Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 - The New Budget Superstar?

[Rob Williams]

At 2.53GHz and $133 USD, the E7200 promises to become the new Dual-Core budget superstar. After taking a hard look at the upcoming offering, we would have to readily agree. Overclocking only sweetens the deal further, with 3.0GHz on stock voltages being more than possible. We have a winner!

You can read the full article right here and then discuss it here!

You seem to be pushing large overvoltages for a 45nm chip.
Quite a few sites are talking about CPU degradation and death when pushing over 1.35 volts
for Intel's new 45nm processors. Anyone here seen this phenomenon?

I am keeping my e8400 @ 1.20 till I can see a clear answer to this question.

Thanks for the review of the e7200, I'll be telling my friends about it.


kw

[Rob Williams]

You are right in that pushing too much voltage into anything over what it's designed to handle will decrease its lifespan, though I've never seen evidence of this first hand. I had an AMD 2.0GHz chip overclocked to 2.7GHz for over two years, and despite the extra voltage, it ran fine.

I have no theories to back this up, but I consider 1.4v to be the maximum safe voltage. Normal operating voltages are between 0.85v - 1.3625v, so I don't consider 1.40v to be risky business.

That said, anything over 1.4v, I'd personally stay away from unless simply trying to achieve a large overclock. My goal in these reviews is to stay as close to 1.4v and under as I can, and in this particular review, I didn't have to go over.

The Q9450 review I'm working on is a bit different though. Quad-Cores are harder to overclock, so they need more juice, so I have it at 1.475v at the moment, and might go over 1.50v for the simple sake of finding a max overclock.

In your E8400's case, don't worry about going up to 1.3625v, as that's within the CPU's spec and would be covered by warranty if something were to ever happen to it. But again, I've never heard of a story where a CPU has died early because of too much voltage (unless it was really extreme and the people overclocking it were just idiots or were trying to kill it on purpose).

[Kougar]

I've been told some people have killed 45nm chips on the XS forums (And knowing the XS forums, probably quite a few unfortunate 45nm chips went to a better place now), but I've not seen anyone kill one personally. In fact, I saw one insane person using 1.7v on it.... guaranteed it caused damage, but it still works for him. So far. Then again, Anandtech killed a Q9650 and put another on life support by using a 24/7 1.45VTT setting... so it isn't just the actual core voltage that can be a problem.

Personally, any voltage up to 1.45v should be fine if kept well cooled. Intel does not want you using anything over 1.36v as it voids the warranty. Just don't mess with the VTT settings...

Edit: Rob got here first I guess, said pretty much the same. The Anandtech blog link: http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=428

Will these chips be compatible with any of the older intel chipsets?

Thanks,

[Kougar]

Technically yes, they should work as long as the FSB speeds are compatible. However, I would still strongly suggest using nothing older than P31 or P35, although 965P should be okay.

The only problem is the older the chipset, the older the PWM voltage specs on the motherboard, so potential issues could arise. With Quads it can be a real problem, but for dualies they can probably get by if you don't wish to overclock them.

[THUMPer]

Rob you made the Inquirer

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...bble-21apr2008

[Rob Williams]

This review has been getting a ton of traffic... I'm rather impressed. It was linked from a lot of popular French tech sites also, which helps out a great deal. I'm definitely pleased :-)

[firepong]

Just wanted to say, it was a grand review. After seeing it, I will probably have no regret buying it lol. And by this here is the link to it. Don't know if it was just added or what, so...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...5052&Tpk=e7200

They are the cheaper place to go by a $5 difference :P

[Rob Williams]

Glad the review helped!

Coincidentally, I just noticed the release also. I posted about it in our news. I very well doubt you will regret that purchase... it's a fantastic price and a great processor. I'm thinking of picking one up to replace my mom's aging Pentium D 2.8GHz. Hard to believe that the same processor was kick-ass just two years ago, but would be murdered by this E7200.

[firepong]

Well, I just bought one from Newegg, will probably be the best $138 I'll ever spend (got rush processing so that it will hopefully be here by Monday).

Wanted to know a couple things. Does the retail boxed units come with a CPU Cooler (usually, I only get OEM as their cheaper, but couldn't find one for thus CPU)? If so, would that be sufficient enough to cool the processor if it was overclocked to 3.0ghz like in the review?

[Rob Williams]

The retail ones do indeed come with a cooler. It's the OEM versions that do not. And yes, it should be just fine for 3.0GHz on a stock cooler, since no extra voltage is required.

Once you get it, just overclock to 3.0GHz and set the CPU voltage to 1.250v and see how that goes. Are you familiar with stress testing? You should do a little bit of that and just monitor the temps to make sure it's all in check. It's been a while since I've touched an Intel heatsink, so I am not sure how effective they are. What I do know, is that if it works at stock speeds, then bumping it up to 3.0GHz shouldn't be a problem since the voltage is the same.

[firepong]

Yeah, I'm familiar with stress testing. I haven't done it in forever though as I haven't had a desktop in years (been using laptops while in college :P). But it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, if I was willing to try and go higher than 3.0ghz and keep it stable, think it would be wise that I get a aftermarket cooler just in case, or try the one that came with it and see how it does?

Also, forgot to ask, does it come with the paste as well or would i have to go to the local Circuit City and buy a tube of it?

P.S. This is my first time with an Intel processor as my last build 2 years ago was a AMD. I'm sure it will be a big change :P

Also, I don't want to spend much on a video card, so would a Radeon x1950 Pro 256meg do fine? I heard that their new drivers make it compare reasonably to a Nvidia cards drivers?

[Kougar]

Intel's stock cooler will come with paste pre applied. If you ever reinstall the cooler however, you will need more.

Intel's CPU coolers are getting smaller and smaller, so I am not as sure 3GHz will be a safe idea on them... just keep an eye on your core temps. The E7200 cooler should be almost 1/3rd the size of the cooler Intel shipped with the Q6600, and Intel's coolers frankly are a waste of metal to begin with.

Radeon x1950 is a very old card, tell us what is your price range looking like for the GPU and we can suggest something newer.

[firepong]

ATM, all I'm looking for is something that can play some of the recent FPS games decently. Mostly COD4 and the new Rainbow Six Vegas 2 game.

I read that the x1950 will play COD4 great, but I don't know about Vegas 2.

As for the price range, probably somewhere around $100 maybe? I know that can get me nothing better then a budget card, but I don't play the GPU intensive games...Hell, even my bros old Radeon x300 with 128megs of ram plays COD4 on medium settings at 25FPS(at the cost of screen size, which has to be 800x600) most of the time unless theres smoke, then it falls drastically.

What would you suggest?