AMD FX-6300 - FX-6000 Series Vishera 6-Core 3.5 GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor - FD6300WMHKBOX

Pros: This FX-8350 is a beast, pure and simple. One of the best "bang for your buck" processors on the market at the moment. Easy to overclock. I got 4.3GHz out of the box, stable, only using the motherboards (Sabertooth 990FX) default performance profile. I went to 4.5GHz on all 8 cores, stable, with only minor tweaking. However, do NOT attempt to OC unless you know what you're doing and fully understand the risks. In all reality, there is no need to overclock this processor, out of the box, at it's default speeds, it will handle just about anything you throw at it, period. There are a lot of "benchmarks" out there, so there is no point in me repeating them, what I will do it give some examples of it's real world performance being at the core of my gaming rig. The FX-8350 will handle any modern gaming tasks with out even breaking a sweat. It makes short work of all the "3's", Arma, Battlefield, Bioshock, Crysis, ect. I have yet to slow it down and I have tested a lot games on it so far, in addition to the aforementioned titles, Metro Last Light, Tomb Raider, Defiance, and many others. This processor performs well above it's price point at the core of a high-end gaming rig. I also live stream to Twitch, record via Fraps, and host the occasional game server on my system, in all cases, the FX-8350 handles it easily. Day to day usage, such as social media, HD video playback, and general "work" pose little challenge to this, or any modern processor. This thing is meant to handle much more. Yes, it's not going to beat a high-end, and much more expensive, Intel chip when it comes to raw computation, but at it's price point it don't have too. I got this processor for my main rig since most of what I do on it, is gaming, editing, and broadcasting. Three tasks it can handle just as good as much more expensive options. So if you're a gamer, looking for a inexpensive high-end processor, then the FX-8350 should be intensely considered. There are a lot of other longer reviews, and this is a lot shorter that what I normally write. The whole point I am trying to convey is that this is a great processor, it beastly for gaming, and at this price point it's hard to beat. All you need to do is couple this processor with other good high-end hardware, and it will game as hard as you want it too.

Cons: None as of yet. It's stable, running cool, and doing everything I am asking of it. One thing to note is that single-threaded games, especailly older ones, are not this processors strong point. It handles multi-threaded modern games far better. However, I have yet to find a single-threaded game it don't easily handle.

Overall Review: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 (This) AMD FX-8350 @ 4.3GHz ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 XFX DD Radeon 7970 Black Edition EVGA GT 640 (Hybrid Dedicated Physx) Corsair Professional HX850W PSU Seagate 600 240GB SSD Multiple Western Digital Black SATA 6 drives. Cooler Master HAF 932 I am running it at 4.3GHz since, even though I had it Prime95 stable at 4.5GHz, becasue I am currently running on air (Thermaltake Frio), and there is little to no gaming difference between 4.3 and 4.5, so there is no point. I will see how far I can push it after I do my water conversion. I tend to "baby" my hardware, once I know it's limits. This processor was purchased as an upgrade from the Phenom II X6 1090T (OC @ 3.8GHz). Also a fantastic processor in it's own right, but it was time to retire it to a secondary system. There is a noticeable gaming improvement between the two processors, more so in the more demanding titles. The FX-8350 is also faster when it comes to multi-threaded applications. This is comparing the 1090T at it's 3.8GHz OC and the FX-8350 at it's stock 4.0GHz. Kudos to AMD for improving over Zambezi, which I decided to skip since the 1090T pretty much beat it across the board. This FX-8350 Vishera is a great processor at a great price. Keep calm and game on!

Pros: I love this CPU. It takes a lot of stress and never blinks. SYSTEM - FX 8350 Crosshair V Fomula Z Corsair H100i Seasonic SS660 Platinum X2 G-Skill Trident X 2400 2 x 4 Gbs MSI HD 7770 Corsair Vengeance C70 Gunmetal Black Case I have an everyday clock of 4.6 Ghz @ 1.415v and it's fast and stable. With the H100i I clocked it to 4.8 @ 1.435 and hit 57C stable under 100% load. This chip never blinked. I don't want to push over 5 Ghz without full W/C, I could if I chose to but there is no way I would run that 24/7. 4.6 is plenty fast I get some amazing bench's with this setup at 4.6 and memory @ 2000 10-11-10-30. My Physics score in 3D mark 11 went from 3900 to 7100 just by replacing the FX 4100 with the FX 8350, everything else was the same even the clocks.

Cons: None - Zero - Nada - Bubkis

Overall Review: If you like AMD get this and the Crosshair V Formula Z, you will not be sorry. When I get better graphics I will have the perfect system in my opinion.

Pros: Excellent cpu. 8 core means excellent virtual os capabilities. Unlocked, so is easily overclocked, but so far no need. Lots of processing power when needed.

Cons: Pricey. Sure to get cheaper when newer processors emerge.

Overall Review: Thor V.2 gaming case Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 MB AMD FX-8350 AM3+ 4.0 GHz 8 core processor Corsair H100i water cooler Gigabyte GV-N6600C-2GD GeForce GTX 660 video card G.Skill Ripjaws X series 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600 Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SATA III MLC SSD os drive 2 Seagate SV3 series ST1000 VX000 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 6.0 GB/ sec : in RAID 1 Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold series RS800-80GAD3-US 800w power supply

Pros: This makes the 2nd of these little 8-Core beauties that I've bought and believe me, I've been using the 1st one now for OVER a year without ANY problems. IF I didn't love the 1st one I wouldn't be buying another one. I got this one on sale for $129.99 which was a steal. This particular Processor is going in my NEW Server I'm building along with 16GB of Memory and a bunch of 4TB HD's. + PRICE + Speed + 8-Cores

Cons: NOT A ONE!!! NONE!!! NADA!!! Whoops, I'm wrong! My ONE COMPLAINT is the Measly "SO CALLED" Fan they included with this processor. If you have ANY brains, get rid of it and go with an aftermarket Fan OR better yet a Water Cooled System.

Overall Review: Granted that Intel has faster CPU's, but they can't beat the Price of this beauty and definitely not in an 8-Core Processor! CONCLUSION: Would I buy another one of these for myself??? I already did!!! Would I recommend this to others to buy??? YES, I would!!!

Pros: - 8-cores and easy to OC. - The architecture is handled well in Linux [Slackware] and Windows 8. But not so great in Windows 7 (about a 10% performance handicap.) - Using all cores, it encodes 720p Bluray to .mkv file at ~180FPS, Encodes standard 480p MKV/AVI file to DVD at 350-450FPS (I've seen it spike up to 500FPS.) -Marginally better than my 1090 Thuban x6 processor in everyday performance. Honestly, had I gotten a watercooler for the Thuban and OC'd to 4Ghz, I wouldn't have even needed to upgrade to this proc. The only benefits I've seen so far are a few FPS in gaming and encoding video files. - Runs cool (compared to Bulldozer, from what I read.) I have it on a Cooler Master all-in-one water cooler which keeps it around 22c idle with Cool and Quiet on, and 57c on 100% all cores. Not bad at all. - Better hardware instruction set for AES. Super fast AES en/decryption. You can nearly play some games on system encryption. - No need to upgrade your entire system. AMD is doing a great job sticking to AM3+ sockets. That way there's no need to continuously dump money into new mobo's and components to work with your new proc. - That multithreaded performance!

Cons: - Not really a con, but it won't run on linux kernel 2.6 for some reason. Probably incomatible. It runs flawless on kernel 3, however. And performance is significantly improved with the powernow-k8 modules loaded. Any kernel 2.6 distro I try to boot only gives an error. - Gaming, I haven't benched it, and I haven't really noticed a difference. But a big selling point was reading that this proc gives +30FPS over my 1090T in WoW..I haven't noticed such an improvement, honestly. Actually on WoW it's a bit choppy with 16x anisotropic and ultra settings..my 6950 SHOULD chew that up and spit it out. Hoping the crossfire setup will be an improvement. On Fallout New Vegas, Left4Dead II, and Grand Theft Auto IV there isn't any choppiness however. All maxed out. (I think WoW is just a poor quality game overall.)

Overall Review: Overall this is a great proc. I've been committed to AMD since I moved from an Intel PIII back in the day and started building my own computers. They have affordable, capable processors. This proc works exceptionally well with my XFX 695x (soon to be crossfired with an MSI 6950.) It's nice to run the make -j8 flag when compiling in Linux (and boot with the cpus=8 flag), and really with any program that uses multiple cores it absolutely shines. I decided to upgrade when I looked up the benchmarks compared to my 1090T X6 and it proved to be marginally better. Also, newegg was sold out, so I had to resort to getting it from TD (and paid +$13 to still ship WAY slower than Newegg.) It was a hard decision, and as fate has it the day after I ordered they were back in stock. I am extremely committed to Newegg, yet my antsiness had the best of me. TD's shipping is absolutely horrid..and definitely learned my lesson from straying away. If you check out the benchmarks, this proc is head to head with the i7 on some of the tests, falls way behind on others, and even comes out a little ahead on a few. If you're in the market for a budget build, definitely consider this. Especially if you already have an AM3+ motherboard socket. If you can hold off with what you have now, the next generation is also expected to be the same socket type as well, so it may be wise to hold off for that one, but it may be a year or more away from December 2012. Now I'm not completely against Intel or the i7. If you have the money, then by all means. The i7 Ivy Bridge is a great processor and is even superior in a sense. My preferences and loyalties, however, lay with AMD.

Pros: I've had this cpu so long i forgot how long it was.Maybe 2 years 3 mos.Anyway i bought it when it first came out.Guess what ? As on Feb 2015 it is still top of the line!` This cpu DOES NOT NEED TO BE OVERCLOCKED,why bother?There are only a handful of motherboards that will allow a stable overclock 24/7 here in south florida.If you feel the need to ramp up the volts and your electric bill please feel free to use the couple high end fx boards that accept the 9xxx series cpus.Then overclock the 8350 the way it was meant to be overclocked.

Cons: Runs hot even at stock speeds you need either water cooling or an excellent top of the line AFTERMARKET fan/heatsink.With year round house temps in the upper 70s there is no cutting corners.

Overall Review: I have been building desktops since 1999 and it is just insane that the fx-8350 can kick booty for well over 2 years and still be one of the fastest cpus on the planet! Keep your case clean and make sure you do not skimp on the fan and with the latest graphic cards running beside it ,you will have one awesome gaming desktop .I recommend the low watt nvidia 9XX series ,which you will have some extra money to maybe buy a gtx 970 after you purchase this cpu and aftermarket fan.

Pros: Plop it in to the board and away you go. Does what it advertises. I have used AMD for years and never been disappointed (aside for the thing in the cons).

Cons: Included heat sink and fan are garbage! Idled around 50 C. Computer would last a few hours before over-heating and turning off. I replaced the included thermal compound with Arctic Silver 5 and didn't improve much (it was properly applied). I finally replaced the stock heatsink and fan with an old Zalman I bought +5 years ago for an AM2. Instantly dropped the temps by 15 C across the board. No more thermal shutdowns. Plan on buying a better cooler if you use this CPU!

Overall Review: The stock cooler appeared to be aluminum, but very cheaply made and the surface that makes contact with the CPU is very rough. Not polished at all.

Pros: Price, power, 8 core, overclock ability is amazing, fast memory speed, Value, Power house rendering and cpu intensive projects a breeze.

Cons: High Wattage, gets hot, water cooling is advised.

Overall Review: While the competition still claims victory.. victory comes at a very high price. Save your money and go with this overclocker for power, performance value and excitement.