Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

For testing out the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 we had used Ubuntu 8.04 LTS with the Linux 2.6.24 kernel, X Server 1.4.1 pre-release, and GCC 4.2. Everything with this processor had functioned as expected under Linux -- including Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology -- and we had ran into no problems (unlike the Linux issues we experienced when the AMD Phenom first came out). The motherboard we had used the ASUS P5E3 Premium, which uses Intel's X38 Chipset.

The other hardware we used during testing included 4GB (2 x 2GB) of OCZ DDR3-1333 memory, SilverStone Zeus ST75ZF power supply, NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB graphics card, and Seagate 160GB Serial ATA 2.0 hard drive. Looking at the Linux performance of the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 we had used a Core 2 Duo "Conroe" E6400 for comparison.

To recap, the Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 has 2MB of L2 cache per core, is built using a 65nm manufacturing process, has a default operating frequency of 2.13GHz, runs on a 1066MHz bus, and has Intel Virtualization Technology but lacks support for the Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) found on the E8000 series. For a fair comparison of the Conroe and Wolfdale cores, we had run the E6400 at its stock frequency and once again, when it was overclocked to 3.00GHz.