Late last year Intel unveiled the world’s first quad-core desktop processor, stealing a bit of thunder from the amazing Core 2 Duo range. For a whopping $999, the new Core 2 Extreme processor would become Intel's new flagship product.

Although the Core 2 Duo remained the best value choice for most desktop users, the technological achievement was nonetheless there as AMD had - and in a way still is - without a proper answer.

The new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor we are testing today is the first Core 2 product to hit the magical 3.0GHz marker, and it is doing it not with two but rather four cores (dual 4MB L2 cache). Also new for the Core microarchitecture is a bumped up front side bus which has been taken to 333MHz QDR (Quad Data Rate – 1333MHz), whereas previous Core 2 processors all used a 1066MHz FSB.

http://www.techspot.com/review/59-intel-core2-extreme-qx6850/

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Im just curious, how does Techspot get the money to buy all this great stuff to review?

And what happens to it after?

Intel sent this CPU for us to review at no charge :)

That awsome, but what happens to it after its been reviewed?

We cook eggs on it :)

']We cook eggs on it :)

:haha: AhahahA :haha:

Good to see Intel still moving up the hertz on the C2D's, but I'm not impressed with the results nor the price. Whats the the energy consumption and heat dissipation?

:haha: AhahahA :haha:

Good to see Intel still moving up the hertz on the C2D's, but I'm not impressed with the results nor the price. Whats the the energy consumption and heat dissipation?

Just out of curiosity, what exactly would it take to impress you?

The perfect chip:
Its free, it performs anything you ask of it in <1sec, consumes no power at all.

Oh yeah, its also infinitely overclockable.

In a rare oversight on your part, in seems you have forgotten the matching free mobile version and the $25.00 Instant rebate

I wonder if you caught my little joke about infinite overclockability.

Ok so what's the big deal about this thing really? Ok its 1333 fsb which is cool I guess. But can't you just take any of the other quads and put them to 1333 and get the same result. Plus doesn't the high fsb leave less room for overclocking, unless you buy one of those p35/p5k boards, that can be overclocked to 1900fsb+. I'm actually thinking about grabbing a p5k deluxe as we speak, but the cpu doesnt look to impressive comparing to what's alread on the market.

I wonder if you caught my little joke about infinite overclockability.

Is that anything like the "Infinite improbability drive"?

What no quad-FX? No bacon with those eggs. :mad:

... but I'm not impressed with the results nor the price. Whats the the energy consumption and heat dissipation?

Well the Thermal Design Power is 130w, though under load I estimate that is uses 13% more power than the QX6800 and about 62% more power than the Core 2 Duo E6700.

Mirob I can't tell you how much eggs suck without bacon and as cheap as bacon is becoming these days, I still cannot afford bacon just to have with my eggs.

If I was going to spend $999 on a processor this (http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20070719PD203.html) would be my Christmass present.

If I was going to spend $999 on a processor this (http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20070719PD203.html) would be my Christmass present.

First WTF is "Christmass"?
Should you consider using these as stocking stuffers for the rest of us, Intel would give you a much lower price on a thousand. Feliz Navidad! That would be a whole pinata full!

damn that's real nice, 6mb l2 cache, awesome. Not a huge performance boost though with that.

Is that anything like the "Infinite improbability drive"?

Well, can anything that powerful be made even more powerful?

Well, can anything that powerful be made even more powerful?

Certainly not with only four cores.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly would it take to impress you?

I was quite impressed by the C2D's when I first saw there performance against AMD's CPU's. But this Q6850 just doesn't impress me when it comes to performance/price ratio compared to other C2D's.

Ok so what's the big deal about this thing really? Ok its 1333 fsb which is cool I guess. But can't you just take any of the other quads and put them to 1333 and get the same result. Plus doesn't the high fsb leave less room for overclocking, unless you buy one of those p35/p5k boards, that can be overclocked to 1900fsb+. I'm actually thinking about grabbing a p5k deluxe as we speak, but the cpu doesnt look to impressive comparing to what's alread on the market.

Judging by what I've seen with the benchmarks from the Q6850, it doesn't seem like the higher FSB is playing much of a big part when it comes to performance. You are getting a 12%? performance increase which most of it is probably due to its being higher clocked (3GHz) speed. This isn't exactly showing high hopes for Penryn which a lot of people are craving over because of its 1333FSB.

I'm wondering if this new stuff will appear on Newegg's shelves in the overnight or remain legend for a time yet. Intel hasn't even updated their board/chipset compatibility charts for the 1333 FSB CPUs, or for that matter the new E4500 which is only 800Mhz FSB. Just a bunch of N/As next to where it tells you what board to use with the new processors. Sort of frustrating actually, Intel is saying the processors do/will exist but won't tell you what you can do with them. (Other than buy them eventually). I sort of don't do waiting real well, and have gotten used to the rhythm of "New Release Tuesday", which always seems to happen on Tuesdays. You go to bed Monday night, and when you get up, eat breakfast, and go to Blockbuster, lo and behold the new movies are on the shelf. Now there's tangible, immediate infantile gratification. Some of us are at least as rabid as Harry Potter fans. Shouldn't we be provided with the opportunity to dress up like Best Buy Geek Squad Reps, sleep next to our computers, mouse in hand, waiting for the product to drop?

Any nForce 600 series board or Intel P35 board will support the new 1333MHz FSB processors.

Backwards compatible to run in the 1066FSB boards? Obviously at the lower FSB speed. Or are all our 965/975 chipsets now obsolete?

most Asus boards have bios updates to support 1333, but the problem I see is that overclocking will be a pain. For instance my mobo can get 1420 fsb at most. Not a very good overclock, maybe 35% boost from the native settings. So if the bios updates come, will my board still only overclock to 1420. That would suck right? I'd get what? Maybe 5-10% boost.

The latest price for the Q6600 at Newegg is $375.00. This seems more than a little opportunistic, since 24 hours (or so) ago it was $299.95.

Prices don't seem to have bottomed out as much as expected yet but certainly the Q6600 seems to be the CPU to buy (unless you care for a few more MHz on a dual core processor, bah):
http://techspot.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=31693422/fd=1

Lot of games next year will work best with quads so its definately the best buy right now.

At this technology advancement rate, and impatient users with money to spend, do you think anyone would keep the same CPU for a year? There may be multithreaded games in the future, but the quad-core CPU prices are also going to be lower when the games are actually available.

Very true. I see quad cores being main stream in a year, and being dirt cheap. I dont recommend getting it if it doesnt mean anything to you as far as needing it.

If the Core 2 Duo's went from $299 to $99 (for some models), then yes, I see prices dropping for any new products as well :) .

I really haven't seen any price drops on this order of magnitude. In fact Newegg just "dropped" the Price of the Q6600 to $320.00 USD, now a mere $20.00 MORE than before the "price drops" were announced. The new 1333FSB CPU seem to be a better value clock for clock than the older C2ds, the prices of which haven't changed at all, (thus far).

Signed: Confused in the Colonies.

Very true. I see quad cores being main stream in a year, and being dirt cheap. I dont recommend getting it if it doesnt mean anything to you as far as needing it.
If I based my PC upgrades entirely and solely on what I needed I'd probably still be running XP on a much slower machine than I do now :)

I got this nagging feeling that you're buying the same chip, whether its one of those new 1066mhz processors, or 1333mhz processors. The only difference is probably the packaging.

If this is true, you're essentially getting exactly the same chip with its jumpers configured to run at a lower multiplier but higher FSB. Which means less value for consumers, since this limits overclocking, which I'm willing to bet that its what Intel wants.

Since everybody got wise to the clock speed scam, Intel probably jacked up the FSB speed to divert everybody's attention to a different clock speed paradigm.
Besides, Intel does the warranties, why wouldn't they want to limit overclocking. Then, if you want a faster processor you have to buy it, and the clock speed race is back on.

Can you see if a chip's been overclocked or not?

I swear, one of these days Intel/AMD is going to realise that the best way to sell their chips is to package the chip soldered on the motherboard, with no overclocking options. Probably have the graphics card soldered on as well. And the HDDs... And the RAM.... wait. Maybe not the RAM.

:D

Asus has one with the memory on it.
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1729&modelmenu=1
It will coat a fortune, and it's stuck with 2gig forever.

What I"m trying to find out, is which one of these boards allow the best overcl**** on a quad :)

I just read a review on that P5K3 Premium motherboard. That motherboard is just INSANELY expensive.

But yeah, I don't see why its not the way of the future. Maybe not for all computers, but I really can see all workstations having everything, including RAM, integrated.

so why is it so expensive again?

Probably has something to do with its insane cooling features.

Or maybe it has something to do with the on board features.

Possibly... Just possibly.... it has something to do with its on board 2Gb DDR3 RAM.

Lol. I saw that, who wants onboard ram though. I dont. I heard about its great cooling features, and all of those 30 board features. The onboard ram thing is what scares me mostly I guess.

I would have bought a motherboard with onboard PC6400 Cl5 DDR2 RAM, if it costs the same as me buying a motherboard and that same RAM. Having it onboard means it'll be faster, and I don't think I would need more than 2GB for quite awhile.

So wait, just to say. If there were 8800 onboard graphics it would be faster than an add on card. Or am I just getting to deep into a barrell I can't get out of?

Well, for you its a different story. You upgrade much more often than I do.

Bear in mind that before this Core2Duo, I was running a 478 system. And I've not upgraded my RAM ever. I upgraded my graphics card on that system for a whole of 3 months, before selling it off for a $50 loss after deciding that the money would be much better spent on a new system (and it was).