Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 OC: AIR vs Phase vs LN2 Cooling

Overclocking/Overclocking Tests by Blind @ 2008-05-20

The Intel E8500 is the highest end dual core CPU currently on the market, it doesn´t get any faster than this… or does it? In this Overclocking report we take a retail E8500 sample for a spin with high end air cooling, than mount a modified phase change cooling on it, and to finish it off pour a few liters of LN2 over it. How high can it fly? How fast does it get? Find out now.

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Overclocking results

Results

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Let's have a look at the improvement in performance when overclocking. Below you find the bar charts to visualize the performance gain. For test details, please have a look at the screenshots under the bar charts.

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Detailed results

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PiFast: 17.88
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SuperPi 1M: 8.250


Evaluation

Following are some thoughts about the E8500 retail that I've been using for a few weeks now.

  • If you're not into videorendering or other multithreaded applications, this CPU will do just fine, no need for a quad-core.
  • If you've got a good sample, you'll be able to overclock very high on air cooling and low voltage. I've almost hit 5GHz with a plain air cooler (1.6v, though)!
  • If you have the right motherboard and bios combination, you have a bloody fast benching system.
  • I'd recommend an Asus Commando P965 or Dfi LP UT P35-T2R motherboard to overclock these processors. If you're already into DDR3, I'd use a 790i chipset, if you want to run at a high FSB.
  • With the right bios, the Abit IP35-Pro is pretty fast, especially in SuperPi 1M, however, for overclocking to the limits, this board doesn't let you use a high FSB.
  • It's a lot of fun to play with!

    Madshrimps (c)


    I hope you enjoyed reading this OC report, until next time, click the banner below to read up on our previous overclocking endeavors:

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