AMD Phenom II X4 960T Processor, Black Edition, 3.0 4 Socket AM3 - HD96ZTWFGRBOX

To start with, the only con I've been able to find is that some users found their board unable to run the 960T without a BIOS update. Just because a board supports the hex-core Thubans out of the box doesn't necessarily mean it will the 960T. Do a little research or just update your BIOS before building with a 960T. My ASRock 970 Extreme3 worked great out of the box.

That said, this processor is amazing for the price. Overclocked to 4Ghz stable at 1.38v and scored 5100 on Passmark. By comparison, the identically priced i3-2100 scores 3864 and can't be overclocked.

Running all my games (including Skyrim and SWTOR) while multitasking without a hitch. Using a Radeon HD 6850 and I'm quite sure I could pair a much stronger video card before my Zosma becomes a bottleneck. Encodes short, high definition videos in seconds. I could not ask for better performance from a $125 price tag (I got mine on sale $10 off, would still buy it at $150).

Also has the potential to be unlocked into a 6 or 5 core if your motherboard supports that. In my case I could not unlock. Not sure if it's the board or my 960T just can't do it. So far looks like less than half of the 960Ts can unlock safely. Don't buy this CPU expecting a x6; view it as possibly an added bonus.

Background: I picked this chip up because I knew its potential and Microcenter happened to have one for $89. If you enjoy overclocking AMDs, you'll like this CPU and I honestly had fun working with it.

Overclocking: On a M4A79XTD Evo I was able to unlock to an X6 and get it stable at 4.0 at only 1.42VCore (BIOS) as a 24/7 daily-use OC with CnQ enabled. Heat is an issue and I had to put a fan on my VRMs and move to an H100 to avoid throttling under full load. At 1.5VCore, this CPU was Windows stable (no stress testing done) at 4.5 as an X4 or 4.4 as an X6. Pretty impressive for Phenom II. I was happy with 4.0 as X6 and did not do any stress testing past that, but this chip has alot of potential for suicide runs or maximum 24/7 OCs.

Performance: Lets face it, I have two 3570K CPUs running 4.0GHz at stock settings that beat my 960T's X6 4.0GHz performance hands down, and use less than half the power and have no need for exotic cooling. If you are in the market for a new system, this isn't a reasonable option compared with IB or SB.

Breakdown: If you enjoy overclocking and wanted to try something different, this chip is fun. If you have a good AM2+ or AM3 board and want to max it out, this is the chip for you. I believe a 4.3-4.4GHz X4 daily OC is completely reasonable if you have the right board. I think 4.2-ish could be had as X6 with reasonable voltage and run daily as well. You'll need to think about VRM cooling and higher-end CPU cooling if you're planning on an unlocked OC.

I've been using an Intel C2D rig up to now and was originally planning on going with a SB build. I'm on a budget so it was either an AMD build or an i3-2100 build. The i3-2100 is a serious performer and anyone who has done any research knows this. Around when I was looking to order parts, Newegg was having a sale on this CPU and motherboards so I jumped on the deal and got the CPU/mobo for extremely cheap.

The only downside between this processor and the i3-2100 is that you will have to OC this to about 3.7-3.8ghz to have equivalent core-for-core performance in gaming, but that's really not difficult with this processor and a half-decent motherboard. (<$100 board)

Paired this with a GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 which at stock/auto settings set my vcore to a ridiculous 1.44v. I knew this was far too high for 3.0ghz, so manually set things, currently have it running 8+hours stable of prime95 at 3.62ghz @ 1.28v. Knowing that I can go up to 1.5v while still being considered within safe limits, there is quite a lot of headroom. Easy 4.0+ghz on this. I'm leaving it at 3.62ghz for now because it feels lightning fast as is, but it's nice to know that I'll have the option to increase the speeds by at least another 500mhz down the road if I want it.

Using a CM Hyper TX3 cooler (extremely irritating to get mounted properly fyi) and AS5 with this, but temperatures are extremely cool with this processor and cooler combination. Idle temps at 3.62ghz/1.28v hover around 19-20C, running prime 95 with 100% load on my cpu for several hours, CPU gets up around 35-36C; simply amazing.

I'm extremely impressed with this CPU. Would definitely recommend to budget conscious gamers. You will not regret it.

I don't know how long these processors will be available for sale since AMD's FX processors were just recently released , but you can get this processor, a decent motherboard that will allow for OCing, and 8GB of DDR3 1600 memory for <$250 which is just awesome. You can use the other money you would have spent on other components on a better GPU, which is especially important for those running at higher monitor resolutions (e.g. 1920x1080)