Conclusion
Since Core 2 Duo is currently dropping from the upper class into the mainstream, a reasonable platform seemed to be the best choice for this article. The MSI board we used comes with an overclocking switch, allowing users to easily set their bus speed from FSB1066 to FSB1333 or FSB1600. We used the BIOS settings and different speed increments to overclock a Core 2 Duo E8600 to as much as 4.26 GHz.
The focus of this article is efficiency, hence it was more important to determine the best clock speed with a focus on performance per watt. The P45D3 Neo-F was helpful for this article idea because the three-phase voltage regulator is typically more efficient than the multi-phase circuits found on enthusiast motherboards. The downside is limited capabilities for overclocking a Socket LGA 775 quad-core to speeds of 4 GHz, due to possible power limitations. Still, users looking for quad-core power should probably wait for Intel’s P55 platform and Clarkdale processors, which are expected later this year.
3.9 GHz Wins!
Although the 4.26 GHz setting provided the most performance, the 3.9 GHz overclock turns out to be the winner of this efficiency analysis. The clock speed increase provides a nice speed bump when compared to the 3.33 GHz stock speed without bumping power consumption up to excessive levels. If you are looking to get the best performance paired with the lowest effective power consumption, the fastest possible speed without a voltage increase should be your goal.
We found it more impressive to see that the performance per watt during a PCMark Vantage run was better than the default Core 2 Duo E8600. This means that all overclocked settings provided better efficiency than the 3.33 GHz stock speed. Clearly, Intel’s Wolfdale core could be running at 3.66 or probably slightly faster speeds without being less efficient! Unfortunately, it is pretty safe to say that such speeds won’t be introduced—they don’t fit into Intel’s multi-core strategy anymore—although an E8700 model at 3.5 GHz might be coming soon.
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It's obvious Intel is underclocking these chips to make them look as if they have humongous overclocking headroom. these chips should have been released at least 4ghz.
Yes the e8600 is a nice chip (for gamers more than photo/video rendering users) but I don't get why it's still over $260 when you can get quad cores for less that does more as far as CPU power.
It may be a marketing ploy, but its definitely one that we can benefit from! 28% overclock with a smalll voltage bump is amazing. Looks like thay are just rubbing salt in AMD's wounds right now. Good article.
I've had mine running on air with a big cooler at 4GHz for a while now with a small voltage increase. I chose the dual core over the quad as it was quite a bit cheaper, and the applications I run it for (gaming) tend to see little improvement with a quad (although that's changing). If I was doing a lot of encoding I would have gone for the quad. I'm happy for a year or so until I get an i7, but this is great for now :-)
I lol'd at the covered sata ports
All you need to do now, is one of these experiments for every CPU on the market!
Yeah, overclock a socket 478 3.2GHz P4 Prescott on a Gigabyte 8KNXP!
Then tell me the settings so I can get more than 75MHz out of mine :|
This is really old news.
Can you repeat this for other Core2Duo models like the E6600 please!!!!!
Sweet DIP Switches! I'm really looking forward to the Next Gen boards that come covered with poorly labled jumpers..
Its the Next Next Gen that has me really excited, I hear you'll need to manually de-solder the xtal on the board and attach a new one you buy from maplin!
Sweet!
(I thought the early 2000's progression to everything controlled through BIOS was a huge step forward? Which genius has decided hardware switches on the board were a good idea. Ideal for beginners? What about the 'auto overclock' option every bios in the world has these days?)
I thought looking on the charts on here, the 8600 dual core seems alot better than the quad cores avialable, because of a couple of reasons. The 8600 i imagine is alot cheaper than the i7 processors and core 2 extremes. I looked at the results for crysis and the 8600 comes near the top, surely for gamers dual cores must be still be in the top for demand, but i suppose since quad cores are slightly better for the same ghz, but is it really worth the money? Intel might as well just make higher ghz rated cored 2 duo processors. What do you reckon