Is Core 2 Duo E4300 good?

linkin

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I got one off ebay today, specs are as follows:

1.8ghz
800fsb
2mb l2 cache
dual core (duh)

Apparently they are good overclockers and when so beat some higher end Core 2 Duo's that are at stock speeds.
 
The E4300 has two cores. That is it has two seperate cores each running at 1.8GHz. It is much faster than other.
 
It's 65NM so it produces more heat and has less headroom for overclocking then 45NM chips.

It's got less cache then other C2Ds.

But on the other hand..

It's got a fairly low FSB, which means you can OC it further without the motherboard being a bottleneck, because if you had a 45NM Wolfdale that runs at 1333MT/s FSB you'd get it to say, 1600MT/s, which would be a 25% OC, but 800MT/s could theoretically be a 100% OC

Even at stock though it'd still be better then most single core CPUs

You -could- double the FSB to 1600MT/s if you've got a decent board and double the frequency, definitely not with a stock heatsink

But at the same time said higher models have more cache and some are 45NM, meaning they would still outperform you, but if you can OC it to say, 3GHz it'll be fine for a year or two if you couple it with a decent GPU

But do note, overclocking is very much guesswork, there's too many variables to really say "You can overclock this much guaranteed" so dont expect a 100% increase for example

And I cant be held liable for anything I say about overclocking if you manage to fry something, you take my advice at your own risk
 
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Yeah I agree, overclocking isn't a guaranteed success. I overclocked my old AMD Athlon XP 1200+, and windows reported it as a AMD Athlon 1600+. That had stock cooling and later i found out the heatsink was chock full of dust. :eek:
The multiplier for my C2D is 9x, i heard somewhere that thats good news for overclocking. the guys also managed to overclock this thing to 3.2ghz with aftermarket cooling. It beat the pants most some E6xxx C2D's that where at stock..
 
hey.. what do you think i could OC it to with a stock cooler and keep the temps under 60C when under load? My case will have good airflow of course.
 
3-400mhz at best, for the 65nm chips like that you want aftermarket cooling..Plus the e4300's themselves werent exactly the best overclocking chips in the world.
 
Yeah I agree, overclocking isn't a guaranteed success. I overclocked my old AMD Athlon XP 1200+, and windows reported it as a AMD Athlon 1600+. That had stock cooling and later i found out the heatsink was chock full of dust. :eek:
The multiplier for my C2D is 9x, i heard somewhere that thats good news for overclocking. the guys also managed to overclock this thing to 3.2ghz with aftermarket cooling. It beat the pants most some E6xxx C2D's that where at stock..

Yes, high multiplier and low FSB is better, means any small FSB increase brings higher CPU clock, and less strain on the motherboard

hey.. what do you think i could OC it to with a stock cooler and keep the temps under 60C when under load? My case will have good airflow of course.

Define "Good airflow" good airflow to one person is crap to another, and it largely depends on specs, good airflow for a P3 is a single 80MM intake, for example

Now, generally good airflow is 2-3 120MM fans, one in the front one in the back and optionally one on the side, that's generally a good setup

I personally wouldnt overclock at all on stock, get an aftermarket cooler and dont risk your CPU
 
i got my e4500 to 3.0ghz on the stock cooler and voltage. you should bump the voltage one or two times and shoot for 2.8-2.9ghz. thats like a 50% OC though so its a pretty big deal performance wise.
 
I am going to finish this build soon. As we speak i just stuck a 40gb IDE drive in along with an old cd burner from the original system, just to get my system up and running when the C2D, cooler and psu arrive sometime this week.
Then all i need to $25 for some 2gb DDR2. :D
Is a 600mhz overclock good for a core 2? I'm going to shoot for 2.6ghz with some voltage bumps, and maybe a little fsb bump.

And a little off topic, is the thermal paste that comes on the coolers any good? or should i buy some arctic silver 7 or something?
 
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