Overclockability of E4400/E4500 CPUs

How overclockable are the above CPUs?

Is it true that the E4x00 CPUs are not as overclockable as the E21x0 CPUs? If so, how much worse are they at overclocking?

The new ones you can buy now are really just hit and miss and seem to be all over the place, there isn't a real tight average. On the up side the e2180 and e4500 and up are guaranteed M0 stepping which is the tweaked stepping of L2, sort of like G0 is for the 6xxx chips. If you want a lower-end less expensive one I'd almost say t's worth buying used from a reputable forum and gettin a pre-tested chip.

clubit.com guarantees M0 steppings, at a small premium in some cases. The most recent E4400 I bought cruised easily at 3.2ghz with minimal vcore, and it was an older stepping as well (L3?).

The E4xxx don't really cost that much more than the Pentiums so I think if you have the money, the extra cache may be worth it.

xbitlabs testing showed the 2MB cache is a notable advantage in gaming, less so in other apps. And yea it's not that there aren't good ones out there it's just very hit and miss. There are also some chips which can't be made stable at 3GHz almost no matter what. 3GHz is still a hell of a chip for a C2D but ..

For what it's worth, my E4400 has been fun to work with. For 24/7 operation I run what's in my sig (screenshot here). Easy overclock to 3.0GHz with just one step up in Vcore (from 1.325 to 1.345).

To see what I could run 24/7, I started going north of 3.0. 3.1GHz was simple enough at 1.365 (only two steps from default). After that, my CPU didn't like it without some higher voltages pumped to it.

3.3 took 1.465V and began getting warm, even with my Big Typhoon. This was earlier in the afternoon when the room was pretty warm also.

Later that night, the room cooled off and I reached my maximum thus far:

3.4 @ 1.505, which also got a bit warm.

To see lots of others' results with the E2xxx & E4xxx series, check out this thread at Anandtech. A little friendly competition to see who can get the best (more importantly stable) overclock with these chips.

My E4400 btw is L2 stepping. I've heard folks say the 2M cache costs some in temperatures but has better gaming performance. Can't test personally though.

Now, a question for anyone who happens to read this: Am I getting crazy with my overclocks? This board's slight undervolt + Vdroop keeps the CPU running ~.04V lower than the settings above (i.e. 1.505 set = 1.464 actual).

3.5 is my ultimate goal. Intel rates this CPU up to 1.5. Temps are already toasty at 3.4. Any tips? Am I being unrealistic? Any advice would be quite welcome!