i got a striker extreme board with corsair XMS2 memory. i am planning to overclock no matter which processor i get. im currently on watercooling. so, my question is, which processor would be the better one to get? i know that the striker+E6750 is a pretty good pair already, but ive been reading benchmarks of the e2160 beating the E6750. i can afford either one, just that if getting the E2180 is a good choice, that would save me ~$100 for other upgrades. can anyone give me any opinions on this? thanks.

The E2160 is not going to beat the E6750. Where are these benchmarks you speak of? It's a quarter of the price and has a quarter of the L2 cache. The E2160 tops out at about 3.2ghz and the E6750 will do 3.6+ I think.

To be honest, there isn't all that much performance difference between the processors when they are clocked at the same speed. Cache tends to be important in only a few things - Super Pi and games come to mind. As you probably know, games are more GPU-dependent these days - what graphics card did you have in mind? If you're not bothered about CPU performance in certain applications, you'd get a faster framerate by buying a better graphics card with the cash you've saved by buying at E21xx.

As for 2160 vs. 2180 - the 80 has a higher multiplier, so you might find it easier to overclock.

The E2180 thread - Budget Build - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

theres one for example, not against the e6750 but thats pretty high overclocks. either upgrade would be a big one because im upgrading from a P4 2.8 Prescott. its proving to be a major bottleneck on my system. my video card is a 7950gt. if its just small differences between the 2, i think ill just go for the 2180.

3.8ghz is extremely impressive. I hadn't seen anyone get one as high as that. But the E6750 is definitely the better CPU.

Go for the E2180 if you need to save cash though. You won't really notice the difference and it will still be a massive step up from your P4!

alright then. i guess ill just wait til another $150 one pops up on ebay. if not ill just jump for the e2180. thanks!

You cant go wrong with the E2180.

I bought one a few months ago ,and it served me well until I was able to upgrade to a Q6600

Buy one for now, and later when cash permits get a better cpu

i bought a e6750, one came up on ebay for $124. it wasnt really that i didnt have money to buy the e6750, more that if the e2180 was comparable, then why spend the extra $100+?