Would you be interested in a CPU with an overclock capability of 80-90% that's starts off at $165 at launch and will drop to $133 later this year? Anandtech got their hands on a sample of the Core 2 E4300 and cranked it up from a stock 1.8GHz to 3.375GHz. The change in base FSB speed also has advantages in overclocking, making it possible to use a linked (1:1 ratio) memory speed and still get extremely high overclocks without resorting to anything more than DDR2-800 memory. The E6300 has a 7x multiplier and a 266 MHz base bus speed, so without dropping to a 4:5 ratio and sticking with DDR2-800, the E6300 tops out at 7x400 or 2.8 GHz. With a 9x multiplier the E4300 can potentially reach as high as 9x400 or 3.6 GHz while keeping memory at or below DDR2-800. While it is possible to get bus speeds of P965 motherboards above 500 MHz, it is far more difficult and often requires more expensive component choices, making the E4300 the new king of budget overclocking. Throw in a more powerful CPU cooling setup, and we have no doubt it will be very easy to exceed our 3.37GHz overclock by a large margin.
I dont really follow overclocking achievements like I used to but the E6300 caught my eye. This is another Intel Core (c2d) sold as 1.8ghz which easily hits 3ghz. Its exactly the same as the e6400 apparently, just with a different multiplier. I cant wait to get one of these Intel Cores.... though my overclocking days are over. Im a SNDS (sudden northwood death syndrome) victim. 0.05v overvolt and a 17c idle, 25c ish full load on a 20% overclock. Stable as a rock for years and years then one day its restarts just as windows has finished loading. And literally hundreds of thousands if memtest errors in a matter of minutes. You never know, there might be a SCDS (sudden core death syndrome) on the way!
Well, the Northwoods had a bad tendency to die if you ran them over 1.7V, regardless of cooling. The E4300 isn't a Conroe core, rather Allendale, and has a locked multiplier. However, seeing these results with stock cooling and a .30-.35V increase, that's amazing. It's going to be pretty exciting.
Is the E4300 gauranteed to work for its life at those clocks? is it basically just an underclocked higher model?
A lot of people think that the allendale is exactly the same as the conroe except it has 2mb instead of 4mb L2 cache. Its not that it has 2mb disabled, it simply isnt there. If this is the case and im correctly informed about the e6300 being a e6400 then yes it would be a higher rated cpu with its balls lopped. Im sceptical and Intel aren't exactly an open book on the matter. The P4a was a bit like that, especially the early stepped skt478s. The 1.8ghz was apparently a 2.2ghz, or was it the 2ghz.... I cant remember but everyone wanted a 1.8ghz P4a. Another Intel example is the Springdale and Canterwood chipsets... they were essentially the same. In fact in hindsight was the Canterwood even worth bothering with? I kinda lost interest in pcs just after they were released. I built one canterwood based pc and that was it. Like most overclocks the cpu is certainly guaranteed to work for all its life. How long its life actually is is the question. ("is is"... got to be one of the biggest shortfalls of our language! Or maybe im misunderestimating the language )
Intel and AMD only guarantee their CPU's to work at the stock speed, and neither one endorse overclocking. In fact, it voids your warranty...assuming you, y'know, care about that. Intel and AMD don't guarantee, and never have, anything past stock. The E4300 is based on the Allendale core, so I'm not quite sure what the limits of it are. I haven't really looked at the difference between Conroe and Allendale cores, but the E4000's run an 800MHz FSB instead of the 1066 sported by Conroe and has a locked multiplier, opposed to the E6000's being open from the stock multi on down. Off-hand, I don't know if Allendale is just a Conroe derivative or a new core altogether.
