From what I remember seeing, the 2MB cache size made almost no difference in overall performance for the Core 2. I can't remember where I saw the article, but I did see an article where the two were compared and the difference was almost non-existant. The major differences in speed are mostly from the clock speed...and from what I've seen these things OC like no ones business. So in other words....talk me out of blowing....er, buying an almost $400 dollar Core 2 in place of a $250 or so for nothing but 300 Mhz and 2MBs of cache. That, and the E6600s are NO WHERE to be found. I'm down to ebay for the 6400 as is. I had the "back in stock" alert for Zip Zoom Fly buy the E6600 sold out before I could read my email....less than 18 hours.
Will this help you at all? http://www.techspot.com/review/8-intel_core_2_duo_family/ It has some pretty good tests done for the E6300,E6400,E6600 and E6700.
You can read through BiT's review here. There's next to no difference, you can just make it up with 1-200MHz overclocking.
Wow, Newegg finally has some 6400s in stock. Unfortunately it's averaging between 20-40 dollars more expensive than some of the other places I've seen...but that's a premium im willing to pay for peace of mind and the comfort of knowing I'm buying from a supplier that I can trust. Of the 10-15 orderes I've gotten from them, they have always been on-time and my stuff has always been in perfect shape. I'll pay extra for that. Plus they are giving free 3 day shipping.
