At the end of October we reviewed the QX9650. We were very happy with this CPU, because Intel did a marvelous job, especially concerning energy consumption.

Today, we take a look at the first Intel CPU which comes with FSB 400MHz (1600MHz effectively). The downside of this high FSB is the need for a board with X38 or "better" chipset. Even though X38 does not officially support FSB 400, most motherboards do, anyway. We would have liked to test this CPU with the "old" platform with P35 chipset, but even if the motherboard is capable of booting with any other CPU beyond 400MHz FSB, it won't do so with the QX9770.

So, we need to change the platform to the ASUS Maximus Extreme. The downside is the X38 is slower than the P35, so we tweaked the board as much as possible to get results as close to the QX9650.

Testbed:

Motherboard:
ASUS Maximus Exterme (provided by ASUS)
Intel X38/iCH9R
BIOS: 1001

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (provided by Intel)
Intel Core 2 Quad QX6850 (provided by Intel)
Intel Core 2 Quad QX9650 (provided by Intel)
Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 (provided by Intel)

CPU-Cooler:
Scythe Andy Samurai Master (provided by Scythe-Europe)

Memory:
Patriot 2GB Kit PC3-10666U PDC32G1333LLK (provided by Patriot)
CL7-7-7-20-CR2T up to 1.70V

Graphics Card:
AMD ATI Radeon X1950XTX (provided by AMD)

Power supply:
Silverstone Element SF50EF-Plus (provided by Silverstone)

Hard disk:
Western Digital WD4000KD (provided by Ditech)

Case fans:
SilenX iXtrema Pro 14dB(A) (provided by PC-Cooling.at)
Scythe DFS122512LS