E6600 L617A956 ES - worth the money?

I'm sure Lance (at saveateagle) won't have a problem shipping International either, but with the shipping costs it might be cheaper to call around first. If it's not worth the hassle then order that sucker now!

Brolloks said:

What do you mean "P.S. the 2nd hand Q6600 I've been offered has stepping B3", you offered for free or to buy?

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I realise I forgot one option in my start post... was offered a Q6600 as well, for about $275. That's got stepping B3 though.


Thanks for the other discussion guys I'll have a look at the options you mentioned and check shipping (there's also the added risk of toll though), and check with some vendors locally as well.

Although you've managed to get a poor guy even more confused and undecisive as to what processor to aim for

Don't pay the $275 for a B3.

To be honest, based on your descriptions, I'm not convinced you need a Quad core. It is probably overkill for your current purposes. If you think you might get interested in future games, then I'd stay with the Quad though.

Maverick0984 said:

If you think you might get interested in future games

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There's always that risk


Slightly off-topic, but it feels a bit unnecessary to open a new topic elsewhere with all the knowledge present right here:

does one win a lot by having (performance) PC8500 memory in combination with the motherboard I have and the processor I will buy soon? The PC8500 costs quite a bit more than comparable e.g. PC6400 sets; is it worth the money?

on a sidenote, both aforementioned companies clearly state in their FAQ that they don't do international shipping, unfortunately. I do have some contacts in US who would probably be willing to act as middle-station, but all in all I doubt I'd win much by that except perhaps for the certainty that I get stepping G0....

JorisS said:

There's always that risk


Slightly off-topic, but it feels a bit unnecessary to open a new topic elsewhere with all the knowledge present right here:

does one win a lot by having (performance) PC8500 memory in combination with the motherboard I have and the processor I will buy soon? The PC8500 costs quite a bit more than comparable e.g. PC6400 sets; is it worth the money?

on a sidenote, both aforementioned companies clearly state in their FAQ that they don't do international shipping, unfortunately. I do have some contacts in US who would probably be willing to act as middle-station, but all in all I doubt I'd win much by that except perhaps for the certainty that I get stepping G0....

Click to expand...

IMO, you will get very good performance out of say Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400, they are known to be very good overclockers. Also if you do decide to go higher and more expensive go for the Ballistix PC2-8000, they OC better than the PC2-8500's....hope this helps

You have a pretty good board. Most would argue that you want to try and go 1:1 with your ram speed and FSB speed.

If you decide on a Quad core, there is really no reason to get PC2-8500.

Get something like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

It is $70 after rebate, and is arguably the best RAM you can buy right now. It can overclock extremely well to PC2-8500 speeds, but like I've already said you won't reach that. You'd need to reach a FSB of 533Mhz, which isn't going to happen with a Quad. I have my DDR2-800 RAM downclocked because I'm not even getting a 400Mhz FSB, and then I take the extra head room and lower the timings.

Of course, this is assuming you keep it 1:1, which you should.

Allright!

I don't know how the mail-in-rebate works, perhaps I should switch in the help of some friends in USA and get both memory and a CPU from neweggs though. Although they don't guarantee the G0 CPU's I guess, which is a pity...

Ah well I'll sleep on it, but first an episode of Prison Break to clear the mind =)

Thanks a lot for all the help and replies guys, much appreciated!

Oh ya, it's probably rather late in Sweden, heh.

e6750 on newegg for $205 , way cheaper thaan both of those....

Yeah thanks for helping out

I have the 6400's and have no problem hitting 600mhz + with them

If I could ask for a summary/final decision;

if it's between a E6850 and the X3210 (they're roughly the same price here), which do you guys recommend? I'm mostly running regular apps (not a load of multitasking), some gaming and then the aforementioned video encoding/scaling perhaps, if I get my lazy butt to engage in it...

The memory is still a problem, been reading good about the Crucial Ballistix 2 Gb kits which seemingly have those popular D9GMH chips. Just checking Newegg they also got some Crucial Ballistix Tracer which appear nice, but don't know about those chips and if they're as good for clocking...

*edit*
Any opinions about Corsair Dominator DDR2 2 x 1GB Modules, PC2-6400 CAS4, XMS2, 800MHz (MPN TWIN2X20486400 ) by the way? Those look cool but are they any good?

*suck* why do there have to be so darn many different brands/models/types/colours/chips etc etc

Ok as promised, here's what I finally bought:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM: OCZ Reaper PC9200


Reason: could get them in a 2nd hand package.
Not sure about stepping on the CPU, the seller said it's got 'SL958' stepping but I couldn't find much on that.

However, I just wanted to get something complete now so I can start building and playing around. I can always swap the CPU for a newer E6850 or such in the future.

I hope the memory is good stuff, I know the motherboard is (GA-P35-DQ6).

Thanks again for all the advice and help everybody!

Cheers!
//Joris