Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Desktop Processor


The Bottom Line
Intel's Core 2 Duo E8400 is probably one of the best overall values currently in the desktop processor market. Sure, it only has two processor cores, but it runs at a fairly high clock speed and its low voltage and thermal output allow for it to be easily overclocked making it perform at levels equivalent to processors costing much more.

Pros

Guide Review - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Desktop Processor
5/18/08 - Intel's Core 2 Duo lineup of processors have been extremely popular thanks to their strong performance and excellent power profiles. The industry is pushing more for quad processors, but most applications still aren't optimized for using multiple cores. This is where the advantage of the Core 2 Duo lineup shines thanks to its higher clock speeds.
The Core 2 Duo E8400 was one of the first of Intel's 45nm processor lineup. The smaller traces allow the processor to use less power and reduce heat generation. The additional space on the die allows the cache to increase from the previous 4MB of the E6000 series to 6MB. The E8400 uses the newer 1333MHz bus speed to help it transfer data between subsystems faster than the 1066MHz cores. All of this add up to a very fast processor that comes in at a very reasonable


price.
Overall, performance in all applications was quite strong. The only area that the E8400 will really fall behind quad core CPUs is in software programs such as video editing software. In fact, many applications now seem to be limited by other aspects of the systems such as memory, hard drive or GPU where additional cores or high clock speeds won't make much of an impact.
Overclocking the Core 2 Duo E8400 is easy and yields excellent results. When testing the overclocking, the E8400 was boosted by 20% to 3.6GHz by simply modifying the bus from 1333MHz to 1600MHz. This gave a very strong boost in performance and didn't cause much issue with heat even with the stock Intel heatsink. There is room for more with the right combination of cooling and memory.

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