Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

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CNET Editors' Review

Intel's Core 2 Duo line marks the end of AMD's run of dominance through the dual-core desktop-processor landscape. Not only are Intel's new chips fast, efficient, and well designed, but they're also aggressively priced and sure to send ripples though the desktop PC industry. If you are buying or building a new computer, we recommend that a Core 2 Duo chip be at its center.

Review: You will need to excuse Intel if it's seen gloating over its new Core 2 Duo processors. Ever since dual-core desktop processors arrived on the scene last year, Intel has taken a backseat to rival AMD. Our own tests proved it, and it wasn't hard to find other Web sites reporting the same thing: the Athlon 64 X2 chips were clearly superior to Intel's Pentium D 800- and 900-series chips. Well, AMD's dominating run has come to a screeching halt with today's release of the Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

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You will need to excuse Intel if it's seen gloating over its new Core 2 Duo processors. Ever since dual-core desktop processors arrived on the scene last year, Intel has taken a backseat to rival AMD. Our own tests proved it, and it wasn't hard to find other Web sites reporting the same thing: the Athlon 64 X2 chips were clearly superior to Intel's Pentium D 800- and 900-series chips. Well, AMD's dominating run has come to a screeching halt with today's release of the Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

We've tested the top two chips, the 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the 2.67GHz Core 2 Duo E6700, and were blown away by the performance they turned in. Rounding out the line are the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 ($316), the 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo E6400 ($224), and the 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo E6200 ($183). Like the top two chips, the E6600 features 4MB of unified L2 cache; the bottom two chips serve up a single 2MB block. All five chips feature a 1,066MHz frontside bus and operate on the Socket LGA775 interface.

The $530 Core 2 Duo E6700 looks especially sweet; it won our Editors' Choice award for delivering near the performance of the $999 Extreme X6800 for roughly half the cost. Compared to AMD's Athlon 64 FX-62, the Core 2 Duo E6700 turned in better or near equal results on all of CNET Labs' benchmarks. AMD price cuts are expected soon (we'll update this page accordingly once they are announced), but for now, the E6700 offers the best price-performance ratio of any desktop chip on the market.

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Intel Core 2 Duo E6700

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  • Editor's rating: 4.5 out of 5

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User Reviews

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Average User Rating

4.5 stars out of 7 user reviews

Rating Breakdown

  • 5 star: 8
  • 4 star: 0
  • 3 star: 0
  • 2 star: 0
  • 1 star: 0

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4.5 stars

"simple OC to 3ghz" By ramarc

Pros: fast at 3ghz

Cons: cons? no cons.

Summary: when i got this nov '07 it was $150 cheaper than the e6850. popped it in a p35 board, set fsb to 1333mhz and viola -- e6750 with no fussing or tweaking!

4.5 stars

"great processor" By climbamtn

Pros: if you want to use a pc as a server

Cons: faster running windows xp then vista

Summary: so first off i love this pc it is my media center and media hub in an active house where we all are constantly accessing it. my last server would slow and often freeze while recording 2 tv shows and burning cd's or rendering and anything else. this new ... Expand full review

Specifications

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Quick Specs

  • Product Type: Processor
  • Processor Type: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

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