So, what do you do when you have a bunch of aging motherboards with 2006-era CPU's in them? Upgrade, of course! If you chipset supports the Intel 'Wolfdale' 45-nanometer process CPU's, the best choice is the E8XXX series. For the perforamance and the $20-ish buy-it-now prices on eBay, it hardly makes sense to upgrade to a new motherboard/memory/CPU just to get a Celeron or "Pentium" in the Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge family. Now, some will say, what about the Quad-Core 'Q' series? I say, for the heat and power consumption you'll add to your rig, then you *should* upgrade to newer stuff. But if your goal is to extend life of an aging computer, E8400-E8600 can't be beat. I have 2 computers used to stream Netflix and a 1080i digital cable signal through an HDHomerun box (look it up, it's neat!). The old Core2Duo's like the E6xxx series just choke on the 1080i digital signal. The E8400 is like glass. On the heat and power consumption, I literally could dial back the CPU fan to a whisper at the lowest settable RPM. I tried an the Pentium E6300 @ 2.8 (not the C2D e6300 @ 1.86 GHz - different CPU's), and even though it had the clock speed, it would crash with an aggressive high-RPM CPU fan speed. That's the beauty of the 45nm process with the monster 6GB of L2 cache. Stuff gets executed quickly, then the CPU quiets right back down. The design of the Core 2 Duo series of CPU's was derived from the original Pentium M - a notebook processor. That means they were designed to operate efficiently, not just fast. So more information is processed per GHz, especially compared to the Pentium 4 "Netburst" architecture. I also have some mid-level gaming rigs in a LAN setup, one with an nVidia 550ti, and another with a Radeon 6850. Playability was compromised with the original C2D stuff. when I put in the E8400's, playability immediately went up enough to get the most out of the gaming cards. People don't realize that a high-end gaming card with a budget computer compromises the performance of the gaming card. You need a decent CPU to support good playability from the cards. Again, I could upgrade for $$$ to Nehalem, Sandy, or Ivy Bridge, but with the E8400's, I can more than meet the minimum/recommended computer spec's on Steam and other services. Just leaving the expense of decent gaming cards. So, yeah, new stuff keeps coming out, and will continue to come out. Due to Intel keeping the same socket for so long, and smart manufacturers like ASUS, Biostar, Foxconn, and others allowing their motherboard products to work with some of the last-released 775 CPU's, the E8000 series really allow people to do a pretty decent performance upgrades without buying all-new stuff.Read full review
If you're looking for a Core2Duo Socket 775 processor, the E8400 and its higher speed and higher cost E8500 and E8600 siblings are a great blend of value and performance. Good speed, increased FSB and L2 Cache over the E7XXX series you see a lot in Dell OEM builds. If you have a socket 775 motherboard and your BIOS will support Core2Duo (check first, some older and early Socket 775 boards only supported processors up to Pentium-D dual core, though some can with a BIOS upgrade, so check first). An added plus is with the right motherboard, this CPU can easily be overclocked on air up to 3.6GHz and remain stable, with temps a decent HSF should be able to handle no sweat.
I bought one of these ages ago, when i put it in my computer, i was wrapped. Everything happened faster on the computer and the power savings were better too. Although there are faster CPU's in this range available now (not when i bought the first though) but at a greater cost, I settled with the 3GHz. It has not let me down yet, was a breeze to install especially if purchased with matching (intel) heatsink and fan as it comes with correct ready applied thermal paste. If I was to build another dual core based computer system I would purchase another for sure, and i would recommend the same to others, I would like to try the 3.3GHz variant but the larger price puts me off. To sum it up: Great all round CPU, good for basic tasks and great for Games (depends on other hardware also), also good for the environmentalist (lower heat output and power usage). Nice Intel.Read full review
If you have an older desktop pc that needs a boost, then this processor upgrade may do the trick. Just make sure your desktop motherboard supports this type of cpu and its' bios is up to date. One example, have a HP DX5800 with a Celeron cpu. Installed this upgrade and it made a world of difference. Runs Windows 7 and 10 just fine.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Great cheap upgrade for older Core 2 systems that accept Wolfdale CPUs. I get quite a few old systems which were built with slow E2000/4000/5000 series parts that an E8400 will breathe new life into. 50-100% speed increases are common and makes the machine much more usable.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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