Introduction

Just over two years ago Intel started a comeback with the Core processors. A few months later, summer 2006 the Core 2 architecture was presented to the audience. A real hit as the Core 2 Duo chips were very fast. Although Intel didn't release a processor faster then 2.93 GHz, enthusiasts were able to push these processors to over 4 Ghz. And some lucky ones topped the 5 Ghz barrier.

The months after Intel continued improving their 65 nm architecture. More models (often budget minded) were released. And the Core 2 Quad series followed not that much later. But no big changes were made....

Some interesting Madshrimps reviews and overclocking articles of 65 nm processors:

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Overclocking with Air Cooling

Overclocking the Intel X6800 with Liquid Nitrogen (LN2)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 M0 Stepping CPU Review

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 vs E6300: Budget CPU Comparison

Intel Core 2 Performance, Overclocking, Power Usage Review

Battle of the Mobile CPUs: Core Duo vs Pentium M

Until winter 2007. The 45 nm manufacturing process was finally ready to be commercialized. The biggest advantages were more chips from a wafer (and thus cheaper processors) and also more energy efficient and thus less heat output. But we only saw one processor being released back then. The Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650. A very expensive chip (+/- 1000 euro), but the performance was better, and more interesting for us, overclockability also. Where a year before 4 GHz was a reasonable overclock with sub zero cooling, we now reached 5 Ghz. And the 6 GHz barrier was also broken.




Some interesting Madshrimps reviews and overclocking articles of 45 nm processors:

Mainstream Quad Core Processors Compared from AMD and Intel

Intel SkullTrail Super High End PC Platform Review

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 45nm Wolfdale CPU Review

Intel Core 2 on 45nm: Performance, Overclocking, Power Usage

Intel Xeon X3320 45nm Quad Core Overclocking Test

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 OC: AIR vs Phase vs LN2 Cooling

Intel Quad Core Q9300 Goes Subzero - OC Fun [OCTB]


At the same time Intel also announced a cheaper dual core series manufactured the 45 nm, the E8xxx series and Q9xxx for the quad series. They were very hard to find the first months but then finally, end Q1 2008, beginning Q2 2008 more and more chips became available. One record after another was broken...

And just as before Intel continued optimising their 45 nm architecture. We see now chips reaching 6.3 GHz and higher and also more budget friendly processors, such as the E7xxx series. Recently I bough the cheapest 45 nm processor I could find, the Intel Core 2 Duo E7200.

As there are already plenty of reviews on the internet, I decided to take this processor for a spin, overclocking wise. This is how it looked like before we pushed it beyond reference speeds....



Test platform

Test Setup
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53 GHz
Mainboard	Asus Commando
Memory	2 * 1024 Mb DDR2 PC7200 OCZ
Other	Seagate 7200.10 500 Gb SATA Nvidia Geforce 7100 Gs Zalman 1000 watt Power Supply

Let's put it all together. >>>