The clock speed of 3.16GHz also bears some attention as it means that Intel is using an unusual clock multiplier of 9.5x instead of a whole number such as 9x or 10x. You might not think it but SpeedStep is interesting as the E8500 will switch down in clock speed from 3.16GHz to a speed of 2.0GHz when the processing load is low, which should help to save energy and keep temperatures down. They both use the same LGA775 socket and have the same core technologies with support for SSE4.1 media extensions as well as EM64T 32-bit/64-bit technology and C1E/SpeedStep.

Wolfdale uses the 45nm Penryn fabrication process which gives Intel the space to shovel in 6MB of L2 cache but essentially the new processor is just a Conroe that runs on a 1,333MHz front side bus. This as yet unofficial CPU is rumoured soon and if logic is anything to go by, it is likely carry a clock speed of 2.83GHz. As always, it pays to shop around as we found prices varying by as much as £50 for a given model of processor but even without these savings they’re all great value CPUs.Īnd yes, we have noted that the E8300 model code is ‘missing’ from that short list. The rest of the E8000 family consists of the E8200, running at 2.66GHz and selling for £110, and the E8400, which has a clock speed of 3.00GHz and costs £130. Today we’re looking at a Core 2 Duo E8500, which is the fastest of the Wolfdales, with a clock speed of 3.16GHz, and has a street price of £182. Instead the more sensibly priced quad core Yorkfield E9000 series and dual core Wolfdale E8000 processors will do for most of us. These Extreme Edition processors are unlocked and carry an extreme price of more than £600 so no matter how fast they run, there’s few people we’d recommend buying them.

So here we are, hard on the heels of some devilishly fast Intel quad core processors that use Intel’s 45nm Penryn fabrication process, namely the Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme QX9650 and Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme QX9770.

There’s no denying that we love to play with the latest and greatest pieces of hardware at TrustedReviews but every so often we need to take a reality check to make sure that we’re reviewing the type of hardware that you actually buy.

Core 2 duo 2.4 ghz processor price