The Verdict

Well the conclusion does not need a lot of words I guess. Obviously it is crazy to see how well the Core 2 Duo processors perform. My favorite one has to be the E6600 as for roughly 320-350 USD you'll receive an amount of performance in your PC that is just really breathtaking. It'll beat the 899 USD costing Athlon FX-62 in many ways by a very good margin.

If you are buying a PC now or in the near future, fact is that you can't really miss an opportunity like the Conroe based processor. I'd really like to recommend that you step in at the 320 USD E6600 or higher. Also overclocking, I didn't have time to go in-depth here but our E6600 processor was able to run at 3 GHz on passive water-cooling. The E6700 would go towards roughly 3400 MHz and the Core 2 Extreme processor halted also at 3.4 GHz. With better cooling, you can rest assured that you can clock even faster, users have reported overclocks up-to almost 4 GHz. You just can't lose with this processor!

Fact is that Conroe processors are forcing the entire processor market to shift. AMD dramatically had to lower it's prices to be able to remain competitive and meanwhile we the consumers are laughing as this Core 2 Duo processor was exactly what we needed. It's been a while but Intel is back and there's just not one negative point about Core 2 Duo other then availability, which we hope Intel will resolve soon.

It's simple .. AMD had the crown for a long time, but with the introduction of Conroe things have changed. The fastest processors can be bought from Intel right now, and there's no way anyone can deny that.

What's next ? Quad Core CPU's people .. AMD will launch K8L at the end of the year, and they'll also release 4X4 which allows you to put two dual-core processors on one mainboard. But hey .. Intel has the lead right now and rest assured that they plan to keep it .. they have already shown working versions of their Quad-core Kentsfield processor.