Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 VS. AMD Athlon II X2 250 BE

[seerwan]

pauldh, thnx alot, if they have the Mobo used in that article, the ASRock G41M-LE, im definitely getting it, with the E5300!

if not, ill take the lower version ASRock. Cheaper and more OC options.

Thanks alot, bro!

N Thanks to everyone else as well.

@ andy5174, what extra features do the P5Q Pro and P5Q-E have that would make me want to get them? id appreciate the input.. thnx..

 

[andy5174]

@ andy5174, what extra features do the P5Q Pro and P5Q-E have that would make me want to get them? id appreciate the input.. thnx..

Get whichever is the cheapest if you are not going to use it for more than 2 years, because I don't think there will be any problem with your m/b within 2 years
with NORMAL usage and 775 is a dead socket already which will be obsolete in less than a year.

P5Q pro, P5Q-E and GA-EP45-UD3P are recommended if you are going to use them for 3 years or more.

p.s The performance of Q9550 is very very similar to that of the i7-920 and runs much cooler with much less power, so I would just get a better p45 board(which is immensely cheap now compared to the i7 platform) and then upgrade to a Q9550 when i5 come out(Q9550 will be very cheap then) if I were you.

 

[seerwan]

I'll only need this setup for about a year to 18 months, once I graduate, one of the first things I'll be getting is a new state-of-the-art Desktop... so, cheapest... ok...

na, thanks, but unnecessary... by that time, I'll have the dough to an some Epic setup...

 

[usuario]

I have a X2 550 Black Edition and its well, very well i think so.

SM 2.0 Score 7424
SM 3.0 Score 7825
CPU Score 2650@3078
3DMark Score 15604

now....X2 550 3.1@3.570 (17x) 210mhz +0.25voltaje cpu temps 40 45grados very easy overclock
zotac gtx @260 700/1400/1050
1333@1400value ram
gigabyte 790XT UD4P chip 790x
tacens radix III 520w

With this config

 

[pauldh]

pauldh, thnx alot, if they have the Mobo used in that article, the ASRock G41M-LE, im definitely getting it, with the E5300!

if not, ill take the lower version ASRock. Cheaper and more OC options.

Thanks alot, bro!

No problem, good luck!

Just to clarify: I'm the author of that SBM article and chose the Asrock G41M-LE for overclocking a FSB-800 chip with a high multiplier(E5200). I can vouch for it given that purpose, but would not expect good OC results with a FSB-1333 E8x00 chip. In that situation I'd recommend a P45 motherboard like we used in other SBM's.

 

[seerwan]

oh no, im DEFINITELY getting the E5300, and ive pretty much decided on the Mobo; it'll almost certainly be an ASRock, the one with the G41 chipset is preferable, but if not available where i live, then the one with the G31 chipset. i am unlikely to go for the Asus mobo, as the ASRock is cheaper and provides more overclocking options.

 

[pauldh]

I figured you would go for the E5300.

Just wanted to be clear (for anyone else reading this) the Asrock G41 is being recommended for E5x00 overclocking, and not for chips starting at FSB-1333 stock. E5x00's don't like a high FSB, and I didn't get a chance to try a different chip in that SBM system to see just what FSB the mobo reach.

 

[seerwan]

Btw, paul, the E5300 FSB runs at 800. In u’re article, you pumped the FSB to 1333 to reach 4.0 Ghz... Was it unstable? If it was, is there any way to stabilize it?

Also, you achieved a stable OC at 3.66 Ghz on the stock cooler... would a MUCH higher OC been possible with an aftermarket CPU cooler that costs USD $80 - $ 110?

Thanks…

 

[pauldh]

Basically, I could not stability test it because of insufficient cooling (small case + stock cooler). Better cooling and a bit more CPU voltage, it would have been stable at 4.0GHz anyway. I doubt it would have been fully stable at the 1.325V seen in that screenshot.

The worst E5200 I have tested needed 1.4V for stability at 3.8GHz, and a whopping 1.456V to to reach 3.9GHz. However, the E5200 we received for this last SBM was a very, very good one. Judging how it was scaling by voltage, IMO this one should have done 4.0 - 4.16GHz at 1.4V.

edit: BTW - you'd only need a $25-40 cooler for a 4.0GHz E5200.

 

[seerwan]

i see... excellent...

25 - 40? bloody marvellous!

 

[seerwan]

btw - might be a bit of a noob question, but i just checked and on all 3 mobos, the PCI Express x16 slot isnt a PCI Express x16 2.0, so will it run the card to max capability or will it b bottlenecked by the slower connection?

 

[usuario]

If you want, you can get a AM2 ATHLONX2 7850 2.8GHZ 2MB DUAL CORE BLACK EDITION and cost 62€ and mobo AM2 ASUS M3A78-CM DDR2 and cost 67€.

Are you mad?
E5400 cost 80€
X2 550 3.1 6mb cache black edition 01/06/2009 100€!!!!!!!
The X2 550 can get 3.8, 4.0. and X2 250 3.750

4.0 oveclcok is a very hard overclock, i think.Sound,temperatures, hard voltaje....
Its easy overclock until 3.1 but if you pass this, become more dificult.

You can get Amd 7850 its cheaper if you want for only a year.

 

[pauldh]

btw - might be a bit of a noob question, but i just checked and on all 3 mobos, the PCI Express x16 slot isnt a PCI Express x16 2.0, so will it run the card to max capability or will it b bottlenecked by the slower connection?

Don't worry about it for your card. And especially not at that resolution.

If it was a pair of 4870's and a crossfire mobo limited to PCI-e x8 / x8 then you'd be limiting performance not having 2.0. It's quite possible that the GTX 295, HD 4870 X2, or next gen cards could be limited at high resolution on one of these 1.1 x16 mobos, but I am yet to see any real evidence confirming how bad it would be.

 

[seerwan]

@ usuario - i did want the X2 550 BE, it offers significantly superior performance compared to the E5x000 series, and it overclocks highly as well, but its just not available in my part of the world, and neither is the X2 250.

The 7750 / 7850 BE is available (cant remember which it was), but cost USD $95, the exact same cost of the E6300 which offers vastly superior performance. Also, even though the 7850 is a BE, it overclocks poorly, ive checked reviews of it.
But even if it did OC well, it costs more than the E5x000 where i am, and the E5x000 is a more modern, superior OCing, cheaper, faster.

@ pauldh - alright, xcellent, thanks.
ina year when i go for a serious machine PCI-e 3.0 will be the standard, so ive got nothing to worry bout.

btw - only on BE's and Extreme Editions can u raise the multiplier, but can u lower it on a standard cpu? tht seems to b the case in some reviews on toms, just confirming...

and also - DDR2-800/PC2-6400 is the ram ill be getting, and I'll b raising the FSB to at least 1066 and 1333 is likely; will i b getting any bootstrap issues?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ddr3-1333-speed-latency-shootout,1754-17.html

Thanks..

 

[pauldh]

The PII X2 550BE is significantly quicker than an E5300 at stock speeds, but I seriously doubt it could do better than trade blows once both are max OC'ed.

The Athlon 7750 is about equal to the E5200 stock, but will top out at 3.4GHz or less and gets creamed by an E5200 max OC'ed. At your prices, forget it. In case you care... I tested that one here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-cpu-overclock,2304.html

The E5x00's does not have virtualization, but given it's not a very long term system for you, doubtful you'll miss that.

Yes on the multipliers.... they are locked upward, but you can lower them. Many people seem to forget that and OC an E5200 at 12.5 * some wacko bus. On many a mobo that will work just fine, but I prefer to stick to 333 for the E5x00's, start with a low multiplier and work it up 0.5x at a time.

You won't have bootstrap issues as long as you change the jumpers on the Asrock mobo to adjust for DDR2-800 and FSB-1066 or FSB-1333. Look at the OC page of the $600 SBM article for details and a pic of the jumpers.


Good luck and enjoy! I'm getting swamped and may no be back to the forums for a while.

 

[seerwan]

virtualization? running 2 OSes? its fine, I don't need to.

Alright, ca b brought down... Hmm... good tactic... ill use it when i get it.

Alright, ok...

Thanks alot for all ure help, bro. Tc and good luck.

 

[seerwan]

guys, 1 thing; since ill b jacking up the FSB to 1333 Mhz, and ill using DDR2-800 / PC2-6400 RAM, won't I have an in-proportionate FSB:RAM ratio of something like 5:3, where my FSB runs 67% faster than my RAM?

wont that cause a bottleneck between CPU and RAM and slow down the system?

 

[seerwan]

Guys, I have news.

I BOUGHT THE CPU! AND THE MOBO and ram.

This is my new, current setup:-

Processor - Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300
CPU Cooler - Stock
Motherboard - ASRock G31M-S
RAM - 4 GB - DDR 2 - PC2 6400
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon HD 4670
Hard Drives - 250 GB
Power - 400 W

I OCed the CPU to 3.0 GHZ and it was stable.

I then changed the jumpers to a 1066 setting, and the FSB ran at a Frequency of 266, but it's unstable. I'm getting the "Blue Screen of Death" and Windows wont start.

I then set the FSB to 252 to run at 3.27 Ghz, and its stable.
I played Left 4 Dead for about 30 mins then checked the CPU Temp. and it was running at a very cool 50 Degrees Centigrade.

So, why wont it OC to 1066, and how do I do it?

Thanks.

 

[pauldh]

Make sure you lower the RAM ratio so you are not overclocking the memory.

At 252MHz FSB, what is your memory speed? Check it with CPU-Z. http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Is the mobo an Asus or an Asrock ? If it's an Asrock G31M-S, what jumper did you change?

 

[pauldh]

The starting point is to get a FSB-1066 stable first. You do this with little or no CPU OC and no memory OC. SO lower the mem ratio and the CPU multiplier when first attempting the higher FSB. (edit: If you don't lower the CPU multiplier, you are trying 266*13, which is way too high on stock voltage)

My suggestion is 10*266 (2.66GHz) and DDR2-800. Then try 10.5 * 266, 11*266, etc until you lose stability. At this point, the CPU will need more voltage to continue.

 

[seerwan]

- I dont think i can lower the RAM Ratio... i searched in the BIOS, couldnt find anything for the RAM Ratio...

- Sry, my bad, ASRock, not Asus... ill edit the above...
I read the manual and I changed the "OC 800" jumper from Pins 1 and 2 TO pins 2 and 3. This is what the manual instructed to do if I wanted to run a 800 FSB CPU to 1066.

- Alright, ill start testing it the way u said. "10*266 (2.66GHz) and DDR2-800. Then try 10.5 * 266, 11*266, etc".
What is the Maximum Voltage i should go for?...

- BTW, how do I tell how fast the RAM is actually running at by using CPU-Z?
In the "DRAM Frequency" under "Timings" in the "Memory" Tab?
and ATM my FSB: DRAM ratio is 2:3, so says CPU-Z.

 

[seerwan]

1 - even though ive told the RAM to function at 400 Mhz, CPU-Z tells me its running at 378.
2 - I cant adjust the multplier in my BIOS.
3 - I just tried to boot it at 13*254=3302, but is woudlnt boot windows. I think it may be cause of the Voltage, but i dont ahve the option to increase it from the CPU section in the BIOS.
In the Chipset settings, though, i have"-
- DRAM Voltage. (i know thats for RAM)
- NB Voltage.
- VTT Voltage.
- +1.5V Voltage.

I think the Vcore voltage is the VTT Voltage, am correct?

 

[pauldh]

Yes, DRAM Frequency under the memory tab. in your case, it will say 400 MHz for DDR2-800 or 333 for DDR2-667.

OK, yes that jumper should do the trick.

Before you change the jumper though, you should knock down the CPU multiplier or it may not boot. If yours even successfully made it to the BIOS at 13*266 (@ stock voltage), you have a good chip. Many E5x00's will top out below 3.0GHz stability at stock voltage, and wouldn't boot without lowering the multiplier (or adding voltage).

Find the max it will do at stock VID before increasing voltage. What does CPU-Z say VID is for your chip?

On the mem, when you set it to 400MHz (DDR2-800) it will only run 400 MHz at normal FSB like 800(200), 1066(266), etc. AT 252MHz , it will be lower than 400MHz (when you moved the jumper for a 1066 chip), or way above 400MHz if you just OC'ed without changing the jumper.

 

[seerwan]

but i cant change the multiplier in the BIOS, nor it seems, the VCORE voltage...

should i try using the ASRock OCing Utility? maybe from there i can increase the Vcore or change the multiplier...

 

[pauldh]

For now don't mess with varied FSB like 254 *13, just get 266 (FSB-1066) stable. How high did you get at going 266*10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, etc.? Stability test with prime 95 small ftt test. If you do this in increments, and it's stable, it will usually boot fine with a .5 multiplier bump. This can save you major headaches.

What are the selectable ranges for VDD? Does it say CPU VDD, FSB VDD, or just VDD?