Your current processor?

[RandomNameHere]

AMD Athlon X2 4050e @ 2.4GHz

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 3.2GHz

Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz

[sweeper2]

A64 X2 3600+

[MrSpartan1717]

Intel Core2Duo E8500

Pentium 4 3 GHZ Socket 775 800MHZFSB

Intel Celeron D 2.80 GHZ Socket 775 533 FSB

Intel Celeron 2.80 GHZ Socket 478

[Blitzkreig75]

Game/main rig: C2D "Q9300" Engineering Sample @ 3GHz
DAW: C2D E8500 (stock)
HTPC: X2-4450 (stock) 45w

The ES replaced an E6420 @ 3.4GHz and I lost almost 4k in 3DMark05

[KarmaKiller]

Really, I gained points when moving from my dually to a quad. Have you OC'd at all?
(Is your ES locked or unlocked?)

[Blitzkreig75]

unlocked from 6-7.5

I changed mobo too. Went from an XFX 650i to an Abit IP35. The RAM dividers on the Abit are only 1:x so I'm capped @ 400MHz FSB, unless I wanna ramp my RAM over spec, (something I don't do, period).

Stock on the ES is 2.5GHz. I had to set the CPU settings to 'manual' to get it to run @ 3GHz full-time.

Is this Abit THAT much crappier than the 650i? I was thinking it would be slightly better, since it's a newer chiopset. I didn't HAVE to change the board. I'm seriously considering putting the XFX back in, cause it's got 2:x dividers as well as some real odd ones, that can allow strage CPU/RAM frequencies and stay within specs.

I'd wager I could get at LEAST 3.4 off the ES @ 425MHz on the XFX. Thats where I was on the E6420 and it would have gone higher I'm sure, if I had a better cooling solution, (using a Zerotherm UFO, but really looking into water now).

[KarmaKiller]

Well technically the P35 board should be better. All the P35 boards have the high DRAM settings like that. I ended up using 1066mhz ram in my P35 board (E6320) because I can get to ~3.5-3.6Ghz A LOT easier.
And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm almost positive the 650i's don't support 45nm Quad Cores. I know my evga 680i didn't.
And along the same note, the 650i's are great for OC'ing dual core's. (even 45nm dual cores, they do support those) but it's biggest downfall was the Quads. Many people coulnd't get past ~3Ghz on those boards, no matter the quad they were using.

And one last note, that ES you got is in fact locked if that's all the multi's you can change to. 7.5 is the stock multi for those chips, and all recent Intel CPU's allow the multi to be lowered, for power saving features. But if you can't go any higher then 7.5x, then it's a locked ES.

[Blitzkreig75]

Well I knew that the days of fully unlocked ES chips are all but gone :/

So the XFX won't support the CPU? That's crappy :/

I could always swap the 8500 in the DAW for the ES, but the DAW software woudln't utilize four cores, (it only offloads part of the work onto a SECOND core, it's known that quads are no more advantagous than duals for the program).

Guess I'll ride it like this for a while. I still have my screenies of the scores I can awe at whenever I feel gimped.

because, after all, since I don't play high frame-rate games or do heavy CPU-intensive work, I'm well aware that I'll see minimal, (if any at all), performance difference between the 6420 and the ES.



But it's still cool to say I have an Engineering Sample Quad Core

[KarmaKiller]

Some of the early samples of chips are still fully unlocked. I've seen a fully unlocked Q6600. Same for a E8400.

And if i were you, I'd sell both the Abit board, and the 650i board, and look for a P45. Those boards are AMAZING for OCing anything.

[pullmyfoot]

How do I go about getting my hands on one of these early samples Can I buy one off the net (like on ebay?). Mostly for curiosity sake