Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / 2.4 GHz processor

Advantages: Blistering performance. Good overclocker. 64-bit processing.
Disadvantages: Pricey. Heat sink and fan is a little strange.

...say that I bought an Intel 975X chipset motherboard, 2GB of RAM, and a middle-of-the-road graphics card. When the system arrived, I built everything else, and arrived at the installation of the CPU. The processor has no pins on it's underside - that was the first thing that I found strange. Instead, it has a matrix of copper pads, which touch the pins sticking up from the 'socket' on the motherboard. It was easy to determine which way the processor ...
...the processor retainer. Once the processor was in though, I attempted to fit the heat sink and fan. It was a strange process. It all fitted together OK...it's just the 'feel' of it that I didn't like. Basically, the heat sink fits onto the socket using four corner pins.Once these are in place, it's a case of pressing each one until it clicks. The pressure required is worryingly hard...but despite my worst fears, everything engaged correctly, and ... Read review

Advantages: High overclocking margin, runs cool, good value
Disadvantages: If you give it too much VCore, performance degrades

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Boxed processor is my first try at the world of dual-core (and eventually multi-core) processing. After building my computer consisting of the Intel processor, EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard and EVGA 8800 GTX graphics card, topped up with 2 GB of Corsair XMS2 8500 RAM, I was ready to make another attempt at overclocking. Immediately after purchasing the CPU, I bought a cheap heatpipe fan solution, which didn't keep the ...
...painful though, since the standard Intel design for the fan clips needs some thinking when mounting them. If you are trying to upgrade from single to multi-core, make sure that you have your Windows installation at hand, since you need to reinstall Windows with the new hardware to detect SMP (otherwise it will only show one core in the task manager). ... Read review

Advantages: Low power consumption, no heating issues, great speed, one of the best out there
Disadvantages: None! It's so good! :)

...my purchase :) My old Intel processor had trouble coping with the heat and I couldn't play games when the weather was hot so I went and looked for a new processor and I came across this one. As soon as I has installed it I was very happy and had no heating issues whatsoever since then. This is one of the finest processors on the market today, only the higher end/way more expensive Core 2 Duo's actually beat this, and they are all worth over double ... Read review

though intel's products cost a little more than amd, there compatability is better than amd so the chance is you wont have to change your motherboard and potentially other stuff in order to upgrade in the future, being intel has also brought out a quad core processor if you wanted to get that when it comes a little down in price then that will be able to put that onto the motherboard you alwready have with this intel chip.

Advantages: speed quiet operation
Disadvantages: none so far

Having been an Intel user since i started building pc's in 1991 I have watched them go from the pentium range to the now undoubted king of chips the core 2 duo. I built a new pc around this chip in november last year and was amazed at the differnce in speed when recoding video it just blows the competition out the water. Installation this is a bit differnt from the usual build as it is a pinless chip but you are left in no doubt as to how it fits, ...
...Also it uses the intel engine for controlling the fan speed which when you first switch it on can be a bit disconcerting as it seems to go on/off on/off. But that is how it operates as this chip runs at considerably lower voltage it thereby produces less heat to dissapate thereby the fan only runs when it is under heavy usage. this in turn makes it a very quiet in operation. The main rival to this chip would be some of the athlon 64 2 core chips ... Read review