from HardForum.com database. They have a decent sample size but take it for what it is worth.

Core 2 average and peak overclocks fall out like this:
6800 27% 2930MHz to 3710Mhz/ Max 32% 3865MHz
6700 34% 2660MHz to 3554MHz/Max 51% 4013MHz
6600 44% 2400MHz to 3454MHz/Max 75% 4208MHz
6400 55% 2130MHz to 3297MHz/ Max 83% 3888MHz
6300 71% 1860MHz to 3192MHz/Max 99% 3731MHz
4300 73% 1800MHz to 3124MHz/ Max 87% 3360MHz

Generally speaking, if you want faster get the 6600. If you want a higher percentage from stock, get the 4300. Don't forget that more cache will yield better performance on these Core 2 chips as well so clock speed is not all there is to increasing your bench scores. Hope that helps.

It does, because I was pretty sure I was going to go for the e6420 at first but if the e4300 works better cheaper I was going to go for it. Then I took a look at the prices on the 6600 after the 22nd and it's sub 300 so it'snotm uch of an issue to me. I'm going to be using a gigabyte ds9 board so I shouldn't have too many issues oc'ing seeing as how it gets really good reviews around here.