AMD A6-6400K - A6 Series Richland Dual-Core 3.9 GHz Socket FM2 65W AMD Radeon HD Desktop Processor - Black Edition - AD640KOKHLBOX

Pros: More than adequate performance for all but the most demanding tasks, much stronger graphics than the competition, low power consumption, great price.

Cons: Dual core, not for heavily multithreaded software. Not the best choice for very intensive gaming.

Overall Review: I picked up an A6-6400K off another site as a CPU to use for an HTPC project not too long ago. It's more than capable of that job, far above the requirements for any kind of workload like that. In single-threaded applications, I can't tell the difference between this and my FX-8350 based big rig, or my i7 office computer.

If you look around the Internet, you'll see a lot of negative reviews of this and other AMD APU's. Don't pay them any mind, they're based on ridiculous assumptions to start with. Yes, Intel processors have stronger CPU performance--performance you'll never need or use in the types of applications that APU's are called for. They also have dreadful on-board graphics performance--performance you DO need and use. A-Series APU's have real AMD Radeon GPU's on board, and even the cheap A6 can be used to play a lot of games if you're willing to turn the settings down. And then there's the fact that even Intel dual-core i3's cost about twice what this APU does. For that price, you could get this and add a Radeon 6570 for Crossfire and do some serious gaming with it.

Anyway, it's a steal at these prices, and so are the quad-core APU's in the $100 range. CPU performance is more than good enough, and graphics are by far the best in class. Not even close. And the 65W rating on this is very conservative. Most of the time, my whole rig pulls about 42W at the wall, and only hit 78W under load, for everything.

Pros: Price and power consumption are great. Quite responsive for regular tasks if you have a fast SSD. Definitely worth the money.

Cons: I did not count on video becoming sluggish if the processor is taxed with for example a chess game. I guess that is the drawback of having video and processing on the same chip.

Will not run 2 monitors, even if they are showing the same thing. That upset my Mom...I made this for her. She wanted to see her internet show on her big TV. It can be done but switching wires or adding an HDMI switch. It might require a reboot as well.

Overall Review: Runs hotter than I would have guessed given its low Wattage: About 55c. The boxed heat sink must not be very good. That is not dangerously hot...but its life might not be too long. But I tend to want a machine that really lasts. If you do too, maybe a better heat sink is in order.

Would like to have known beforehand that it could not run 2 monitors.