What do you think is the best value right now if the user's goal is to achieve the best overall performance at the lowest price?
Overclocking potential should be considered (and by that, I mean it should be considered what average people can get on air with a decent aftermarket cooler.) Assuming ddr2 800 memory.

e4300 for $114.50--> It seems that the average overclock on these chips is somewhat lower than 3.0Ghz. I'm not sure if most people can get higher but choose not to, or if the majority of the chips will only reach that level while a few will reach much higher.

e4400 for $139 --> I haven't read much about this chip

E6300/6320 for $166--> I'm not sure how high these will go. Maybe 3.2Ghz?

E6400/6420 for $188?

E6600 for $225? --> Top end here seems to be 3.6Ghz. Most people seem to end up with less than that, at around 3.2.

So, what do you all think. If people are consistently able to get 3.0 Ghz on the e4300 while only getting 3.2 Ghz on the E6600, it is not much of a decision. Clearly the e4300.


But, given what is available today, and what the average overclocker can expect to achieve on air (again, talking averages, not those special few chips that will reach 3.8 or whatever on air), what is the best value?

Thanks

The E4300 offers the highest performance for the price, considering OC-ing. Using safe voltage it should run stable OC-ed between 2.7 and 3GHz.
If you want more performance then I recommend you E6420. Mine runs undervolted(1.28v instead 1.325v) and OC-ed to 3.2GHz. It needs 1.48v to run @ 3.6GHz stable.

I recently built a system with an E4300 @3.0GHz and 1.31V 100% stable. I used an ACF7P on it. I could have gone higher with better cooling and better ram (only use pc2-5300). So, the E4300 is great for the price. Some chips are better than others. Some go as high as 3.6Ghz.

nice nice, i m thinking about getting the e6420 as well. is it safe to unvervolted?? planning to oc anywhere from 3.2 to 3.6. i heard people have to increased their volt to able to oc. how do you do it? please share, thank you

database of overcloking, its quite old but still can use it

finaly

the chart is too small cant really see.

click on the pic

re: that chart

1) it doesnt include the e6x20 chips, which are having some good/great results
2) it doesnt include the 4400
3) the vast majority of the week codes are from the first third of '06 and arent likely to be relavent to a chip ordered today
4) if i report a 6600 as stable at 3.6 and then bump it to 3.61 and its still stable, both my attempts stay on the chart. eclipsing your own mark shoud invalidate your old mark. this would make the chart much more user-friendly/meaningful.

It is more a question of luck. The previews C2D I had was E6400 and was crap. It needed 1.48v to be stable at 3.2GHz. It was unbeliveable to me, but my E6420 is stable @3.2GHz 1.28125v(in BIOS). I did 7 hours GO-Orhtos and there were no errors. The most amazing is that the mainboard(Gigabyte GA965P-DS3) voltages(MCH, FSB, south bridge) are default.


It is an OEM CPU. I use aftermarket cooler, Asus Silent SQUARE.