Hands on: Overclocking a Core 2 Duo

Core 2 Duo results
After waiting for the Pentium 4 to cool I swapped it for the Core 2 Duo E6700 and re-ran the tests. Clocked normally at 2.26GHz, it scored 335 in Sysmark.

I was feeling lucky, so I increased the standard external bus from 266MHz to 300MHz. The Core 2 Duo started fine, and clocked at 3GHz it scored 353 in Sysmark. I then edged the bus speed up 10MHz at a time.

With a bus of 310MHz, the CPU was running at 3.1GHz and scored 362. Then to 320MHz where it was clocked at 3.2GHz and scored 369.

Next up, 330MHz, a clock of 3.3GHz and a score of 379, then 340MHz with a clock of 3.4GHz and score of 387. I was wondering when it would refuse to go any further, but got my answer at 350MHz where the system booted at 3.5GHz, but refused to run any benchmarks reliably.

This is still a great result: my Core 2 Duo E6700 managed to overclock from 2.66GHz to 3.4GHz without complaint, nor any need for additional voltage or liquid cooling.

Clearly even the fastest Core 2 Duo has plenty of headroom for overclocking. To get the most from it though, you’ll need other components that can keep up. In that respect, the Crucial Ballistix memory and Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard come highly recommended.