VR Features

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Preview

Testing QX6700

Written by Shamino and filed under Reviews > Processors
Published on October 2, 2006, 5:35 am

Source: Intel
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Come November, Intel will officially launch their Quad-Core processors based on the Kentsfield core. They are essentially based on the Core Architecture that is gaining popularity and recognition these few months through the Intel Core 2 Duo Processors. Simply put, the Kentsfield CPU is putting 2 of the Core 2 Duo cores onto a single processor, giving an effective of 4 independant Cores. Hence the offical name of Core 2 Quad.

The Engineering Sample is Made in Malaysia, week 33 of 2006

Since the Core 2 Duo spot a 4MB of shared L2 Cache between the dual cores, the Core 2 Quad naturally spots a double serving, 8MB of L2 Cache- 4MB shared between 2 cores each! November is just one month away so it's ripe timing for us to do a preview on this upcoming luxury. Our main test setup will be run on the Intel D975XBX Motherboard while we await a proper D975XBX2 media sample for further testing. Meanwhile, you can take a sneak preview with us at the D975XBX2 "Bad Axe 2" right here.

 

I used a Scythe Ninja Tower Cooler fitted with a silent Noctua 120mm 1.2K RPM Fan for cooling.

 

Platform Test Setup

CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 2.66GHz

Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 2.93GHz

Motherboard

Intel D975XBX (i975x Chipset, BIOS 1378)

Memory

2 x 1GB GSKill F28000 2GBHZ DDR2 Memory set at CL4-4-4-5 DDR2 800

Graphics Card

ASUS ATi X1900XTX

Power Supply

Silverstone Zeus ST56ZF

Optical Storage

ASUS 16x DVD Rom

Hard Disk

Seagate 80GB Barracuda SATA + Seagate 80GB Barracuda PATA

Operating System

Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista RC1 (v5600-16384) for X86

Above, you see the QX6700 side by side with the X6800