[MoG]

I'm planning on upgrading my AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz cpu and BIOSTAR TForce6100-939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard.


I'm currently thinking of going with the following:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 cpu

Foxconn G9657MA-8EKRS2H motherboard

(my HTPC case requires a mATX mainboard)

Can someone confirm I have the following calculated correctly?

* set FSB to 266MHz

* new CPU speed of 2.66GHz

* new DRAM speeds of DDR2-533/667/800/1066 (multipliers 1/1.25/1.5/2 respectively).

Anyone running an E4400 at 2.66GHz? With a Zalman CNPS7000B-CU heatsink? I currently have this heatsink and will need to buy the ZM-CS1 adapter to have it work on the new motherboard.


Finally, if this is a workable setup, I'd appreciate knowing what RAM you're using to achieve this...


My only other components are a nvidia video card (currently 7800GT but going ot move to 8500/8600 series card), Prodigy 7.1 LT, an ide dvdrw and a sata 160gb hd.


Thanks!

 

[MoG]

i forgot to mention, the purpose of this upgrade is to playback h.264 and vc-1 content. 1080i/p encoded content. the HTPC outputs all media at 720p as I have a 720p projector that I have no plans to replace anytime soon.


thanks.

 

[grittree]

I wouldn't worry much about the memory. Just snag whatever is cheapest.


I took a e4300 at 333x9 and borrowed some fast memory with CL=4 timings and gained about 1% in pcmark05. CPU speed is king.

 

[ReneV]

I did exactly what you describe: it works a charm. More precisely, I set everything in my BIOS (on a P5B Deluxe/Wifi-AP) to auto, except for the FSB, which I manually set to 266. RAM is generic DDR2-533.


What I did next is more interesting from my perspective. I have a Zalman HD135 case , which is really nice but a little bit difficult to cool well. After 5-10 different cooling configurations, I am now running two 120mm fans that push air out of the case on the sides in front and with air being pulled in (unassisted) through the back and top vents. For CPU cooling I am using just the heatsink part of a Scythe "ANDY SAMURAI MASTER" (there's not enough room for the fan).


With no overclock (and 4 HDDs, a DVD, a 7900GS, and an X-Meridian in the case) I have core temps of high 30ies C idle and around 50 C load (peaking at 70C, using Intel TAT at 100% load for 10mins).


With the overclock, the core temps go up by 5 degrees C or so (but Intel TAT sends the core temps over 80C, at 100% load).


My conclusion, and this is why I mentioned the above, is that the E4400 seems to be so nicely designed that case airflow appears to be more important than direct CPU cooling (except, possibly, for Intel TAT at 100% load).