e4400 overclocking: not too shabby!

[Babrbarossa]

This is overclocking at it's best. Legion took a sub-$900 USD system and overclocked it using the stock cooler. These e4400s seem to be real gems- they easily reached 3.0GHZ with nice temps.


The E4400 is a fantastic Core 2 Duo processor for overclocking as it is essentially an E6700 with just 2MB of L2 cache on an 800MHz FSB. Given both processors share the same clock multiplier, all it takes is for the user to adjust the FSB from 800MHz to 1066MHz and there you have it, a 2MB E6700 for $140 US. Not bad given you would pay much more than twice this dollar amount for a genuine 4MB E6700.
In total this system configuration cost less than $900 US and is capable of delivering highly playable performance in any of the latest gaming titles out there. The performance gains achieved by overclocking the Core 2 Duo E4400 were extreme and games such as Supreme Commander and S.T.A.L.K.E.R will become far more playable at 3.0GHz when opposed to 2.0GHz. The most important thing about this budget overclock is that it was achieved without having to purchase a $50 US cooler, which is the last thing you would want to do when building a budget system. When you consider that the Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 costs just $140 US, adding another $50 US on for a quality after market cooler will put costs up near $200 US. At this price you might as well purchase an E6600 featuring the full 4MB L2 cache. Furthermore the standard Intel box cooler was easily able to maintain complete stability as the E4400 worked at 3.0GHz and temperatures never even reached 50 degrees.

More from Legion

[belgolas]

Well I could build one cheaper that would be better for $400 CND. That is with selling my current system for $500 CND. :)

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by belgolas

Well I could build one cheaper that would be better for $400 CND. That is with selling my current system for $500 CND. :)

Do tell.....

[belgolas]

NCIX.com has a lot of cheap stuff.

Open Box/Refurbished Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 ATX LGA775 Conroe P965 DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 GBLAN Audio Motherboard

Thermalright MST9775 Heatpipe Heatsink LGA775 92MM 2500RPM 45.5CFM 31DBA

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ATA100 7200RPM 8MB 8.5MS Hard Drive OEM RoHS 5YEAR MFR Warranty

Samsung SH-S182F DVD+RW 18X8X18 DVD-RW 18X6X18 DL 8X 2MB IDE OEM Black W/ SW FREE Upgrade*

Zalman ZM-STG1SUPER Thermal Grease NON-CURING Compound Thermal Compound 3.5G Bottle W/ Brush

Aeneon PC2-6400 1X1GB DDR2-800 240PIN DIMM Memory( I know this ram sucks but I am on a budget. I could afford better ram but I just wanted to see what the cheapest system could be.)

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 500MHZ 320MB 1.6GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV HDCP DIRECTX10 Video Card(I was looking at the superclocked version which is only a bit more)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Dual Core Processor LGA775 1.8GHZ 800FSB 2MB Retail(Now I just over clock it to 3+ GHZ. :) ( I also could get a better cpu.)

I would keep my case and sound blaster X-Fi and wireless card.



My current system is...
pentium 4 541 3.2 GHz 1mb L2 cache, HT
7600 GT *** 256MB and over clocked it a bit with RiviaTuner
3 gigs of ram 533 mhz DDR2
Sound Blaster X-Fi
Wireless N D-link network adapter
120 gigs HDD SATA
Cooler Master CM Stacker(the bigger the better :p, I don't go to lan parties)
Intel® Desktop Board D945PSN
500 watts on a cheap power supply. Forget what brand and stuff.

If you have any sugestions then please tell.

[S|nApSE]

Don't bother with factory overclocked cards. It's not worth it as you can do it yourself quite easily - and with little risk.

[Babrbarossa]

The 640MB version is on for 365 right now after 30$ MIR- I'd go for that- I actually have one in my cart right now- trying to decide whether I really want SLI that bad....

[belgolas]

Yeah I want the 640 MB one because it would be better for the future and higher resolutions. I have a 24" Dell 1920 X 1200 monitor and I want to run games at that resolution. I can somewhat run a few older games at 1920 x 1200 but it is not entirely smooth.