Bargain Performance with 2MB Cache Core 2s

Garg

Intensifying competition between AMD and Intel's dual-core processor lineups has made this a great time to buy a new CPU. On the lower end of the Core 2 line are the E6300 and E6400 chips, coming in at 1.86GHz and 2.13 GHz, respectively. Both have 2MB of cache, which is lower than the 4MB that comes with the higher model numbers, but they also cost around $100 less. With overclocking, these chips can more than make up the performance difference, and leave the best AMD currently has to offer in the dust. The only thing missing is affordable performance motherboards.

If it weren't for AMD, we wouldn't have Core 2, and if it weren't for Core 2 then we wouldn't have affordable Athlon 64 X2s. Right now is one of the best times to purchase a new processor that we've seen in a long time -- assuming current prices hold and that availability of Core 2 Duo chips is reasonable in the next week or so. If you've been running a single core processor and are finally looking to make the jump to dual core computing, there's little reason not to at this point.

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There are two potential concerns with building a budget Core 2 Duo system. The first is availability, and hopefully we will have a clear answer on that subject in the near future. The other is motherboard cost. The ASUS P5W-DH we used in this article is currently the best overclocking motherboard we've seen for the socket 775 platform, but at $250 it is anything but cheap. We have seen quite a few of the P965 motherboards that can also overclock the budget Core 2 chips to reasonable levels, with prices hovering much closer to $140. Unfortunately, none of those boards can support SLI or CrossFire at present.

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The E6300 and E6400 can easily overclock to E6700 and Core 2 Extreme X6800 levels, however the smaller cache does limit performance a bit. That being said, our overclocked E6300 was able to equal and in all cases but one outperform AMD's Athlon 64 FX-62. In fact, in quite a few benchmarks, the overclocked E6300 is essentially out of reach of anything AMD can offer with their current K8 designs. At $183, the value here is tremendous, and if you're willing to overclock the benefits don't get any clearer than that..

AMD's current K8 offerings aren't slouches by any means, so if you have a single core K8 chip, now could be the time to upgrade. Unless AMD really does have a secret weapon, Intel's Core 2 chips could hold onto the performance crown unchallenged until AMD's K8L chips arrive.

Source: AnandTech

airbornflght

Sounds good to me.