Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140

Just when it seemed that Intel was forgetting about the Pentium brand once and for all, a new processor sporting the name appeared on the market. The Pentium Dual Core series is a low end budget processor that shares a common lineage with the Core 2 Duo series. Unlike the Core 2 series, it only has 1 MB of L2 cache, and runs from 1.6 to 2.2 Ghz. It runs of the 800 Mhz quad pumped front side bus and is hardware compatible with most newer and a few older LGA775 motherboards. Today, we review the E2140 model running at 1.6 Ghz.

The E2000 series of processors was introduced in June of 2007 to target the budget conscious consumer who is looking for a dual core system. However, it is not aimed a the extreme low end, as this is left for the Celeron brand of single core processors.


 

Overview


The E2140 is the lowest speed desktop series of the Pentium Dual Core. It includes most of the features in the low end Core 2 Duos series like SpeedStep, Execute Disable (xD bit), and of course Intel's x32-64. However, it lacks the same clock speed and L2 cache amount; only 1 MB in this case. Since this line of processors is based on the Allendale core, it is essentially a Core 2 Duo E4000 series with half the cache. These processors run on the same platforms as the Core 2 Duo series but at an 800 MHz FSB, so it is relatively trivial to overclock them even with the most basic of motherboards supporting the 1066 MHz FSB.

Details

As with the rest of the Core 2 Duo lineup, we see a dramatic improvement from the previous Pentium 4 lineup. Although Intel ended up going back a generation (think Pentium III) in order to get the right mix of performance and clock speed, it was well worth the performance gain and thermal design improvement that came along with it. Having only a TDP of 65 W, compared to the Pentium 4 Prescott and later series at 100+ W, we gain a quiet PC platform which does not need top of the line power supplies and cooling solutions, but only the most basic of heatsinks. Speaking of heatsinks, Intel gives us a pretty basic all aluminum cooler. Unlike the other low end Core 2 Duo processors, which at least include a copper base, this one is just pure aluminum. While it is fine for basic use, once the processor starts to heat up you will notice the fan speed increasing and the noise level getting noticeably louder.

The processor we received (well actually bought) has a sSpec id of SLA93. We tested it with a ASRock 775 Dual-VSTA with the latest BIOS supporting the E2000 series.





Overclocking

This processor is well known for it's overclocking ability. It is essentially a Core 2 Duo running on the 800 MHz FSB. Since the architecture was designed for the 1066 MHz FSB, overclocking is as trivial as setting the FSB to 1066 MHz (266 MHz quad pumped).

When using the above overclock, you instantly get a 2132 MHz CPU with little increase in temperature. In fact, you can use the CPU normally at this speed without any issues. This CPU was tested in a Home Theatre PC for over 2 weeks, and never experienced any hiccups related to the overclock. Unfortunately, since we used an ASRock 775 Dual-VSTA motherboard during testing, we could only set the FSB to 284 MHz (1136 MHz) max before the motherboard became the source of instability.

Value

For the price, this processor has a very good price to performance ratio. Being less than $70 USD it is double the price of a Celeron D but offers a second core and a number of other features.


Conclusion

To sum up, this processor is a great deal if you plan to overclock it. For around $60 - $80 CAD/USD it is virtually guaranteed to perform at the highest level of the E4000 series when overclocked. By default, it is a bit slow, but nothing noticeable when used for daily tasks. There have been reports of people overclocking this processor to beat the fastest processors in the E6000 series in terms of benchmarks, but that is not a trivial task. Overall, a strong offering, and a good deal.

Pros:


Cons:



Score

Value: 7/10

Performance: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

 

Gallery

 


Main Menu