Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 / 3 GHz Processor

This is the processor I am using day in and day out and it is by far the best piece of hardware I have ever owned. Not only does it work perfectly and stay cool, it over-clocks like no tomorrow.

I have my little E8400 running at 4.0Ghz on air-cooling which was a lot easier to set-up than I first thought it would be. I was truly amazed at just how much juice this processor could put out without seemingly batting an eye-lid. Of course you will require some pretty good cooling to pull this off, but you can get coolers like the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro or the Xigmatek HDT for around £20 which will be much better than Intel's original cooler that comes with the retail processor package.
Other processors I have owned have complained immensely when put under the pressure I put this Intel CPU under. Some of them have died; some of them
just became unstable. The E8400 though laps the pressure up, it begs for more.

I was never a fan of Intel products; some would say I was an AMD fanboy. So when I purchased this and saw how amazing it was, my opinion changed immediately. They truly are gifted engineers to create a piece of hardware that can get me excited and happy about a product so much that I come here and write a review about it.
The only problem I had with this processor was monitoring the temperatures. It seems to say the temperatures are much higher than they are in reality. For some reason there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the temperature probes this chip uses. Now I never did find out if it was my processor, or the software I was using, it doesn't seem to have affected the lifespan of the processor so I am happy.

I will probably never sell this processor, even when I upgrade my computer. I will likely just hide it in a draw in some bubble wrap, so in the future I will find it and be reminded of the good old days. I have no idea where technology is heading now, but when I change this processor to a new one I am sure it will not make its way into my heart like this E8400 did.
I am using this processor with an Abit IP-35E motherboard which is considered a budget board but works superbly with this processor. I am also using a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 to cool the processor which works great too, although the size of it can be a problem in some cases.

So if you are looking for a processor and this one is in your budget, consider it. I know there are Quad Core processors and other such fancy equipment now, but if you are looking for something to love rather than something to use and abuse, the E8400 should be at the top of your list.