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Where do you start with products such as the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 and Core 2 Extreme X6800? First off may I just say that when I began testing these dual-core 4MB L2 Cache processors expectations where high, very high. For probably the first time I can honestly say that a product has exceeded the hype, the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 and Core 2 Extreme X6800 processors are actually better than what I was expecting, much better. Honestly, I was amazed to find so much more performance in the Radeon X1900XTX in games such as Quake 4.  Then there was the Super PI performance, which just proves how powerful their two processors really are. If the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 was to make the 1MB Calculation in 25 seconds I would been quite impressed. However, to make the calculation in 19 seconds was just phenomenal, as this made the Core 2 Duo E6700 a whooping 97% faster than the Pentium D 950 processor. The much more expensive Core 2 Extreme X6800 was another 2 seconds faster, which was impressive, though I do not think this is enough to justify the $1000 US price tag. In fact, while on the topic of pricing, it should be noted that the Core 2 Duo E6700 will start at roughly $500 US where as the Core 2 Extreme X6800 will cost, as I just mentioned $1000 US. The primary difference between these two processors is the 260MHz clock frequency that favors the Core 2 Extreme X6800. As we found throughout the benchmarking phase, the Core 2 Extreme X6800 is not all that much faster than the Core 2 Duo E6700. It was certainly not $500 US faster, which does make one ask what the point of the Core 2 Extreme X6800 is. Obviously, this is just another overpriced Extreme Edition processor that fails to deliver. On a similar note, the Core 2 Duo E6700 is probably not the best option either, as the Core 2 Duo E6600 is almost identical with the exception of a 260MHz lower clock speed. Costing roughly $200 US less, the Core 2 Duo E6600 can be had for just $300 US, which given its potential performance is a bargain! The Core 2 Duo E6300 is said to cost just $180 US, though this processor comes clocked at just 1.86GHz and features a 2MB L2 Cache. I shall be interested to discover just how well these Core 2 Duo processors overclock. The Core 2 Duo E6300 has the potential to be very powerful should it overclock well. Unfortunately, given the short time frame I had to create this review and organize all the comparison systems, I was unable to include an AMD Athlon FX-62 system. This was disappointing as I would have really liked to have included this processor in the comparison. That said, I feel the Pentium 4 660, Pentium D 950 and Athlon64 3800+ (AM2) system will give readers a clear idea of where these new Intel processors stand. Intel has done a terrific job with their latest Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors, but I feel we have AMD to thank. Without the pressure from AMD these processors would not be available today. As we have witnessed several times in the past, competition is only a good thing for the computer industry and we have witnessed that once again here today. This year alone AMD has clawed its way into quite a lot of Intel market share with their highly successful Athlon64 processor series. Obviously Intel wants to stop AMD dead in their tracks and the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors are clearly the first stepping stone in doing so! Now that the Conroe architecture is here and we know what it has to offer, we must now wait and see what AMD answers with. This will determine just how quick Conroe based processors will become more affordable and which platform gamers will decide to go with. As of now, the Core 2 Duo E6600 looks to be the best value solution for gamers when paired with a high-end graphics card solution such as the Radeon X1900XTX. One thing is for sure and that is PC gaming has just become a whole lot more explosive! Reviewed By Steven Walton |
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