“The Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is AMD’s first dual-core Phenom processor, and thanks to an unlocked multiplier and 45nm manufacturing process, it has the potential to break some serious overclocking records… This 3.1GHz CPU slips easily into socket AM3 motherboards and Socket AM2+ platforms as well. This is largely due to its integrated DDR2/DDR3 memory controller, which functions in DDR3 mode for AM3 motherboards, and DDR2 mode on socket AM2/AM2+ motherboards.”Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition with Stepping C3 @ Metku
- AMD Athlon X3435 and X2 240e @ LostCircuits
- Amd Athlon 2 X3 435 CPU @ Rbmods
- AMD’s 125W Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition @ Techgage
- How CPU Features Affect CPU Performance, Part 5 @ iXBT Labs
- Intel Pentium E6300 2.80 GHz @ techPowerUp
Pushing 2 cores to the limit
Thanks to the missing two cores, the Phenom II X2 BE CPU has only an 80W TDP, a big drop from its 45nm quad and triple core brothers. That is not the only benefit to be had for the trimming that was done to this particular CPU, the 3.1GHz clock speed is faster than all but the X4 955 BE and can be had for a less than half the price of that X4. The Black Edition also spells out opportunity for overclockers, that unlocked multiplier is just begging to be upped. That is exactly what PC STATS did and they did not have to back off until a 16.5x multiplier on a 230MHz bus speed, a total speed of 3.795GHz.
