Lol.....my new build Pc components have just arrived this morning, which is based around this 550 CPU...

AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4850 1GB GDDR3

Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black

Pioneer DVR-217FBK 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter

Akasa AK-876 CPU Cooler

Akasa AK-455 Thermal Compound

All in it came to £403......

All the bits are just sitting there on my desk, looking at me,and as this is my first ever build, im a bit nervous about starting to build it...

With a (hopefully) stable overclock to 3.5ghz, i dont think you can really do better for a budget gaming machine in the £400 price range....

I looked at going the Intel route, but i just like the look of these new dual cores from AMD.

Dare i say AMD has been doing rather well, with its recession friendly CPU's, alot of bang for the money, this is classic AMD all the way back to the legend of the 2500XP+ and XP-M both of which i loved.

There DDR2 days sucked, i dont know what was going on with them its as if funding in R&D was lacking and simple making the K8 use DDR2 was hardly a fix.

Well done AMD, maybe they'll do a classic marketing scheme like they did with the opty 144 and 165, put extremely good cores in the cheap ones, selling buckets of them and win in the long run. I can see alot of X2 550 suddenly becoming very unlockable and a sort over purchase! ATI 4770 anyone?

I've had the 550 since 2 days after it come out and i was blown away by just how well it performs and just how high it can overclock (Ive had it running game but not prime stable at 4.1) its also a very bloody cool running chip even when overclocked if your cooler is half decent

Glad to see bit agrees and give it the recommended award!

anyone getting better overclocks? i was a little disappointed after what the 250 achieved. based on this review looks like the 250 is the better bang for the buck by a good margin.

edit:
and the price you guys have is off. the link is to newegg, and they have it at $114.99.

As seen here dude the L3 cache gives it a boost over the 250, its not about raw clocks alone with the L3 playing its part

but with decent cooling yeah you can push it higher as seen here http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/525772-unofficial-phenom-ii-x2-550-club.html

Originally Posted by trig

edit:
and the price you guys have is off. the link is to newegg, and they have it at $114.99.

The price has changed overnight :(

God dammit! Every time I think I'll give intel a go you guys always slap me in the face with these Phenom II reviews >.< Guess I'm staying with AMD forever lol

On a more serious note: When is issue 72 of CPC out? I fancy reading the MSI review.

Originally Posted by storm20200
On a more serious note: When is issue 72 of CPC out? I fancy reading the MSI review.

Thursday, 23rd July 2009.

Originally Posted by Sifter3000
Thursday, 23rd July 2009.

Thanks, I just opened my eyes and checked the magazine discussion forum when you replied DOH!

Originally Posted by storm20200
Thanks, I just opened my eyes and checked the magazine discussion forum when you replied DOH!

Mr.Editor over there is literally just editing the labs content this afternoon. (with a biiiiig cup of caffeine LOL :D) /pokes Alex

Would still have liked to see overclocked power consumption. It is a black edition after all ;)

Would just be interesting to see how much it goes up by.

Originally Posted by Gremlin
As seen here dude the L3 cache gives it a boost over the 250, its not about raw clocks alone with the L3 playing its part

but with decent cooling yeah you can push it higher as seen here http://www.overclock.net/amd-cpus/525772-unofficial-phenom-ii-x2-550-club.html

yeah, i get that dude...what i am saying is it is not an impressive oc considering the 250 got 3.9, and again, the performance increase doesnt warrant the 25-30% price difference..

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
The price has changed overnight :(

those bastages!

edit:
on a side note, i checked that link...would love to see the performance of the 550 with 2 cores unlocked at 4.1 ghz...

does the 250 have the ability to unlock cores?

It has the potential to unlock cores, but don't count on it happening every time, and only with certain mobos.

I recommended this chip to a couple people in build advice threads, and it definitely used to be under $100 on Newegg... Tiger Direct has it for $109, not much better. Hopefully the price will go back down?

Also, you guys definitely need to snag a decent AM3 cooler. :p

Originally Posted by trig

does the 250 have the ability to unlock cores?

Originally Posted by docodine
It has the potential to unlock cores, but don't count on it happening every time, and only with certain mobos.

Actually the 250 doesn't have the ability to unlock cores since it is a true dual core. Only the phenom IIs have the ability to do that since they are all based off of a four core chip.

Originally Posted by dmv915
Actually the 250 doesn't have the ability to unlock cores since it is a true dual core. Only the phenom IIs have the ability to do that since they are all based off of a four core chip.

if thats the case, then i change my tune...i'll spend the extra dough, and happily...

Yep, that's what I thought as well. I just recently (couple of weeks) built a system based on the 550 as well. I'm surprised the review didn't actually attempt the quad core unlock. I suppose it would make the article more future proof, after all as time goes on, the probability of getting a chip that can unlock to quad lessens, but still. I found that when unlocked, the chip runs perfectly stable. Haven't gotten around to overclocking while on quad, but priliminary investigation shows that it doesn't overclock quite as well as when in dual core; surpise surprise. But I guess you can switch back and forth if you really wanted to =P

I was thinking of getting one, good work from AMD but i went for the X3 720 because the third core is better for my use.

Overclocked it gives the E8400 a run for the money.

I just bought a Phenom II X2 550 B.E. as an upgrade from an AMD 7750 B.E. and I have to say that this is my last AMD. I'm not impressed with this chip at all. Especially seeing how the Athlon X2 250 is just as fast! My chip didn't even unlock so there isn't any WOW factor to me even having this paper weight. So just save your $99 and put it towards a Core I7 which completely blows a Phenom II X4 955 BE completly off a wafer. I OC it to 3.98 ghz stable but I don't know it just doesnt seem that much better.

I've always wondered why people want the i7 when there's a perfectly good Q9550..

Originally Posted by Krayzie_B.o.n.e.
I just bought a Phenom II X2 550 B.E. as an upgrade from an AMD 7750 B.E. and I have to say that this is my last AMD. I'm not impressed with this chip at all. Especially seeing how the Athlon X2 250 is just as fast! My chip didn't even unlock so there isn't any WOW factor to me even having this paper weight. So just save your $99 and put it towards a Core I7 which completely blows a Phenom II X4 955 BE completly off a wafer. I OC it to 3.98 ghz stable but I don't know it just doesnt seem that much better.

That's because unlocking is not guaranteed by any means. Our own 550 doesn't unlock, in fact, very few do compared to tri-cores from what I've read.

The 550 will overclock several hundred MHz faster than your 7750: almost 4GHz is very impressive for a 550, and it supports DDR3, however what did you need to be notably faster?

Plus, where does 955/920 fit into this argument?

Originally Posted by Krayzie_B.o.n.e.
I just bought a Phenom II X2 550 B.E. as an upgrade from an AMD 7750 B.E. and I have to say that this is my last AMD. I'm not impressed with this chip at all. Especially seeing how the Athlon X2 250 is just as fast! My chip didn't even unlock so there isn't any WOW factor to me even having this paper weight. So just save your $99 and put it towards a Core I7 which completely blows a Phenom II X4 955 BE completly off a wafer. I OC it to 3.98 ghz stable but I don't know it just doesnt seem that much better.

That is just such a dumb attitude....

4Ghz dual core, and hes moaning it didnt unlock to a Quad Core.....:(

Hate to bring this up but you made a mistake, You said the PII 550 has 8MB of L3 Cache when it has 6MB like all the other Phenom II's (ex the 800 series of course)

Unlocking the cores does not just depend on the chip but on your motherboard. The rate of chips which will be successfully unlocked will increase. Why? Because the first triple cores were the rejected duds from four core dies that didn't fully work.

As the manufacturing has improved there are less duds.

AMD does not make enough bad chips to meet demand for the tri-cores. So they are disabling perfectly good cores and shipping them as tri and dual cores.

The earlier you bought the chip the less likely to be able to unlock. Nowadays the chances are quite high you can although it is NO SURE PROMISE as duds still go in the mix.

Crazy B