Decent core 2 duo

[rustyredline]

just bought a ati hd4850 from ebay but feel that my p4 is gonna hold my machine back so im gonna get a core 2 duo, im looking at the e6400 which seems good but only has 2mb l2 cache, so is it worth spending the extra $$ to get a 4mb l2 cpu such as the e6600 or will i see a significant improvement with the e6400

heres a rundown

using now p4 3.0ghz/800fsb/1mb l2 cache

option 1 - upgrade to e6400 c2d 2.13ghz/1066fsb/2mb l2 cache

option 2 - upgrade to e6600 c2d 2.4ghz/1066fsb/4mb l2 cache


how much better is option 2 to option 1,
I would have to wait to afford the e6600 cos the gpu has set me back a bit. me being impatient i want it now and could afford the e6400 now so im eager to get that but the l2 cache thing is putting me off.

thanks

 

[welshmousepk]

i would say to wait until you can get the 6600. its the superior CPU by a fair margin.

you will still see an improvement with your new GPU, and at least you will have something else to look forward too :lol:

 

[Deleted member 217926]

We need to know what motherboard you have to make sure you can even upgrade. Just because the board is LGA 775 does not mean it has Core2 support. Of the 2 the E6600 is the better and with decent cooling will even overclock quite a bit.
That being said you do need to realize you are putting money into an obsolete system. You may want to go with the cheapest option just for that reason.

 

[rustyredline]

check this page out ( http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P5L_1394.html ) but i can tell you my m/b supports up to e6700 and x6800 core 2 extreme. I have an asus p5l 1394 thanks for replying

 

[jsc]

You need to be careful here. The E6700 and X6800 are 65 nm Core2 Conroe CPU's. The new E6400 and E6600 are 45 nm Wolfdale parts. Your motherboard may not support them.

 

[saaiello]

The new E6xxx's are labled as Pentium dual cores and usually say wolfdale in there somewhere so yes be careful and make sure you get the 65nm core 2 duo conroe version.

 

[rustyredline]

thanks for the warning the 1 i was looking at is a core 2 duo, how would such cpus be for gaming, i want play games like gta4 and assasins creed with a stable framerate is that possible on e6400 or e6600 c2d

 

[Deleted member 217926]

To be honest GTA4 probably needs a fast quad core to run well. I am not sure about Assasins Creed.

Most new games now can make use of the extra cores in a quad core CPU. You still can get by on a highly clocked ( over 3GHZ ) dual core if you have a decent graphics card on most games but that is slowly changing.

I still do OK with my E8400/9800GTX+ mostly because I only have a 19in 1440 x 900 monitor. If I had a 1920 x 1080 monitor I would be looking to upgrade my graphics at least.