Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Review

ajmatson - March 2, 2008
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Testing:

I am going to put the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 through a series of benchmarks and video tests to see how well it performs at stock and overclocked speeds. It will be matched against Intel's E6750 Core 2 Duo chip and I will also compare it to AMD's Phenom 9600 Black Box and Intel's Q6600 Quad Core to see how it stacks up to those popular chips. The E8500 will be tested at manufacturer's specifications for the stock baseline tests and then overclocked to get the highest attainable and stable speed. All other hardware will remain at setup defaults to eliminate any variables that might throw off the scores with the exception of the memory to aid in the overclocking of the E8500.

Testing Setup:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 333 x 9.5
Motherboard: Gigabyte X38-DS4 w/Bios version F2
Memory: OCZ Platinum Edition PC2-8000 5-5-5-18 2 x 2GB
Video Card: Asus 8800 GT 512MB Forceware 169.25
Power Supply: Ultra X2 750w Extreme Edition
Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 320GB SATA
Opticals: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
O/S: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Comparison CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Comparison CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Comparison System:

Processor:AMD Phenom 9600 Black Box
Motherboard: Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe
Memory: OCZ Platinum Edition PC2-8000 5-5-5-18 2 x 2GB
Video Card(s): Asus 8800 GT 512MB Forceware 169.25
Power Supply: Ultra X2 750w Extreme Edition
Hard Drive: Seagate 320GB SATA
Opticals: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
O/S: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

Overclocking:

Overclocked settings:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Sytem Memory: OCZ PE 910MHz 5-6-6-17

Overclocking this chip has been a pure pleasure. When paired with the X38 chipset, the potential could be far out there with the correct cooling setup. I started at 400 x 9 and 1.35v and the system booted so flawlessly that I knew that it was thirsty for more. So I jumped the multiplier to 9.5 and kept raising the FSB by 15MHz while keeping the voltage the same until it would not boot. Then I upped the voltage and started again. In the end I was able to push the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 chip to 4.322GHz before the temps got high enough to make me not want to take the chance. I ended up with the E8500 at 455FSB x 9.5 multiplier for the speed I obtained with a voltage increase to 1.45v. At 4.322GHz I was able to complete SuperPI, Orthos Prime and all of the benchmarks with no problems at all.