intel 13

Before its official introduction on the 27th of July the new architecture by Intel, the Conroe, has developed a real hype with hardware enthusiasts all over the internet. More and more benchmarks got leaked onto the web, and it became imminent that the new Intel processor would regain the performance crown.

The reason why this new architecture is so successful is mainly that it is a completely new architecture, Intel seems to have said their farewells to the Netburst architecture, for a complete overview of the new architecture please read this {link} article. The new architecture not only makes the Conroe fast, it also makes it a lot more energy efficient, the new Core 2 Duo’s have a TDP of only 65 Watts, the Core 2 Extreme 95 Watts.

Models

The Core 2 Duo is a new processor, but on the other hand it is not. Just like the Pentium D and Pentium 4 processors its uses the LGA 775 socket, however not all 775 motherboards are compatible with the new processor. Only motherboards with a 975x chipset or a 965 chipset are suitable for the Conroe. The new processor comes in two varieties, the “normal” Core 2 Duo, and the Core 2 Extreme, a successor to the XE series, and mainly aimed at power users, gamers and overclockers. The Extreme version has a higher clock speed, and an unlocked multiplier, which means that overclockers can experiment freely with speeds.