Pentium E6600 or Core 2 Duo E7500??

[Philip202]

I'm planning to replace my ageing core 2 duo E4400 with either pentium e6600 or core 2 duo e7500 but i have a hard time selecting what's the best coz these two processors are almost identical. My mainboard can support both processors. the pentium has a much higher clock speed but with less L2 cache memory while the core 2 duo has a slower clock speed but with higher L2 cache memory. Performance wise, what's the best between the two? Does the higher clock speed of pentium compensate or offset its lower L2 cache memory over the core 2 duo in terms of performance? Is there any product review out there that compare them head to head? Thanks to any reply or advice.

[sdeane82]

Well what do you plan on doing with the processor. Are you a gamer or using alot of apps? The extra L2 cache will give you a speed boost in certain apps.

[debs3759]

IME, the extra 50% L2 cache in the core 2 duo more than makes up for the 4.5% speed reduction.

[D.8080]

Debs! Yo!

[PNWACE]

FYI I just tried the same thing, I upgraded an aged E2180 in an ECS P35T MB, to the new Pentium E6600 (2 versions exist, I bought the 3.1GHZ) And although the specs match, FSB, memory etc, on boot the PC recognises the CPU & memory but then hangs in the POST. Put the E2180 back everything is ok. So I'm asking questions to ECS but do be aware that not all CPU upgrades may work. I'm assuming that the old BIOS (2007) may not recognise the newer CPU? My next step is to get a HW Diag tool in the PCI bus to see what is hanging and or put the newer P35 2008 BIOS in play.

Also, one thing I noticed about some versions of the E7xxx series is that they don't all support HW virtualization. IMO

[debs3759]