Thanks for the review.

Typo though, bottom of page 3



I believe the processor you tested was the X4 630.

Thanks for continued reviews!

What about higher AC costs for hotter processors? That should really be included in the ROI calculations. For example, the added energy needed to maintain a given temperature in a 12'x12'x8' room. I'm not certain, but it seems this figure should be the same regardless the outside temperature and insulation.

Calculations on AC use would be a bit overkill imho, since AC is not used in all situations, and not at all in many parts of the world.

Well the Operating Cost section is highly misleading for anyone that has a meaningful summer. If you live in Sweden I can see how it would be irrelevant. But you're in the minority.

We should at least have some idea if the extra energy required for AC will eclipse or be eclipsed by the wattage calculations.

But isn't that pretty easy to calculate by yourself? X watts of heat from the CPU should mean X watt more for the AC to take care of. Same in the reversed case - if you pay for heating in the winter that's X extra watt of heat. And the reviewer wouldn't know the efficiency of your AC or my radiator.

Great article, I wished this came out a few weeks ago when I had a chance to upgrade my cpu/ motherboard platform from an old x2 5600.

At my $100 target price, I had to choose from the X2 555 BE, X3 720 BE (OEM), and the X4 630.

I ended up going with the X2 555 and was lucky enough to get my cores unlocked to an X4 B55, and chip up to 3.78GHz . I just feel guilty for the amount of power it consumes and how much harder it is to cool quietly .

WELLLLLL not quite...since not all the power that is consumed by a processor is dissipated as residual heat (due to inefficiency). Some of the power does go into switching a few transistors

Now to calculate the exact wattage of heat being dissipated from the CPU, that will take a lot of effort.

If not heat, then what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_ ... modynamics

It's all heat in the end, my friend.

very familiar with the first law of thermo, but thanks!

what I was getting at was that not all of the electrical power that enters a CPU is dissipated as heat, some of it is rejected as signal energy and is dissipated though other components such as the motherboard.

Yes, in the end, all the power your PC consumes ends up as heat, sound, light, and some radiation.

I'm sure that some energy escapes from the CPU, the computer and even from the house. But usually reviewers don't present numbers with enough significant digits to reflect that.

A bit more on topic:

^ From the article.

What would be the estimated chance of success in unlocking a hopefully fully functioning core? A have a Sempron 140 that I managed to unlock into a functional dual core. Is that rare?

excelent review ... i just wanna share this link from xbitlabs

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-m4a88t-i-deluxe_6.html#sect1

the idle power Consumption for the athlon II "e" series seems to be lower ... in xbitlabs review all the system (4250 igp) just 26.5 watts @ idle

my system with pehenom II 550 udelvolted @ 1.1875v stock speed, same asus MB plus xfx 4770 do 93watts at idle