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Cheap CORE2DUO?

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Paul Olson:

Speed in MAME is directly related to the speed of the CPU. When you get up to 4Ghz, nearly everything is playable; which is why the e8400 is a great choice. Someone here on the forums recently clocked an e7200 to 3.8Ghz. I got the cheap cpu/ motherboard combos at frys with an e7200 and e8400; and these boards do not overclock well. If I put my good heatsink on the e7200 I would be able to clock it faster than the e8400 just because it is just a matter of changing the FSB; which is about all this board can do. If you are going to get a good board, the e8400 will take you farther for an extra $50.

On the e7200, you can go from 2.53Ghz to 3.17Ghz with one bios setting; that is a pretty big improvement.

I am stuck at stock speeds in my cab on the e8400. I am going to settle for 3Ghz for now, but I may end up buying a new board before long. I haven't had a chance to test yet to see which games I am missing that I might want to play. Maybe some of the speed demons here will upgrade to the p45 boards and sell off there p35s cheap.  :D

massive88:


--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on August 16, 2008, 01:14:37 pm ---I just want to play Blitz and other CHD games without issue.

--- End quote ---

The 7200 is the sweet spot, however it could be tough to get Blitz and other CHDs running without issue at that speed.  You probably want to be closer to 4Ghz than away from it.  Id aim for around 3.5Ghz.  That wont get you all CHD games, but it should get a good number.

To do that, your best shot is the E8400 (starts at 3Ghz, whereas the 7200 starts at 2.56)

You could get near 3.5 on a 7200 or 7300 (starts at 2.66), you might need some more cooling though. 

Really depends on how much you are wanting to play, and how much you are willing to try to overclock.

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