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Review: Cheap overclocking miracle

Supplied by Genelec Tuzla
www.genelec.ba
Price:
154 KM - about €80 (without tax - VAT)
179 KM - about €90 (with tax - VAT)

Our brand new Bosnian lab tested the cheapest Intel processor based on Core 2 Duo architecture. This product should be interesting to our readers mostly because of its price/performance ratio, but also for its overclocking potential. At the time we received this processor its slightly weaker E2140 sibling was not available, i.e. they sell great over here, but the difference in price between this one and the one we tested isn’t that significant.

From a technical standpoint they’re not that different either. The tested model brings only 200MHz more compared to the cheapest E2140, while the specs are the same: 1MB L2 cache and 800MHz FSB.

To our surprise, the cheap C2D E2160 gave good performance on stock frequencies, and it was more than receptive when it comes to overclocking.

Core 2 Duo architecture brought about Intels market supremacy, but in the lower sector AMD x2 still seems like a good deal. By launching the new E21xx series the situation turned around, and the cheap AMD X2 processors finally have a worthy adversary.

Intel E2140 is currently priced at around €80, whereas the E2160 which we tested will cost you about €90. AMD is selling their Athlon 64 X2 processors for even less: an X2 3600 costs around €60 and X2 3800 is about €70. Bear in mind that an averagely equipped motherboard for AMD processors is generally cheaper than its Intel counterparts. 

So, as we’ve said earlier, E2160 is in the lower class and unlike its big brothers it has only 1MB of L2 cache, and works at 800MHz FSB. The model we’ve tested runs at 1800MHz, with x9.0 multiplier. Of course, we’re talking about a processor with two cores.