A Closer Look
Once again we see the AMD signature IHS that we’ve now seen for many years, but we say “why fix it, if it’s not broken?” which is so true, as it has many functions including:
- To protect the core
- To help with heat dissipation
- To make it easier to spread thermal compound
- To display the relevant information about the processor
With regards to the relevant information on the CPU, you can clearly see that it’s part of the Phenom II family, but you will notice that the codes have taken a slight change. Before we used to see an array of codes including the start listing the model number/name but this CPU slightly differs as you can see below.
There are websites available to decipher these codes and in turn you will be told which codes correspond to the voltage, process, speed etc… Have a quick Google, we highly recommend it.
This CPU still sports the 938 pin AM3 socket and will work fine with any AM2+ board that has the BIOS update to support it. Generally if your board will run the 1090T or similar processors, this one should be fine.
We happened to be using the Crosshair IV Formula AM3 motherboard from Asus and CPU-Z seemed to have picked up the processor no problem without any further updates.
We can see the multiplier at default is set to 16.5 but as this is a Black Edition processor the multiplier is unlocked.
Also, you can see that CPU-Z shows all of the relevant cache sizes for L1, L2 and L3 cache.
190 doesn`t sound so bad for that 3.6 turbo speed. but when we`ll see stock speed from AMD at least 3.8 at this price then i`ll consider it 🙂
why not make stable 4 point 0 😀 GHz CPU? Naah Whole pace gathered by the competition between Intel and AMD is good for prices of older models. But what with multi threaded apps? You pay for the 6cores and only few of apps can take advantage of it? That's why i'm using x2 low power CPU in my HTPC. Am I wrong when i will say that i can count those apps with all my fingers ? BTW 190Ł holy smokey! that's almost whole my computer price 😀
I bet you can clock that up even higher, but still, any 6 core processor is beast. I love AMD processors, so cheaply sold which makes it good for people like me. Great review, thank you.