Intel Core 2 Duo E4300: Affordable and Highly Overclockable
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 10, 2007 2:45 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Encoding Performance
At default clock speeds, the Core 2 Duo E4300 completed our DivX test in the same amount of time as AMD's Athlon 64 X2 5000+. Overclocked, the E4300 has a 11% advantage over the X6800.
Windows Media Encoder is far more favorable to AMD CPUs and thus the E4300 ends up being a little slower than the X2 4200+. Our overclocked chip ends up, once again, on top of the charts.
MP3 encoding performance is quite competitive, with the E4300 offering performance similar to the X2 4600+ and the E6300. Overclocked performance is once again competitive with the X6800.
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Sunrise089 - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
is this a joke??? Overclocking is done in the BIOS.duploxxx - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
I guess you check the web prices before you post such a comment? to my opinion start price is as high as a 4200 and performance wise more or less the same depending on apps (except for real multithread offcourse where it is known that the c2d performance is less dominating towards the k8)."The E4300 gets even better in Q2 when its price will drop from $163 to $133, making it even more of a bargain.
Today's review will focus on the overall performance of the E4300 at stock speeds as well as when overclocked. At stock speeds the E4300 is priced as a cheaper alternative to the Core 2 Duo E6300 and AMD's Athlon 64 X2 3800+, thus the comparison between those two chips is obvious"
newegg price 3800: 135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...
newegg price 4200: 169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...
newegg price e6300: 190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...
tappertrainman - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
Can anyone let me know if I would see a big difference upgrading from an A64 (either 1.8GHz or 2.0GHz, I forget) with 1GB of RAM to a Core2 Duo with 2G of RAM?I mostly use the computer for WoW, but I do run it at the very highest resolution, widescreen, on a 22in monitor. I also have Ventrilo running at the same time. Otherwise the computer is mostly used for music, internet, etc.
Am I only going to see a difference if I'm multi-tasking (i.e. WoW, and internet open) or will it improve the single-tasking significantly?
Thanks for any help or advice.
harpoon84 - Friday, January 12, 2007 - link
A C2D @ 3GHz+ will be MUCH faster than an A64 @ 1.8 - 2GHz at everything, single or multithreaded software, as well as multitasking. It will also help your WoW raid framerates significantly.oneils - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
For games, your best component to upgrade is video card. Especially if you turn up the eye candy at high resolutions. This depends though on what platform you are currently using. If you have pci-e for video, then you might want to upgrade the vid card first.A CPU upgrade for wow might not give a noticeable boos...unless you run many applications in the background (ventrillo doesn't take too many resources, I don't think...so I wouldn't be worried about that).
tappertrainman - Friday, January 12, 2007 - link
I already have a 7900GT, are any of the new ones going to be a big step up?clairvoyant129 - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
This is a great review, I can build an awesome budget PC for my folks back at home with this and a DS3 for less $$$. Makes AMD's current offerings look like a complete joke.hubajube - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
Which corsair ram did you guys use?OcHungry - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
Mr. Anand, This review is as objective as can be and I appreciate your fairness to both sides of the coin (Intel vs. AMD). I hope your staff take example and in the future and conduct their reviews in the same manner as you have.besiar awlee.
ssiu - Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - link
Is it 100% stable (per your usual rigorous standards) at 3.375Ghz/1.468V overclocked setting with the stock Intel cooler?Is the Intel stock cooler the same for the whole Core 2 Duo line (from E4300/E6300 up to E6700/X6800)?