E6550 "G0" testing 3.6GHz w/ 1.29Vcore, 3.8GHz w/ 1.35Vcore Low Volts, High Clocks!
Well, the G0 steps are upon us, and testing shows that people will be happy.
I've been playing with G0 E6850 and E6550. While the E6850 is the high-horsepower champ, easily able to do 4.2GHz on air, it takes some voltage to get it there.
The chip that has proved to be just as interesting, and bit easier on your electric bill is the E6550.
The E6550 has a factory multiplier of 7, so people without ideally a P35/965 motherboard should not get as excited. 500MHz plus is almost mandatory to have fun with this chip :)
~516MHz will put you at about 3.6 with less than 1.3vcore with early testing. On my P35-DQ6, I was able to fly past 550MHz FSB. Both boards BIOS's (F4 for gigabyte, and 0311 for P5K Deluxe) fully support the new processors.
Update: now hitting 3702MHz and climbing on 1.29 vcore :)
Update2: 3702 required 1.31
Update3: 3800 now testing at 1.33vcore (still set in BIOS)
Update4: 3800MHz fully stable at 1.35vcore (set in bios)
I should also note that no extra voltage has been supplied mobo, all mobo voltages except CPU and RAM are set to "normal". It is absolutely amazing that the P35-DQ6 can handle 543MHz FSB and climbing without a problem :)
Update5:
CPU's have very defined FSB wall. Regardless of mobo voltage, or CPU voltage, I hit a VERY hard FSB wall. Each CPU has different wall; I had one as low as 485. The rest hit between 540-550.
Test setup:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Step "G0"
Thermalright Ultra 120 EXTREME heatsink
Gigabyte P35-DQ6 (no mods, F4 BIOS, retail board)
Crucial Ballistix 8500's
Nvidia 8800GTX
Zippy 700W PSU
INSIDE CASE: Antec 900, case fans all on "low"
