Stupid intel Core 2 Duo question

Is there any driver or tool to download with C2D chips to disable/enable the throttling?

Thermal throttling? Voltage or multiplier?
Rightmark CPU Clock Utility (RMClock) can let you control all sorts of fun stuff with most newer CPUs on most chipsets.

http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

but nothing ‘required’ like amd’s CnQ processor driver?

i’ve also noticed i don’t have any huge ‘chipset driver’ package (a la nforcE) to install for my new P975X based mobo. i searched on intel’s website but couldn’t find any updates to install either. are there any?

Yes. They’re called INF files. Basic support is actually built into the Windows, but you want to install the INF files for full functionality. But Intel INF file installs are typically less than 4MB (including Setup.exe.)

Oh, and Vista support for Intel chipsets up through 965P is fully integrated.

It’s called “Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility”, or Infinst for short. Search for the term on Intel’s website. You can always run the utility on a supported operating system, it will check whether there’s anything to update.

The Core 2 Duo has a built-in throttling technology called Speedstep which can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS (chipset settings or the like). On my BIOS, this particular option was scrolled off the screen by default which is why I didn’t notice it at first… make sure you don’t miss any scrollbars!

rei - Get the latest chipset inf from Intel. I just went through the upgrade process for Intel Core 2 Duo as well. You may need moterboard drivers, but it depends on the chipset and mobo maker. Technically I “didn’t” have to install the Abit uGuru utility, but if I didn’t it left an unknown device in my device manager. No biggiue since it’s just the software interface to talk to hardware - but you may have something similar.

Also check into your hard drive interface. If your doing a fresh install you’ll want the latest drivers “now” for that (as opposed to later).