Pentium D 960 Review

by Marco Chiappetta — Sunday, May 21, 2006, 07:00 PM EDT

If you've been shopping for a processor, you may have noticed that Intel silently launched a new Pentium D CPU recently, the dual-core 3.6GHz Pentium D 960. The gang at HardwareZone plucked one fresh from the assembly line and have posted their thoughts about its performance and value. Not a bad chip -- it's almost a shame Conroe is right around the corner.

"Quite frankly, we thought the Pentium 965 Extreme Edition from Intel was the last attempt at rivaling AMD with their existing Presler based CPUs. While we are still right that they haven't put up any speedier models than they already have, a check recently on their Pentium D lineup online saw yet another silent addition - the Pentium D 960. Following their model number nomenclature, the Pentium D 960 is part of their mainstream dual-core offering (albeit on the higher-end side) that still utilizes the somewhat limited 800MHz FSB for communication and data transfer to and fro the processor, but the core clock has now been bumped up to 3.6GHz. Still not the highest clock speed for an Intel dual-core processor, but it healthily surpasses the Pentium XE 955 and that should make for an interesting comparison."

Tags: ium, Pentium, pen, review, view, IE

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com