Intel Core 2 Duo E6300

Author:  Jason Dumbaugh Date:  2007.06.27 Topic:  Processors Provider:  TechwareLabs Manufacturer:  Intel

With today's vast market of processors, most people tend to aim for processors rated at a high GHz speed. A 1.86GHz processor couldn't be nearly as good as a part rated at 2.4GHz right?? Wrong. Intel's Core 2 Duo E6300 may only be 1.86 GHz, but it is one of the easiest processors to overclock, and at the end of the review, that's just what we'll do. Read our Guide showing how we used the components in this review to overclock this processor big time!

Specifications:

Comparison of E6300 with other Intel Core 2 Duo's:

The E6300 sits at the bottom of the 1066MHz line in the Intel Core 2 Duo family at just under $200. This makes it the ideal choice for many budget minded consumers who want performance at a price they can live with. The double benefit for the enthusiast is the ease with which this processor overclocks to a stable much faster speed and consequently much more performance.

If you're not familiar with Dual Core processors in general, the task manager even shows up having two separate cores:

Single Core Task Manager	Dual Core Task Manager

System Specifications:

Motherboard: EVGA 650i ULTRA socket LGA 775   
RAM: Super Talent DDR2-1000 PC8000 T1000UX2G5 2GB kit    
- operates at a max of 500MHz (1000/2)
- rated 2.2V    
- heatsink surrounds RAM for cooling  
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300    
- rated 1.86GHz    
- max voltage: 1.3525    
- idles at 35C, ~48-53C under load    
Video Card: ATI X550 256MB cache
Heatsink: Scythe Ninja
PSU: XG Vortec 600W
HDD: 250GB Seagate perp. record. 3GB/s transfer rate
System Cooling: 3 x 120mm fans

SiSoft Sandra before/after overclocking:

Processor Arithmetic: before overclocking

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-62 2.8GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-60 2.6GHz

Processor Arithmetic: after overclocking

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-62 2.8GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-60 2.6GHz

Processor Multimedia: before overclocking

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-62 2.8GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-60 2.6GHz

Processor Multimedia: after overclocking

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-62 2.8GHz
AMD Athlon FX2-60 2.6GHz

Memory Latency: before overclock

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz
AMD Opteron 270 DC 2GHz
Intel Core Duo T2700 2.5GHz
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.2GHz

Memory Latency: after overclock

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz
AMD Opteron 270 DC 2GHz
Intel Core Duo T2700 2.5GHz
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.2GHz

As you can see, The overclock produced drastic results for the Processor Arithmetic and Multimedia benchmark, but only increased slightly for the Memory Latency benchmark. This is due to the already tight timings of the Super Talent DDR2-1000 PC8000 T1000UX2G5 2GB kit . What you will notice is that the memory bandwidth increases significantly at higher clock speeds.

Overclocking:

The E6300 blew me away from raising the FSB clock from 1066 up to a whopping 2140. By only increasing the voltage from 1.28 to 1.325, I increased the speed from 1.86GHz to 3.21GHz. It idles at 35C, and 48-53C under load. Visit my overclocking tutorial for each step taken to achieve this overclock. My motherboard excessively overclocked due to a motherboard program. CPUz shows the theoretical overclock, and Windows shows the actual overclock.

E6300 CPU-Z before overclock	E6300 CPU-Z after overclock

If you liked the performance of the E6300 and want to try purchasing and overclocking one for yourself, TechwareLabs has made it easy to find the best prices with our links shown at the top of this review. We can't find a better budget processor with such overclocking headroom than the Intel E6300 so we are happy to award it our Recommended Product Award.