E7200 Core 2 Duo

[Marylouise Colleen]

The45nm Intel Core 2 processors have been a godsend to overclocking enthusiasts. Many of these CPUs are providing big time overclocks that can be used day in and day out to increase your gaming performance or just your general computing tasks. The recently released E8600 has been breaking overclocking records left and right, currently the highest I have seen is just over 6.5GHz; of course, that's under some extreme cooling provided by liquid nitrogen. Having looked at a series of dual core as well as quad core CPUs that include the E8400 and E8500 and have seen the quads from the lowly Q9300 to the mainstream Q9450 all the way to the top of heap with the QX9770, you have to wonder if the E7200 can keep up the tradition of high performance as well as offering massive overclocking ability.

In addition, we saw how the E8400 did in our gaming tests when compared to the quad core CPUs, so my expectation is that the E7200 will follow in its footsteps even if it takes a good overclock to do it considering the lack of L2 cache and lower 2.53GHz clock speed. Let's see just what the E7200 has to offer the performance enthusiast. Will it be just a lower performing dual core or will it show some real muscle?

The E7200 comes to OCC dressed in the standard Intel retail packaging. The front panel identifies this CPU as a 45nm Intel Core 2 DUo product with 3MB of shared L2 cache. The rear panel offers up warranty information, basic specifications and a motherboard compatibility warning. The cooling solution can be seen through the center of the rear panel and contains a serial number that you will need if you ever do need to use the warranty. So hold on to the stock cooling solution.

The top panel of the retail box shows the E7200. This way you can verify what you are purchasing. Another bonus for the overclocker is to look at the stepping and specific codes on the IHS that may indicate where on the wafer that little bit of silcon comes from. The side panel offers much of the same information and includes a packing date for the product. If steppings and pack dates don't really mean much, it's time to move on.

Once pulled from the box, the inner plastic shell holds the E7200, the heatsink and the information and installation booklet. The CPU is kept away from the heatsink by several different layers of plastic to make sure that there will be no contact during shipping.

The stock heatsink is much slimmer than the heatsink used on the Core 2 Duo 65nm CPUs. The lower voltage used to run the 45nm CPUs make the reduction in size possible. This CPU will run on 1.075 volts, significantly lower than the 1.275 to 1.325 or higher seen on the 65nm CPUs. The fan on the heatsink is controlled dynamically by the motherboard when all of the energy saving features on the motherboard are used. It can be pushed to a constant 100% fan speed if needed though just by adjusting a few settings in the BIOS. The heatsink comes with a pre applied thermal compound that, when compressed, spreads out nicely to make sure there are no gaps in the thermal compound that could lead to overheating.

The E7200 is a 45nm CPU the runs at a clock speed of 266MHz (1066MHz QDR) with a clock multiplier of 9.5 to give a final clock speed of 2.53GHz. The CPU uses 3MB of shared L2 cache and is designed to be used in an LGA775 socket based motherboard. This chip comes with two different spec codes, SLAVN and SLAPC. Both are MO stepping chips rated at 65watts with a thermal design spec of 74.1 degrees Celsius.

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!

With its unique 9.5x multiplier, the E7200 hits a stock clock frequency of 2.53GHz and includes 3 MB of L2 cache, 1.5 MB per core. This is unlike the mid-range Dual-Cores, such as the E8400, which includes 6 MB of L2 cache. Whether or not that decrease will affect performance is something our benchmarks will help explain.

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

Regardless of the processor the Asus GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card produces roughly the same result in 3Dmark Vantage. The CPU scores, however, were quite different with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 delivering the best result. In the grand scheme of things, the Core 2 Duo E7200 does quite poorly here, producing the lowest score of the 9 processors tested. That said, the E7200 is just one of two dual-core processors tested, the other being the 3.0GHz E8400 (mind the triple-core Phenoms).

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We've improved our score validation checks. You must now use 3DMark v2.21.7324 or later to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. 3DMark scores from older versions submitted after December 10, 2021 will no longer appear in benchmark search results.

We've improved our score validation checks. New 3DMark scores submitted after February 5, 2018 must use >3DMark v2.4.4254 or later and SystemInfo 5.4 or later. SystemInfo hardware monitoring must also be turned on for the benchmark run. You can find this setting on the 3DMark options screen.

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