Customer Reviews

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor, Black Edition (HDT90ZFBGRBOX)

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm completely stable at 4.175GHz. Is it my final result? Probably not with my existing equipment, but I am extremely impressed with the result. My goal is still to get to 4.2GHz, but this is how I got here and the contributing factors.

AMD X6 Black Edition (3.2GHz)
Asus CrossHair IV Motherboard
16Gb of DDR3 1066 Ram
Corsair H50 CPU Cooler
Coolermaster HAF Full Tower
Asus 5870 1GB v2 Video Card

Step 1: Use TurboEvo software (included with Asus Crosshair)to auto overclock the CPU & Ram automatically in Windows 7. This is a good observational tool to find out which factors should be changed (Ratio/Multiplier, Bus, Voltage) and there respective limits. I used this tool with settings Extreme Overclock and Flexible Voltage Settings and got a 3.9GHz Result.

Step 2: Restart and Mod in Bios. The trick to overclocking is deciding whether to focus on increasing the bus or multiplier when reaching for that higher clock. This is answered in Step 1. The ram speed is the determining factor in this answer. My ram speed was 1333, and with my 4 sticks of 4gb (16 total) sucking up far more voltage than a single stick, increasing the cpu's bus speed would mean a higher memory speed requirement that my ram couldn't handle without a voltage increase.
So I left the cpu's bus at the default 200 setting and increased the multiplier, hoping to get a final clock speed of 4.3 or 4.4. After reading others overclocking experiences I decided not to set the voltage beyond 1.49. I also set my CPU/NB voltage at a 1.25. After numerous crashes and restarts, I ended up with a super stable clock of 4.1GHz that survived all of the highest settings of Heaven Benchmarks, 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage, Crysis (Directx 10), Alien vs Predator Benchmark (Directx 11), and the dreaded Furmark test (with my 5870 that I overclocked to a stable 961 core/1290 memory).

Step 3: Run Turbo Evo again. This program will push your overclock even higher, more stably than you ever could using your new settings as a starting point. Starting at my 4.1, Turbo Evo overclocked three more times in Windows, finally crashing above 4.2. It saved my final stable settings upon restart, and my cpu was automatically set to 4.175GHz. Point is the motherboard and memory speed do make a difference, not just cooling. Though my Cosair H50 handles this overclock at 40 degrees idle/50 load with ease. If your memory is faster, than you may get a slightly better result. In a few days, I may decide to try to set the voltage at 1.5 or 1.51 and see if temps are still good and see if I can reach that 4.2 or 4.3 using Turbo Evo only. My manual overclock is done.

If you have any questions, hit my up at coolbreeze70056@yahoo.com and I will try to help.

Update: Here are the necessary voltages for this processor. For each voltage, set it -.02 below the voltage that's given, as the voltage given is what it will be under a load.
3792MHz=1.35v (set voltage to 1.33) ; 4000MHz=1.42v (set to 1.39) ; 4100Mhz=1.44 (set to 1.41) ; 4200MHz=1.46 (set to 1.44).

*Cooling update* I upgraded from a H50 to H70, set it up with 2 included 2200 rpm fans @ 100% speed in push/pull exhaust configuration. Under a full load, my temps were 38 degrees idle/41 degrees during an hour long playtime of Metro 2033 at max settings/ 46 degrees max during an hour and 30 minute long movie encoding using Cyberlink's Power Director. Power Director is optimized to push all six cores in order to encode faster, and would easily crash the system if there's not enough voltage or crash if the program generates to much heat. None of the test went above 46 degrees at the 4GHz/1.39v settings. Remember that the highest temps that you would want the processor to reach on a 24 basis under a load is 55 degrees. It can go over by 1 or 2 degrees every now and then, but if you are reaching the breaking point of 62 degrees everytime the computer is under a load, then you have to lower the voltage and use a lower overclock.

Why haven't I run the normal stress test to push the system? Because I don't run prime95 or sisandra in my everyday computer usage. Power Director would effectively crash my previous overclocks when all of the other benchmarks had passed, so it became my new standard to strive for highest overclocks at lowest voltages/temps. I pass all of my hard work on to you.

As of this writing (August 2011), AMD is about to launch the new Bulldozer line. Is this a reason for you to skip the Phenom II line, and particularly this processor? It depends. If you are one of those who always want the latest and most cutting-edge products, then you should wait. But if you want the best bang for the buck, then you should get an X6. Any computer product will no longer be the latest in a very short time anyway, so if you wait for the Bulldozers, you'll just postpone the moment when you won't have the latest or fastest any more. And the very fact that the AMD K10 line is at the end of its market cycle will ensure that you get awesome bargains for an excellent product - if you rush to get it while you can.

My PC is 8 months old now and the 1090T *was* bleeding-edge at the time (the 1100T was still hard to find back then, and the performance gain negligible anyway). It is still certainly more powerful than 95% of all PCs in use out there - and that is being conservative. Yes, if you are a gamer you will probably get better performance *for current titles* with an X4 970 quad-core, or an Intel Core i5 or i7. But I'm not a gamer, and I wanted a general-purpose PC that could serve my needs without worries for years to come, as hardware can be very expensive where I live and I can't afford to make frequent major upgrades just for sport. I've got exactly what I wanted, and I'm very happy.

Don't pay much heed to those who say that you only get real performance gains on a hexa-core if you use optimized multithreading apps, which are still few. This is true (so far), but first, if you think in the long term and want a system that lasts, like me, such titles tend to become more numerous with time (they are already, and this includes games), especially as both Intel and AMD are announcing new 8-, 10- and 12-core processors. Ironically, Bulldozer will make Thubans more attractive because of that, as the software industry will certainly not be indifferent to that trend.

Second, this line of reasoning forgets multitasking, which is another great strength of multicore processors. If you are a more generic user who opens dozens of apps and browser tabs at the same time, an X6 is for you. And if you use virtual machines, you'll love it: what about dedicating 2 or 3 cores to a VM and still getting very good performance outside of it with a tri- or quad-core processor for the rest?

I almost bought the 1055T or the 1075T, because they would be already enough for my needs, but since I wanted a future-proof system, the Black Edition's overclocking possibilities made the deal. There are tests that very nearly equate the performance of an overclocked 1090T to the ultra-fast but outrageously expensive Intel Core i7 980X (at stock, but still...). Well, great to know that. But so far I have felt no need at all to overclock it. At stock speeds, it's lightning fast for everything I tried to do with it. I can't remember the last time anything was slow here - because when this last happened, it was with my old PC. NOTHING is ever slow here, even if I have 30 windows and 20 browser tabs open while I use Photoshop, WinRAR creates a very large archive on a TrueCrypt drive, a virus scan is performed and a video is encoded at the same time - the CPU still yawns at 30% use... (Of course, lots of RAM help, too: I have 8 GB, with Windows 7 x64.) I tried hard to make my 1090T let me down and be slow. I never succeeded. (H.264 two-pass encoding does make the CPU usage go through the roof on the second pass, but it's over so quickly that you'll hardly be bothered with that.)

So the benchmarks say Intel this or that is faster? (Or even Bulldozers, for that matter?) So what? Do you really need anything faster than *this*? Is it worth to pay the extra bucks? I bet the answer is "no" to both questions. You simply won't see any noticeable improvement. (Also consider that AMD's chipsets are usually vastly superior to Intel's - that's where AMD compensates for the processor performance gap. A more advanced chipset doesn't make the processor any faster, but it allows motherboards for AMD to usually be one step ahead and more feature-rich than Intel's. For example, USB 3.0 and 6-Mbps SATA were available for AMD long before they were for Intel.)

At stock, X6 processors have FABULOUS thermal efficiency. 125W TDP, the spec sheet says? I doubt I've reached half that consumption on more than a handful of occasions. Even in summer (December/January here in the Southern Hemisphere), normal temperatures were still in the 27-30ºC (80-86ºF) range, and when heavily taxing the processor with video encoding I saw it reach 43ºC (109ºF). True that I'm not using the stock cooler but an Akasa Nero 2 (another great bang-for-the-buck deal: cheap, efficiency comparable to much costlier products, and extremely quiet), but the numbers are still impressive. Of course, if you intend to overclock it, you CAN'T keep the stock cooler, because then power consumption and heat grow exponentially - that's a feature of the AMD K10 architecture. Since so far I've felt no need to overclock it, I'd rather stay with the low power and heat of the stock configuration, at least for the foreseeable future.

The 1090T and the 1100T are still great deals, even with Bulldozer looming on the horizon (in many cases, even better *because* of that, with the falling prices), and they are highly recommended if you want a generic system to last for a long time, with good overclocking possibilities. But for most users, the 1055T and the 1075T will probably have even better cost/benefit ratios. Considering the large headroom and idleness I'm seeing with the 1090T nearly all the time, I doubt that the 1055T or the 1075T would perform any noticeably slower for most tasks. And it's not impossible to overclock them either, with excellent results - it's just a bit harder and more technical to do it with the locked multipliers. So, consider them, too, especially as they tend to become dirt-cheap very soon and will offer unrivalled performance for their price.

And if you are still in doubt, pair it with an AM3+ motherboard (they are backward compatible with socket AM3 processors, like all Phenom IIs), or with an AM3 motherboard that can be flashed to support AM3+ processors (Asus and MSI, among others, have such models). This way, if you later decide you want or need a Bulldozer, you can just pop the 1090T out and put the new processor on. But I doubt you'll need that any soon.

Bottom line: it will be hard for you to be disappointed with *any* Phenom II X6 processor. Go for any one of them and you'll love how much so few bucks have bought you.

Just bought one of these and have had the system running about a week. This CPU is something to get excited about, when you consider the price. Overclocked to 3.8 GHZ without breaking a sweat and without much difficulty I'm sure could push further. I have mine paired on an 890gx motherboard, 8gb ddr3 and a Corsair H50 Water Cooler - CPU doesnt break at sweat no matter what you throw at it. Running stress tests you can crank 4 cores up to 100 percent and still surf the web / listen to tunes / generally use your computer and you would never know its even performing a task. This thing is a tank for sure, couldn't be happier. Way to go AMD.

I ordered this through Amazon with 2 day shipping and it showed up two days later. I use this CPU in conjunction with an ASUS CHIV MOBO, 4gb of DDR3, a BFG Nvidia 9800 GTX+ OC, 32 gb high speed ssd and a 500gb 6gbs pair of data drives raided toge

This processor is really nice. I moved from an Athlon X2 2200 to this chip and the new 890 chipset. This thing screams! I run Folding@home 24/7, this processor has no issues with running multiple apps and processes. I play bfbc2 while encoding music and movies without a stutter 100fps+. This thing is energy efficient and cool.

The Black edition with an unlocked multiplier is the way to go! Super easy to OC! Once you go Black (edition!)you won't go back! I have mine currently overclocked and stable @4ghz, running a vcore of 1.356 and a CPU-NB of 1.22 at 2600 mhz with an HT of 1800. Using an all in one ECO ALC water cooling system I am stable with a maximum 100% temp of 41 c. Once I get a larger power supply and better ram I intend to 24/7 OC this to 4.2-4.3 ghz.

Having built out a few hundred machines I can honestly say, I like this processor. It's cheap, fast, and has AMZING OC potential. I Highly recommend this product.

I'm only going to write one review to cover all the items I bought for a PC build. The items include...

1) AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.20 GHz Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
2) ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 - AM3 - AMD 890GX - DDR3 - USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s - ATX Motherboard
3) Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply
4) Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H50 All in One High-performance CPU Cooler CWCH50-1
5) Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD10EARS
6) Cooler Master SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Storm Scout ATX/MATX/ITX Mid Tower Case (Black)
7) 2x ADATA Gaming Series DDR3-1600 Memory
8) Liteon 24X DVDrw Sata Retail
9) ViewSonic VA2431WM 24-Inch Widescreen LCD monitor with Speakers
10) 2x Cooler Master 120mm Red LED Case Fan - (R4-L2R-20CR-GP)

The 6 core AMD processor is fantastic. I get 7.6 on Windows 7 "Processor" experience index. I'm currently overclocking it at 4.0 gig without any issues.
The ASUS motherboard is the best value for this processor. It comes with so many options I could never list them all. The best feature is the Turbo EVO software that allows novice overclockers to find that sweet spot. I used it and got 4.0 gig without ever entering the BIOS.
The two Corsair products (Power supply and sealed liquid processor cooler) worked as expected. After all they are Corsair. I wish Corsair would do a video for AMD processors, their only instructional video is all about Intel. BTW my CPU runs between 29 degrees C and 36 degrees C, depending on load. Thanks Corsair!
The WD hard drive worked fine. No problems that some of the one star raters (haters) posted.
The Cooler Master Scout case is a dream. Lots of room to work and I really like the handle and 4 USB ports up front.
The ADATA memory is very stable and I have had no problems running it at rates higher than 1600. Simply had to tell the BIOS to do it. I get 7.6 on Windows 7 "Memory" experience index.
The DVD drive works fine. What can you say? It's a DVD drive.
The Viewsonic 24" LCD display is one of the best values of this entire build. At $169.99 you just can't beat it. The speakers are crap but the display is crisp.

Now for my only gripe... the two Cooler Master 120mm Red LED Case Fan's are TOO LOUD. I liked the idea that I could add these fans to the Scout case's see through panel. What a waste of $20. I'll use them somewhere, sometime... but for now they sit on my bench.

I'm not a PC gamer. But I do know a lot about computers, electronics and A/V equipment in general. I know for a fact that if you build a killer gaming rig, anything and everything else will run effortlessly. So this is what I set out to do. And do I did.
I am truly an AMD customer for life now. It didn't take me long to decide on this processor after seeing what their competitor was offering for similarly matched processor. Like 3x's to 4x's the price for marginal performance differences. No longer will I be at the mercy of the "off the shelf" systems as I will build and customize my Desktops from now on. The desktop I replaced was a Media Center PC. I used it as a DVR with my Xbox 360 and to watch movies in Media Center. This unit out preforms it in every way. It used to take me 20 to 30 hours to upconvert a video file to 720p and 1080p now its done in 3 to 4 hours. If you're tech savvy and you're trying to decided between Intel and AMD. If you have the money and just want to blow a load of cash then buy the other brand. But if you want top quality at a fraction of the cost then look no further. I chose AMD. I'm truly proud of the rig I put together. It's fast, quite, stable, did I mention fast and inexpensive. I've been running this unit over a month and there are no cons. None. Here are the specs on my unit.

Dual 22" Monitors (had an extra one lying around so I didn't include these in the price)
Windows 7 Professional
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2Ghz
MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 Hybrid TV Tuner /Video Recorder 1196 PCI-Express x1 Interface
Sabrent 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Flash Memory Card Reader CRW-UINB
KINGWIN Lazer LZ-750 750W Modular 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC W/ 3-Way LED Switch and Universal Modular Connector Power Supply
MSI R6850-PM2D1GD5/OC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
Thermaltake V9 BlacX Edition with Docking Station Chassis

The best part of this to me is when I feel the need for more speed I'll be able to Over Clock this unit and add a Solid State Hard Drive to push it over the limit. All this for right under $1000. The best birthday gift ever to myself.

Looking at this from a dollar spent per unit of power, this CPU is about the best value you can get (at the time of this writing). Slightly outperforms my i7 920. Paired this with 4 GB CORSAIR XMS3 DHX and the Gigabyte Socket AM3/AMD 890GX motherboard. Oh, also, let this thing fly with a SSD from Intel (I used the 60GB version) and it hums along very well. Using a standard hard drive for data and a few bigger apps.

My only complaint is that the stock fan/sink has to spin too fast to keep this cool. Bought an aftermarket Cooler Master Hyper N520 for $30 and solved that problem. Now the case is very quiet. Throw in a XFX Radeon HD 6870 and you have a Directx 11 capable desktop that runs very fast, very quiet and doesn't break the bank.

I would have given this 5 stars but was disappointed with the stock cooler AMD provides with this CPU. Also, don't bother installing the dynamic CPU optimizer tool which is supposed to moderate the overclocking according to demand. It created wierd blue screen lock ups occasionally under W7 followed by auto reboot. After I removed this it behaved well. If overclocking is your thing, do this from the BIOS, not from this tool. IMHO don't bother. Get a good long life from this CPU as it sits. If you haven't put an SSD in your computer, and you are overclocking, you are wasting your time. Your best money spent to go faster is with the SSD, after you put this CPU in.

Some say that a 6 cores wont work better or faster than 4 cores or even 2 cores. That might be true in some cases, but facts are facts, in a few years 2 cores wont even be an option, we'll probably have 10, 12 cores or something totally new. So even if you don't really need six cores right now, you will later.

Why would someone pay 1000 dollars for an intel processor i may never know. I suggest you buy this one and take your lover for a damn vacation.

The AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition is an excellent processor, love it, just love it. I'm running it now together with the Corsair H70 Hydro (water cooler), and I get around 25-40 degrees Celsius depending on what I'm doing (BOINC, gaming etc.) and when I'm running BOINC, it's constantly running six work units simultaneously all the time, and very fast. On top of that, I can BOINC with my ATI GPU together with the X6 1090T (which means, it runs 6 work units and administers a seventh work unit the GPU is calculating).

Everything runs flawlessly on this CPU. I've tried it in GNU/Linux (Ubuntu, openSUSE, Linux Mint and Kubuntu), works excellent here as well. Windows XP Professional x86 and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 run blazing fast with this processor. I have yet to overclock it though, and I'm probably not going to bother because there's no need for it, and if overclocked, you won't be able to set it on lower CPU-frequencies in Ubuntu (If I remember correctly, the lowest is at 800MHz), and there's really no need to overclock this processor because it's awesome already out of the box.

It would've been better if it had as much L3 cache size as the Intel Core i7 980X Extreme Edition (6MB vs 12MB), and also lower nanometer (45nm vs 32nm), but other than that, I have no complaints, and the important thing here is it has six cores at an excellent price and high clock frequency. You simply get more bang for the buck with AMD.

There's also a new Thuban out (1100T), which is a slight upgrade over the 1090T. I recommend the 1090T though since it's cheaper and you don't get much more performance out of the 1100T since it's pretty much identical aside from a 100MHz increase in clock-frequency and a higher price.

I'm also looking forward to AMD Fusion.