Intel continues to broaden its assortment of Core 2 processors and to soften the wait for its Core 2 Duo E6x50 series with a 1333MHz processor bus, there will be a new series of processors arriving next month. Core 2 Duo E6x20 is the name of the new, to begin with, budget series. Intel will launch two new models in this series, Core 2 Duo E6420 and E6320, while also launching a new low-end alternative in the form of Core 2 Duo E4400. The latter is nothing more than a Core 2 Duo E4300 with a higher multiplier (2.0GHz vs. 1.8GHz), but the two models of the E6x20 series are a lot more interesting in our opinion.
These models have the same clock frequency as their siblings, E6400 and E6300. Even the price is the same, but the E6x20 models have twice the L2 cache (4MB). In other words, it’s the Conroe core with lower clock frequencies; 1.86 & 2.13GHz. With a 4MB L2 cache there is nothing separating the E6x20 models from its higher clocked siblings more than the frequency and the price. Interesting alternatives for overclockers, simply because they won’t leave the frequencies alone anyway. At X-Bit Labs they’ve tested the new processors that are expected to appear in April.
“In conclusion I would like to say that Core 2 Duo processors have another very important advantage, which will be valued by hardware enthusiasts. All these CPUs feature pretty good overclocking potential. Even the slowest models can run at 3GHz speed with very little effort on the user’s part, which pushes their performance to the level of Core 2 Extreme and hence cannot be outpaced even by overclocked Athlon 64 X2 based platforms.”
