I was just wondering if it worth to spend a little bit more money on the e6550 or just go for the cheaper e4500? I've never OC'd and wouldnt know where to start so i dont think thats much of an option. If i have memory running at 800mhz would you notice a huge difference between the cpu's?
absolute stretch of my budget would be e6750 if its much better than both

thanx for the help

If you are not going to OC, the E6550 would definately be the way to go. The E4xxx chips do not really shine w/o an OC due to the low default FSB.

If you would consider an OC, you may be able to get away with something like the E2160 or E4300.

From what I can see from Pricegrabber.com the E6550 is about $20 more than the E4500. That extra money gets you a somewhat small but very possibly noticeable 130MHz clockspeed increase (since its on both cores it can lead to a larger boost than it looks like it might), double the L2 cache, and significantly faster FSB. Between the two I would personally get the E6550.

Hope that helped!
-mcg

e6550 is far better oc and will run much better

you more likely to get a slower chip with any 4000 series

I would definetly recommend getting an E4400 instead, or even an E4300. When you install a new CPU you need to set the FSB in the bios. Instead of setting it to 200 like normal, set it at 266 for the chips and you'll have a stonkin' CPU. This simple little "overclock" is possible on all E4300 + 4400 chips, and to a lesser extent with the E4500.

Hope that could be of some help.

Can i ask where you got this info from? Surely because of the higher FSB it is harder to get a decent overclock out of it. Most motherboards nowadays will only go up to around 400FSB unless you're looking into getting a decent overclocking motherboard, which = £££.

From my own personal observations (notice that i'm not quoting any figures, just my personal experiences) i've also noticed that the clock ceiling for both E4*** chips and E6*** chips (except the extreme editions, and in some cases the E6700) are about the same. Around 3.3ghz or so on a decent air cooler.

Feel free to contradict me, as i could well be wrong. But could you please provide some evidence?

if i do change the fsb of the e4500 would i have to get a seperate cpu cooler or will the stock do?
thanks for the quick replies everyone

Forget the e4500, the e4300 will do just as well.

On the E4300, set the FSB to 333 and the memory to 1:1.
This will get you 3.0Ghz and it should work on stock and without modifying and voltages.

Note: Not sure what is going on at the moment, but the E6750 is $5 less than the E6550 at new egg at this moment!

Clearly the E6750 would win here.

i went for the e4500 in the end, if i set the fsb to 333mhz would it need a seperate CPU fan or not? would it damage any of the parts? the motherboard is p5k-se btw
thanks

Actually, you want to set the FSB on this chip to only 266Mhz.
This will take it to about 2.9 Ghz.

You can slowly increase from there if you want.
It may or may not need an after maket cooler.

However, This would be a good deal for $0.99

Promo Code:EMC920ACCE01 (-$19 instant) + $20MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835103026

oh ok thanks, great help guys