Improved ION IGP w/better VDPAU support?

[Kano]

Maybe you should read my first posts better. The cheapest dual core is called Pentium Dual E6300 which has vt, there are a few faster models too up to E6500. Usally those cpus oc very well if you want to try it. Just be sure you don't oc your ram.

[Kano]

The Pentium Dual E6300 is just like a C2D but with smaller caches, with smaller cache oc works usally much better. With a C2D you would need series 8 for vt and thats too expensive - i guess i3 will be cheaper.

[Kano]

No it is definite the same arch, don't get confused by the name - thats just marketing.

[jalyst]

So if I go here & click on compare now I'm looking at CPU's which are all Core2 based?



Actually, you can get a Core2Duo as low as series 6 which does have VT-x.
I was looking here

But I'm now considering series 8 CPU's (E8200 particularly) because they have the 1333 FSB for when/if I want to OC.
I guess they'll also be much harder to under-volt because of their larger caches & higher clock-speed etc.

[Kano]

The compare feature lets you select any cpu. You definitely don't need a cpu called core2 when you only want core2 architecture. Intel just has used too many numbers i think therefore they reused the Pentium name for the cheaper series.

[Kano]

You should select of course a cpu with LOWER fsb as the only way to oc intel cpus is it RAISE it. Of course there was the series 6, but thats outdated - this was with 65 nm chips, the series 8 has 45 nm chips. Basically for normal linux games no oc is required.

[Kano]

series 9 (only quad) too, also 5 (most without vt) and 7 (most without vt). 1333 you have to divide by 4, then you get 333. When you divide 1066 then you get 266. When you then know that a G45/P45 board can easyly handle fsb 400 (marketing: 1600, offically G45/P45 is only up to 333/1333) then you know that you only need ddr2-800 for that. 400/333 (+20%) is the save oc that would work with any board - when the cpu is capable of it with default ram with series 8 and 400/266 (+50%) with the cheap ones. When you go over 400 then you usually get much more problems, so better stay lower.

[jalyst]

1333 you have to divide by 4, then you get 333. When you divide 1066 then you get 266. When you then know that a G45/P45 board can easyly handle fsb 400 (marketing: 1600, offically G45/P45 is only up to 333/1333) then you know that you only need ddr2-800 for that.

Don't you mean "when you divide 1066 you get 533"?
I found this, now I'm getting a good picture of everything!

400/333 (+20%) is the save oc that would work with any board - when the cpu is capable of it with default ram with series 8 and 400/266 (+50%) with the cheap ones. When you go over 400 then you usually get much more problems, so better stay lower

I don't quite get what you're saying here, I think you're suggesting that DDR2-800 is good enough for any OC'ing.
So if DDR2-800 is fast enough for everything but the most extreme OC's, & considering we have DDR2-1066 for extreme OC's.
How come we already have DDR3? Or does it bring more than just clock-speed to the table? (prolly does I guess)

How's this? (most of the E6x range look to be better specced than the E7 actually!?)
It starts with a lower FSB of 1066 & unlike all the E7's has 4MB L2 cache (doesn't have the 6mb of the E8 series)
Weird thing is wikipedia says E6xxx are Pentium DC's w/2mb L2 cache, but this is a C2D 4mb L2!

**update**
Ah fuck, that's because it's not a wolfdale (45nm) C2D, gah!!!!
**update**

I still don't see what the problem is starting with the 2nd lowest E8 though (E8200).
Even if it's FSB is high from the outset (333) it's still way below DDR2-1066 (533), so there's room to increase the FSB further still.

I guess there's better value in something like the E6420 though...
As the FSB/Clock can be raised to the same level as the E8200, & it's questionable whether the smaller L2 cache is a big loss.

[Kano]

Everytime you got over 400 fsb you will definitely get into troubles when you don't disable EIST/C1E - and then your system will REALLY be stupidly configured as it needs always max power. Linux for example will not show the correct speed - also when you lower the max multiplier and raise fsb then it is also incorrectly shown as long as EIST is on. Usually you use 2 modules of ddr2-800 - that doubles the max data rate and will be absolutely enough for s775. ddr3 might be a tiny bit faster but not really usefull to buy until ddr3 is cheaper than ddr2. Next year you will be forced to use ddr3 with clarkdale however which will replace at least the 8 series of intel. The price should be in the same range but much faster and therefore the 8 series a bad deal to buy. Old technologie, high price. More than a Pentium Dual E6300 is basically overpriced already. And 1066/4=266! In PURE theory you could use fsb 533 with ddr2-1066, as this will be really hard for your cpu AND chipset and will never work when you want to save energy. Usually i would NOT oc more than it is possible without raising vcore.

[jalyst]

Isn't it ideal to maintain a 1:1 ratio with RAM & CPU FSB when OC'ing?
So for arguments sake, if I want to get the FSB up to 1600, then the RAM should be capable of reaching 1600.

I don't think any such DDR2 RAM exists** but my point is....
Isn't 1066 more ideal than 800 for ensuring that the ratio stays close to 1:1 for as long as possible?

But the E6300 has an even smaller L2 cache than the E6420, down to 2MB from the the top C2D's 6MB.
How does this manifest itself (if at all) in real world use?

Also I haven't closely looked at Xeons yet, there may be some very good OC'r/under-volters amongst them, as suggested here.
This user at extremesystems seems to have had good results with an E8xxx.

**which makes me wonder if there's any G45/P45 boards that accommodate DDR3 which gets that high.