X-bit labs

Core 2 Duo E6420, E6320 and E4400 Plus Another 15 Sub-$200 Dual-Core Processors (page 4)

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 03/18/2007 | 07:30 AM ]

Core 2 Duo E4400

Since the youngest Core 2 Duo processors from the E6000 series will acquire twice as large cache-memory and fully-fledged Conroe core, Core 2 Duo E4000 family will remain the only CPUs with smaller 2MB L2 cache. Some time ago we discussed Core 2 Duo E4300 processor. It was the first CPU on Allendale core, which has only 2MB L2 cache on the physical semiconductor die. This was what allowed Intel to reduce their production cost and set very attractive prices for these processors.

Core 2 Duo E4400 processor that will come out together with the Core 2 Duo E6420 and E6320 will be the second CPU in the today’s youngest processor line-up on Core micro-architecture. Just like Core 2 Duo E4300, the new Core 2 Duo E4400 will feature not only smaller 2MB L2 cache, but also 800MHz system bus. As for the clock frequency, this newcomer will run 200MHz faster than E4300: at 2.0GHz.

The detailed processor specs are given in the table below:

As we see, unlike the CPUs from the E6000 family, Core 2 Duo E4400 is based on a different core stepping: L2. As far as we know, the overclocking potential of this core stepping is slightly worse than that of the “fully-fledged” B2 core stepping. Among other distinguishing features we should definitely mention the absence of Intel Virtualization Technology support. However, this technology is hardly ever used in desktop systems of regular computer users, so its absence is not that much of a loss in the end.

CPU-Z utility recognizes the core stepping as L2:

By the way, the electronic components located at the bottom of the CPU also indicate that it belongs to L2 core stepping. Take a look:

Conroe B2 stepping (left), Allendale L2 stepping (right)