Legit Processor Reviews

Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review

Manufacturer: Intel
Product: i3 661
Date: Sun, Jan 03, 2010 - 09:00 PM
Written By: Brian Wallace -
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Overclocking & Power Consumption

Since the introduction of the Core 2 Duo, Intel processor have been known for reaching some great overclocks. Upping the speed by 1GHz or more is not uncommon. With the shrink to 32nm, we were excited to see how far we could crank the CPU speed up with reasonable voltage.

Intel Clarkdale

For overclocking we decided to use the recently reviewed ASUS P7P55D Premium to see how far we could push this new CPU.

 

Intel Clarkdale

After adding in 1.4v to the CPU and 1.2 to the memory controller, we were able to reach a max stable BCLK of 191. We also made use of the ASUS Turbo V software to automate the overclock, and even with 1.4v CPU and 1.4v to the memory controller, we saw lockups passing BCLK of 193.

Intel Clarkdale

After finding a good range in the BCLK, we decided to play with the multiplier and see just how high we could reach. With 1.3v dialed in to the CPU, we could run stress tests at 4.45GHz! Going above this speed required pushing 1.45v to the CPU. While it may be possible to run with that much voltage on air cooling in a 24/7 setup, we're not sure we recommend it.

Power Conusmption

For testing power consumption, we took our test system and plugged it into a Seasonic Power Angel. For idle numbers, we allowed the system to idle on the desktop for 15 minutes and took the reading. For load numbers, we measured the peak wattage used by the system while running 3DMark Vantage.

Intel Clarkdale

Power consumption is very good for the Core i5-661 processor. We see a drop of about 11W from the i5-750 at idle. Under load it really is no contest, the new 32nm i5-661 with half the cache draws much less power.

Next Page - Conclusion


Review Index
Page 1 - Intel Core i5 661 Benchmarking
Page 2 - Clarkdale: A Closer Look
Page 3 - Intel 5 Series Chipsets
Page 4 - Media and Blu-ray
Page 5 - Intel DH55TC and Test System
Page 6 - SiSoftware Sandra 2010c
Page 7 - iTunes 9
Page 8 - Cinebench R10
Page 9 - x264 HD Encoding
Page 10 - PC Mark Vantage
Page 11 - Stalker: Call of Pripyat
Page 12 - Colin McRae: Dirt 2
Page 13 - 3D Mark Vantage
Page 14 - Overclocking & Power Consumption
Page 15 - Conclusion