Anand's ABS Core 2 Extreme Review

[Elfear]

In the recent Anandtech review here I saw some interesting tidbits. On page five, in the configuration settings, it lists the vcore for the overclocked settings as 1.475V. Hmm. So does that mean ABS has some inside info about the Core 2 Duo's ability to handle increased voltage or did ABSs' analysts figure that the extra $500 to get the overclock under warranty would cover their butts enough to justify a much shorter life span?

Second thing I was thinking about was that ABS must be very confident in the Core 2 Duo's ability to consistently overclock or they wouldn't have that as an option. I can't imagine they have a bunch of guys sitting around testing chips to see which ones will hit the 20% oc. Doesn't seem very profitable, not to mention all the lost warranties through Intel on chips destined for stock speeds in another rig. Just got me thinking why ABS was so confident in the overclocking ability of these chips unless 3.52GHz is easily attained by even the worst chips. You might argue that they were using watercooling but it was a pretty poor kit that is probably on par with good air-cooling.

Anyway, just some random thoughts I had and thought you guys might have some good input.

 

[Furen]

Even a 50% overvolt would only lower the life of the CPU by something like 2/3rds as long as the heat increase is handled properly (so let's say your CPU will live 6 years instead of the "usual" 20 or so). So they "warrant" a very minor overvolt (something like 10% over stock) and you give them a $500 additional profit, not bad, in my opinion.

It looks to me like most, if not all, the Extremes will hit that clock speed considering that most of the lower bins hit 3GHz rather reliably.

 

[Mogadon]

Totally, I doubt anyone that would buy this system or overclock their chip using 1.475V is expecting to be still using it 6 years down the line.