Overclocking the Conroe

So you Want to Overclock that Conroe?

Intel [[INTC]] finally has its new line of Conroe processors out, and no matter who or where you ask, they’ve done quite a good job with them. On the other side of the court AMD is readying its own AM2 line for release, with the FX-64 promising quite a punch.. While we haven’t been lucky enough to receive prototypes of either of these two product lines, our product analysts have been hard at work studying the reviews conducted by other big names in the hardware review industry. As such, this isn’t a review, rather it’s more of an analysis of these next generation CPUs, the technology behind them, and what it means for overclockers and bleeding-edge enthusiasts today.

Intel’s Conroes use the new 65nm manufacturing process which is a reference to just how small the transistors on the CPU die really are. Because it uses smaller transistors, Intel can pack more of these transistors into the same amount of space to accomplish what they normally did with less. Counter-intuitive it may be, but in this case, more for less is better. Instead of spending money making each transistor more powerful and pack more of a punch, Intel has elected to make each transistor smaller and just use more of them — making it quite a bit cheaper for them to produce.

The price has its obvious effects (such as making AMD shake and lower their prices at a cost to themselves), but for the hard-core overclocker, all it means is that ground-zero is suddenly a bit higher up than it used to be: you start off with more power, and it’s only logical that you can take it further than ever before. But it’s much more important and far more complicated than a bit of high-school economics and “wallet science,” in fact, it’s pure physics from here on.