Processors: Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 and E6700 (Supplied by Intel) Memory: 2x 1GB DDR2-1066 Corsair Hard Disk: Seagate 7200.9 500GB SATA (Supplied by Seagate) Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 7800GT Motherboard: Gigabyte P965-DQ6 (Supplied by Gigabyte) Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 Drivers: Intel INF 8.1.1.1001, nVidia ForceWare 91.31 and DX9c
Here we are going to test the Core 2 Duo E6700 and Core 2 Extreme to their maximum possible overclocking potential using an air cooling solution provided by Gigabyte. We are using the Neon 775 from Gigabyte; however, we have placed a larger and quieter fan onboard as we didn’t want the PRM system to run, hence controlling the fan speeds. We wanted the fan to spin at 100% all of the time to prevent premature heating of the heatsink.
We have used the Gigabyte P965-DQ6 motherboard which is based on Intel’s P965 chipset – it ranked extremely well in our review when it comes to overclocking (and other aspects), so we decided to use this motherboard for this article.
In our testing we managed to hit with our Core 2 Duo E6700 a maximum speed of 3.37GHz with a 10x multiplier and a FSB of 337MHz with DRAM at 1:1.
Our Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor managed a little better with a speed hitting 3.61GHz using an 11x multiplier and a FSB of 329MHz with DRAM at 1:1.
In our results was have five charts – the processors running at stock speeds, running at their maximum overclocked speed and we have the Core 2 Extreme clocked at 3.37GHz using the same 10x 337Mhz FSB as the Core 2 Duo to show the difference (if any) in the processors at the same clock speeds.
Temperatures you may be wondering about. We are happy to report that the Core 2 Duo at its maximum speed sat at 47 degrees C at idle and topped out at 56 degrees C at full load. Core 2 Extreme sat at 49 degrees C idle and topped out at 59 degrees C under load.
With both processors we raised the core voltages; we set both processors at 1.475v. Settings above this simply aren’t advisable on air. Later we might look into extreme cooling with voltage mods but this is a look at what you can expect from overclocking a machine for the average Joe, which is the aim of our article today.
