Overclocking E6850 / E6750 / E6550 - best bang for buck?

[Pride]

And here we go with my first post.
Im finnish, my english might seem bit different, but try to bare with me.

Before I write any more, I gotta say that the quality of Tom's Hardware -forums is just stunning. Spent few hours just browsing around, learning, comparing different products. Keep up the good work, everyone!

Finally to the point... It's time to upgrade my system! Old A64 San Diego 3700+ 2.2GHz @ 2.6GHz is getting pretty slow...

I've finally got over the "most common questions", should I get Q6600 or E6x50. Well, Im a hardcore gamer so Ill stick with E6x50 now, but which one? Before I ask more questions, let me post my upcoming system...

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R

In Finland Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R (Intel P35) is exactly the same price than Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R so I naturally take the P35C one. Should go for FSB500+ with E6x50 processors.

Memory: 2x Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 2GB Kit (CL4) 800MHz, 4-4-4-12

Reviews speak for themselves. Excellent bang for buck. 4-4-4-12 should work up to 1050MHz or so.

Power Supply: SilverStone Strider ST75F 750W

Pointing to reviews again. And it's modular. And black. And uh, my old 420W Sirtec power can't really handle overclocking... whole 22A to 12V line!

Case: Antec P182 Gun Black

My old case looks absolutely awful. It's around 10 years old, grey, ruined with gazillion stickers, glue etc, I can't keep the side wall even closed, and it has 1x 80mm fan.

P182 Gun Black looks great and reviews point out that it's an excellent choice. Since my computer will be on table, it better look spankable! You see, gravity effects even dust, YA'RLY! Also, 8800 GTS should fit in there.

Cooling: Tuniq Tower 120

...once again reviews, and the fact that Im actually getting the whole package "built". It doesn't cost me any extra, and I don't feel like using few hours putting all the components together. ...not to mention, that I haven't ever contacted cooler + processor together. This way they can't blame me for showing some physical love.

TEH QUESTION(S)

In Finland E6550 costs around 150 euros and E6750 170 euros. Difference is quite minimal with those two, but E6850 costs 250 euros. Im expecting to get a processor that would overclock at least 30%. On E6750, that'd mean Im happy if I can a stable system running on 3.6GHz. With E6850 around 4GHz.

So which of these processors do you think I should choose and why?

 

[Hatman]

e6750 is best bang for buck.

 

[menetlaus]

In Finland E6550 costs around 150 euros and E6750 170 euros. Difference is quite minimal with those two, but E6850 costs 250 euros. Im expecting to get a processor that would overclock at least 30%. On E6750, that'd mean Im happy if I can a stable system running on 3.6GHz. With E6850 around 4GHz.

I agree with Hatman, at least with the processors you listed.

The 20 Euro to go from the 6550 to the 6750 isn't too painful, but the 80 Euro for the next step up is too much in my opinion to be worth it. If your gaming - that 80euro will almost pay for the upgrade from a 8800GTS-320 to the 640mb version (or almost the GTS-640 to an 8800GTX). Either of those would give you a lot better gaming bang for the buck.

If you don't upgrade often (ie keeping this system for 3+ years before a major upgrade, like your last system) - you might want to consider a Quad 6600 - very similar performance to the 6550 in today's games (and will overclock about the same) but as more games are released with support for multiple cores - a quad 6600 will trump the dual 6850.

Personally, I'm planning a build with an e4500 (2.2GHz) which should be able to achieve a 75% or higher overclock, and with the money I save now (vs getting a 6550 or better) I will have that much "saved" towards buying a quad in a year or two.

Plus to get that much of an overclock I might have to increase the voltage (significantly) on the e4500, which in turn increases the temps and thus shortens the lifespan. But by using the e4500 I'm risking less money on a CPU I'm only planning on using for a year or two anyways.

 

[Hatman]

How far E6750 will overclock is probably mroe reliant on the MB tha the CPU itself, come to think of it. You'd need a pretty huge FSB to hit 3.4ghz.

 

[Spikke]

The 6850 has a higher multiplier so it would be easier to get a 30% oc on it than the 6750 in theory.

 

[Pride]

How far E6750 will overclock is probably mroe reliant on the MB tha the CPU itself, come to think of it. You'd need a pretty huge FSB to hit 3.4ghz.

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R should go pretty far (beyond 500). With E6750 that'd be 7 x 500 = 3.5GHz which would be enough.

 

[Pride]

I agree with Hatman, at least with the processors you listed.

The 20 Euro to go from the 6550 to the 6750 isn't too painful, but the 80 Euro for the next step up is too much in my opinion to be worth it. If your gaming - that 80euro will almost pay for the upgrade from a 8800GTS-320 to the 640mb version (or almost the GTS-640 to an 8800GTX). Either of those would give you a lot better gaming bang for the buck.

If you don't upgrade often (ie keeping this system for 3+ years before a major upgrade, like your last system) - you might want to consider a Quad 6600 - very similar performance to the 6550 in today's games (and will overclock about the same) but as more games are released with support for multiple cores - a quad 6600 will trump the dual 6850.

Thank you for your reply!

I think I've had this A64 3700+ for about two years, it was excellent bang for buck back then, since I was able to get around 30% OC with this.

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R-motherboard has support for new 45nm processors, so next upgrade would be pretty easy. I think Ill be fine for around 2 years with even E6550 before a 45nm processor, but E6750 seems to be a good call, since the multiplier is higher etc.

 

[Ledge68]

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R should go pretty far (beyond 500). With E6750 that'd be 7 x 500 = 3.5GHz which would be enough.

The E6750 has a 8x multi so 8x500=4ghz! Which makes it even more appealing!

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

However, it is questionable if the Tuniq Tower 120 can handle the heat that an E6750 would output at 4 Ghz.....or whether the northbridge has adequate cooling to handle that load.

 

[Baxby1985]

Hi, just thought I would add my experience to this topic.

I have a E6550 running @ 3.15 so thats a 35% OC

I have an asus P5K mobo the vanilla version, and a arctic cooling freezer 7 pro, under load in orthos my temps max at 45c.

To get the oc i have a fsb of 450 (the AMD's are much more fun to overclock loads more options to play with) with the max 7 multi, I'm sure it will go further as all i changed were the fsb and the ram voltage.

It's a great cpu, I reccomend it!

 

[Baxby1985]

Hi, just thought I would add my experience to this topic.

I have a E6550 running @ 3.15 so thats a 35% OC

I have an asus P5K mobo the vanilla version, and a arctic cooling freezer 7 pro, under load in orthos my temps max at 45c.

To get the oc i have a fsb of 450 (the AMD's are much more fun to overclock loads more options to play with) with the max 7 multi, I'm sure it will go further as all i changed were the fsb and the ram voltage.

It's a great cpu, I reccomend it!

 

[Baxby1985]

OOps sorry! How do I delete a post?

 

[Morris67]

The latest on off-the-shelf overclocked systems is this :

- XFX nFORCE 650i Ultra
- CHIPKÜ Aktivkühlung für Northbridge
- INTEL Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 3.4GHz
- CoolerMaster Hyper TX
- 2048MB DDR2-800 Mushkin SP2-6400
- 2048MB DDR2-800 Mushkin SP2-6400
- Samsung 20x+/-RW schwarz SATA
- 400GB Samsung HD403LJ SATA II
- 320MB EVGA GF 8800 GTS Superclocked!
- Panel 5.25" 16in1 CardReader schwarz
- Thermaltake ArmorJr black VC3000BWS
- Silverstone ST50EF Plus 500Watt
- PC Montage incl. Endkontrolle COMBAT
- COMBAT READY Garantie 60 Monate

All this is a standard OC straigth from the supplier at 1036 €.

It shows how confident suppliers are and how good the 6750 overclocks. And the components are 'sharply' priced ! Impossible to do this by picking your own components and assembling in your shack !

Disclaimer: I just bought a system and I'm nowhere related to this supplier. This system is shipped to foreign countries for an additional 6 € !

http://www.greycomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=16228&cPath=313