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Athlon X2 5000+ Black Box |
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Once you go… |
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by Josh Walrath |
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The Black Box AMD is doing their best to keep their loyal followers happy and enthused about AMD products, and that is why the Black Box Edition chips were released. These products are factory unlocked, so overclocking is as simple as going into the motherboard BIOS and choosing a higher multiplier for CPU clockspeed. These chips are also supposedly specially binned so they will be above average overclockers.
This is the only black box I had with the sample I was sent. Oh woe is me. The Black Box package holds the CPU and the warranty information. Maybe even a sticker (though I really don’t know because I received the bare processor from AMD). No fan is included, so that particular unit needs to be purchased separately. Which is probably a good thing for enthusiasts as I myself am overflowing with stock fans that I do not use. AMD is pricing these products very competitively, and they are attempting to establish a niche with budget enthusiasts. Now that we have that prolonged (and most likely unnecessary) introduction to AMD’s X2 5000+ Black Box, let’s dig in and see what happened. System Setup I used two boards with this particular processor; the Gigabyte MA790FX-DQ6 which their latest high end model embracing the AMD 790FX chipset, and the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe which has been something of a workhorse since it was introduced. The rest of the components are shared between the boards.
The test bench in the raw. Nevermind the 8800 GTX, it was not actually used in this review. ThermalTake PurePower 600 Watt PS 2 x 1 GB Super Talent DDR-2 800 Seagate 7200.10 320 GB Hard Drive Lite-On DVD-R/RW Floppy Disk Drive NVIDIA 8800 GT at stock speeds Thermalright XP-90 Cooler
The Results Ok, so overall performance is a mixed bag. At stock speeds the 5000+ BBE is several percent slower than the 90 nm 5000+. Add a few more percent onto that when comparing it to the X2 5200+ (2 x 1 MB L2 cache). On the 790FX board I was able to achieve a core clock speed of 3.25 GHz with 1.45 volts. On the M2N32-SLI I was able to get 3.1 GHz with 1.375 volts. Two things immediately pop out at you. The first is that the 790FX board was able to achieve a better overclock than the more mature M2N32-SLI. Whether this is attributed merely to the overall design or the new power delivery system to the AM2+ socket, the newer board delivers a faster overclock. The second aspect that is pretty obvious is why there is such a big difference in voltage between the 3.25 GHz and 3.1 GHz results? Let us take that down another notch so we can see the trend. When overclocking to 3 GHz, the processor is at the stock 1.3 volts. To get it to 3.1 GHz we had to use 1.375 volts. To get it to 3.2 GHz and slightly above, 1.45 volts had to be applied. No matter how many volts were applied after that, the chip would not stay stable above 3.25 GHz. The power usage rose by about 30 watts with the overclock. The fan and heatsink used did not get overly warm at the higher levels, and was of course very cool at the stock 2.6 GHz. Conclusion AMD is doing their best to actively court the enthusiasts with their latest offerings. At $129.99 the X2 5000+ Black Box is a pretty good deal. It performs on par with products from Intel at that price point, and the unlocked multiplier gives the user a chance to really tweak their machine in as many ways possible. It is $10 more expensive than the slightly faster Athlon X2 5200+ running at 2.7 GHz, so that should be a consideration for the pocketbook. I cannot help but like the Black Box Edition, as it does all that it promises. Easy overclock, competitive performance, and a cool running unit at both stock and overclocked speeds. AMD is finally getting their 65 nm process in order, and it is really starting to churn out the 65 nm processors. This product should appeal to the budget enthusiast who is interested in the AM2/AM2+ platform and the potential to upgrade to a Phenom of some stripe in the future. It is a good placeholder for a much faster processor, and it certainly will push most of the current applications just fine. It is also a fun little processor to play around with. While my sample did not reach the lofty heights that other’s have, getting a 3.1 GHz to 3.2 GHz overclock with relative ease is nothing to sniff at. It is of course a crapshoot when it comes to getting a highly overclockable processor. Mileage will vary.
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