What do you get when you take Intel's Core 2 Duo E6850 processor but make it faster, cooler-running, and about $60 cheaper? Simple: you get the Core 2 Duo E8400, which seems to be the first of Intel's new line of 45nm desktop chips to have rolled into the e-tail market. Newegg currently sells the E8400 for $219.99 with free shipping, so we've selected it for our deal of the week.

Like the E6850, the Core 2 Duo E8400 runs at 3GHz with a 1333MHz front-side bus and a 65W thermal envelope. However, the E8400 is manufactured using 45nm process technology instead of 65nm, has 6MB of cache instead of 4MB, and features some architectural improvements (including support for the new SSE4 instruction set) that help it perform better clock-for-clock than its predecessor. If you need a speedy processor but can't afford to spend an extra $60 for the Core 2 Quad Q6600, or you're eager to see how far you can overclock Intel's new 45nm core, this chip should be a fine choice. Make sure to double-check motherboard compatibility before purchasing, though.