AMD A8-5600K - A-Series APU Trinity Quad-Core 3.6GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W AMD Radeon HD 7560D Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic - AD560KWOHJBOX

Pros: *Configurable TDP - 45w / 65w
*Very affordable price - purchased on sale for 65 bones
*Smooth Performer in the calc heavy KML reports we run
*Paired with the Transcend SSD - Windows 8.1 boots in to the desktop in 12 Seconds and is ready to go by 25.
*Overall Excellent Value

Cons: *Power Usage at load is a tad high - by a tad I mean 120 Watts peak with 4 instances of CPU BurnIn 100% on all cores. :( This was on the 45w TDP setting in the bios!!! Soooo, yeah... i didn't bother testing the 65w setting as the number would probably be worse lol.

Overall Review: Purchased as a new Data Team / Developer PC build for a new employee it easily meets our new team members needs dealing with the heavy data loads he throws at it. We paired this APU with a Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-HD2 board, 8GB of Corsair 1866 Ram & a Transcend 128GB SSD powered by an Antec Earthwatts 380w 80+ certified PSU. Numbers below were observed on the 45w setting, and considering how well it performed I saw no reason to crank it up to 65w.

Idle - Lowest observed 23w Avg. 24.5 to 25w
Moderate Use - 34.5w - 42w (Youtube videos, web browsing, etc)
Moderate / Heavy - 65 - 78w
Load - KML & Google Earth, CPU BurnIn - 78w Avg. 100w Max

As for temperatures, I don't think CPUID's HW Monitor is accurate with temperatures for these APU's at times. HW Monitor gave me the following numbers.

Idle: 38c, Use: 42-55c Load: 87c

After seeing the 87c max after running CPU BurnIn and putting my finger to socket and it not feeling anywhere near that temp I broke out my Rosewill Laser Thermometer for a second opinion. Ans as I suspected the temps were no where near 87. I ran BurnIn again and saw 56c with a peak of 63c. So,if you get this chip and use CPUID...subtract 20c from what you see and that's is more accurate. No way was 38c idle correct when I touched the sink and it was cold. So there you have it... I'd still recommend it as its a great performer and won't disappoint you.

Pros: Good little CPU, lower cost than Intel but not as strong, but for the budget builds will do just fine.
On sale often, so can save a few more bucks
APU so no video card required, good for those Internet users.
Can overclock, got mine to 4.5GHz without care for heat on a budget mobo

Cons: Heat is a concern. Prime95 hitting this full load made temperature get a bit high. Sensors on board are sketchy, had lmsensors not able to report (known and not fixable according to dev) and CoreTemp reports nothing.
Not a true quad core. It is 2 physical cores that acts as 4. While not a huge problem for my builds (2), is a notice.

Overall Review: None