I've been waiting for the perfect excuse to try out a Phenom, and with this week's release of the X2 550, it was time. This guy runs at 3.1ghz stock, packs the full 6MB of L3 cache, and has all the other goodies of a 45nm Phenom, but it only costs about $110. I was trying to justify the X3 720, but three cores don't work all that well in today's applications. In reality, 2 cores are plenty for most applications, and as this is my HTPC, I don't need a whole lot of CPU power anyways.

I'll try to do a full review soon, but let's just say that 3.8ghz at 1.40v has been very stable. More so, with a Thermalright Ultra-120 on the proc, the full load temperature is around 40c on an open-air bench. I'm really amazed, since all of the 45nm Core 2 Duo's I've used seem to hit around 65c with similar voltage and clock speed.

The last little but of info I'll give you is the Cinebench R10 scores for this 3.8ghz Phenom verus my 3.6ghz Core 2 Duo, single threaded to look at the real abiliy of the cores:

3.8ghz Phenom II Rendering (1 CPU) : 4351 CB-CPU

3.6ghz Core 2 Duo Rendering (1 CPU) : 4175 CB-CPU

*The RAM configuration differences probably have more to do with the score difference than anything, but it should be noted that the Phenom is riding on a Micro-ATX GeForce 8300 board with very minimal setting options, while the C2D has been pretty well tweaked out on a P5N-D motherboard. This is just a testament to how easy Black Edition processors are to overclock, while still being very affordable.