Cheap Gaming rig - E5300 and an old P35 mobo

[Reynod]

Now this little chip came to mind when I was looking through Intel's 45nm offerings (core2) after scoring a cheap ASUS P5K mobo a while back (socket LGA775).

http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLB9U

sSpec Number:
CPU Speed:
PCG:
Bus Speed:
Bus/Core Ratio:
L2 Cache Size:
L2 Cache Speed:
SLB9U
2.60 GHz
06
800 MHz
13
2 MB
2.6 GHz Package Type:
Manufacturing Technology:
Core Stepping:
CPUID String:
Thermal Design Power:
Thermal Specification:
VID Voltage Range:
LGA775
45 nm
R0
1067Ah
65W
74.1°C
0.85V – 1.3625V Product Documentation:
http://www.intel.com/design/pentium_...umentation.htm


Yeah it's basically a cut down Wolfdale and the 800MHZ FSB got me thinking ... could it be as easy as my old Q6600 SLACKR to overclock?

Anyway ... after negotiating the EXTREMELY painfull mounting of the STUPID HSF (30 mins of hell on your thumbs) I fired the beasty up .. .which tunred out to be the only negative experience.

Changed the fsb to 1066 ... yeah the whole quad pumped crap ... 200 to 266 ... and she fired up .. .stock voltage @ 3.46Ghz.

I was pretty stoked at this stage so I ran a few benchies and so far its stable after a weekend of FPS gaming.

16 sec superpi 1M ... not bad.

Plays Crysis just as well as the Q6600 ... everything else seems to run smooth as well.

Likes the games ... stock temps around 36/37 ... doesn't go much past 50 under load.

Gotta be pretty happy considering the P35 Mobos are a steal as they are older and the E5300 is likewise super cheap as Intel are having a firesale with the i5's now being freighted out of the fabs by the truckload.

Seems to run a 260GTX or a 9600GT with ease.

Just thought I'd throw this post in to show that you don't need to buy an UBER i7 to have a nice gaming experience on your PC.

In fact his little baby with vanilla RAM probably cost a quarter of the price.

A nice Tripple or Quad core Phenom is a bit more ... and it can do a lot more too ... but a 3.5 Ghz cheap dual is a sweet deal.

The E7xxx and E8xxx cpu's are quite a bit more expensive and yes they have more cache and higher standard clocks ... but a bit of simple overclocking via your bios can level the playing field.


Plus with 4 kids ...I'll be building more cheap PC's.

There is a moral there but I am not listening !!

 

[jsc]

One of my systems is an E5200 running at 3.75 GHz. in an old Gigabyte P35 motherboard with a not particularly great HSF (ACF7P). So far I am sticking to the recommended voltage limits - 1.3625 volts.

 

[Reynod]

Well I havn't noticed any stutter like was apparent in the old P4 Celerons due to the cache being emptied and causing a stall ... 2Mb of L2 cache seems to be ok.

I didn't want to fry in the first weekend so I just pumped the FSB and thought I'd let it settle.

The cpu seem a bit more sensitive to voltage than the Conroe's so I have left it at 1.225 - 1.25 at present.

I couldn't see a comparable low FSB quad amonst the newer 45's with less cache so I thought I might grab a 9450 / 9550 next and try it.

Definately quite a bit cooler than the 65's.

Hit a bit of a snag encoding though ... not quite as good as the 6600 @3.0Ghz for that sort of work ... not a slouch tho ... so no complaints there.

Basically the equivalent or thereabouts to the ol D805 I suppose.