When two just is not enough extreme users look for more, and now Intel is going to give them more with the new Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor. For over a year now many have argued that multiple cores were not the way to go and for a while they seemed to be right. That was until Intel un-hatched their Conroe architecture in October 2006. There are currently five processors available using the blistering fast Conroe architecture. The Conroe is a dual-core architecture built using a 65nm design process. There was a great deal of hype surrounding the Conroe well before its release and while it was expected to be very fast, it was thought that the hype alone could kill the upcoming processor series.

However, I do not think anyone quite expected the Conroe (Core 2 Duo/Extreme) processors to be as powerful as they were. There was no longer any question to the merit of dual-core technology, the Conroe certainly saw to that. While the Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors built using the Conroe architecture are still very new, with many more planned for release, Intel has already moved into quad-core territory. The new Kentsfield architecture offers quad-core processing by taking two Conroe cores and sticking them together. This means the Kentsfield features all the same innovative technologies as the Conroe, with twice the amount of cores.

Take the Core 2 Duo E6700 and the new Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for example. The E6700 operates two cores at 2.66GHz, features a 4MB L2 Cache, uses a 1066MHz quad pumped FSB and features a thermal design power of 65 watts. The QX6700 on the other hand also operates at 2.66GHz, features a dual 4MB L2 Cache, uses a 1066MHz quad pumped FSB and has a thermal design power of 130 watts. Therefore the, QX6700 has exactly twice as much L2 Cache, twice as many cores and pumps out exactly twice as much heat! That said, it was no surprise to learn that the QX6700 will cost twice as much as the E6700.

Given there are no games that support quad-core processors, there is no expectations for the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 to out perform the E6700. However, where the QX6700 should excel is in our Windows application tests. While I was keen to test the QX6700 in applications such as 3D Studio Max, Pinnacle and Photoshop, there was a lot of anticipation to discover how well this quad-core processor would overclock. Given the E6700 easily achieved 3.66GHz in our test system I was keen to see how far the QX6700 could go. Keep in mind the thermal output of the QX6700 is much like that of a Pentium D processor, meaning it is well above 100 watts. While the E6700 pumps out just 65 watts of heat at 2.66GHz, the QX6700 produces 130 watts at the same frequency. That said, I do not expect the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 to overclock nearly as well as the E6700.