WOW! That one word describes my exhilaration at Intel coming back into the Enthusiast market with a bang. The X6800 outclasses the AMD CPUs by a wide margin in virtually every circumstance of performance measurement. The CPU also runs cool in comparison to earlier Intel CPUs and consumes less than 75W. By any standard of measurement the X6800 is an success bringing Intel back on top.

The E6700 which has a rather interesting naming scheme considering it’s only 266MHz slower than the x6800 while having the same cache and structure is right in there with the x6800 in performance, slower than its bigger brother but faster than the competition. For a suggested MSRP of $530, the E6700 is an easy choice for those wanting a fast system without wanting to shell out a grand.

At the beginning of my review I waxed poetic on older Intel systems I’ve used. I also complained about heat issues with the Intel CPUs. Intel has come a long way since the introduction of the Prescott CPUs (known colloquially around here as Preshott). The X6800 and E6700 exhibited none of the heat problems I’ve come to associate with fast Intel CPUs of the last year or so, and for that I’m grateful. I can easily recommend an Intel CPU for the first time in a long time without reservation.

X6800
Performance-10 Features-10 Compatibility-10 Availability- 10 Price- 5 Setup- 10 Overall Value-8 Ease of use- 10 Support -10 Software Support-9 Total: 93

E6700
Performance-  9 Features- 10 Compatibility-10 Availability- 10 Price- 7 Setup- 10 Overall Value-9 Ease of use- 10 Support -10 Software Support-9 Total: 94