AMD Phenom II, a cooler and more powerful CPU.
The AM3 Phenom II were based on primary dies that AMD used to harvest defective cores and produce lower core CPUs. (A little more history here). The AMD Phenom 2, an interesting note is that the Phenom X2 and X3 core CPUs had no defects but the cores were disabled allowing them to sell lower cost CPUs. It has been said some tweaking of the Bios may enable those disabled Cores with a 75% success rate, making them some of the fastest AMD processors. Also fixed in the Phenom II range of CPUs is the first series of AMD CPUs to eliminate the “cold Bug” which caused a processor to cease functioning below a certain temperature, preventing the use of “extreme” cooling methods such as Dry Ice, liquid Nitrogen or liquid helium.
The Black Edition series of chips were produced to allow overclocking. Since the clocks cannot operate at 3.2 GHz,( that is the frequency of satelites and microwave ovens).They have lower clock frequencies and use multipliers to up or lower the CPU speed. A Locked CPU only allowed lowering of the multiplier while an Unlocked CPU allowed an increase of the multiplier (overclocking) The Black series CPU was unlocked
A quick note about the new FX Chips. Core wise they have only 2, 3 or 4 cores. Through the use of hyperthreading (I see that option in the Bios) 4 cores give 2 hardware cores and 2 virtual cores. The 6 Core gives 3 hardware cores and 3 virtual cores totaling 6 cores and the 8 cores give you 4 hardware cores and 4 virtual cores. This hyper-threading is not without performance cost. They are the latest and are in AM3+ socket format. They soon will be offering water cooling; (that says something about heat). With water cooling, overclocking stable speeds of up to 4.8Ghz are possible on all eight cores. You will also need to tweak the CPU Voltage and front side bus speeds. Not for the faint of heart to try.
My Personal Opinion, (in a budget oriented Custom PC), the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition was less money. I got more bang for my buck. However, if I decide to spend a little more I would choose the/////// AMD FX-8350 Eight Core 4Ghz AM3 Processor, Unlocked
All the CPUs are available in boxed or unboxed. That means it comes with heat sink and fan or you supply your own. If you buy your own cooler you can get a bigger and better one.
This was my choice, It barely fits in my tower case with 120mm fan and it’s very quiet: The Silenx EFZ-120HA5 Effizio 120mm.
Just an update. I have seen water cooled systems for sale in the $50 price range. Should I see it again, I will get it. The AMD forums show exactly what tweaks you can use with what cooling method. Even the Voltages you can change to run your CPU faster.
