Introduction
When first released, Intel's Pentium 4 CPU was heavily
criticised for performing poorly in current applications. Intel
claimed that its 'NetBurst' architecture would allow the Pentium
4's clock speed to be increased to levels previously unheard of,
and thus performance would increase in time, but it has only been
in the last few months that Intel have completely taken the speed
crown back from AMD, with the release of the P4 2.53GHz proving
that AMD's fastest AthlonXP cpus could no longer keep up with
Intel.
Today I look at the next step in Intel's Pentium
4 line, the C1 core. The C1 core will allow Intel to increase
the clock speed of it's Pentium 4 line far above the older Northwood
core cpus, with a tiny increase in core voltage and a slight change
in the layout of the external components (see later). The C1 core
should be available in all flavours of P4 from 1.8GHz upward,
but for the moment, the only sure way of getting a C1 core cpu
is to get one of the following cpus; 2.50GHz, 2.60GHz, 2.66GHz,
or 2.80GHz. So, this review and overclocking test will concentrate
on the 2.66GHz part, which runs with a 20x multiplier and 133MHz
FSB (533 QDR).
The Pentium 4 box of course remains unchanged from
previous cpus, with only a chance of sticker stating 2.66GHz :).
The retail package comes with Intel's stock heatsink/fan, warranty,
and sticker. For the purposes of this review, I disgarded the
stock heatsink in favour of Thermaltake's Volcano 7+.
For those of you interested in numbers, the pack
date was the 23rd August, the stepping is SL6DX, and the chip
was made in Malaysia.
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