AMD Phenom II X6 1055T - Phenom II X6 Thuban 6-Core 2.8 GHz Socket AM3 125W Desktop Processor - HDT55TFBGRBOX

Pros: It's a six core 64-bit CPU for less than $170. How can you possibly go wrong? You really cant. And unlike certain competitors I could name, AMD includes a pretty decent stock fan with the processor itself - you don't really need to buy another one because this one is easy to set and doesn't break easily when you remove it. It's also my first foray into AMD territory in a long time - the last AMD processor I had was the K62. It was really easy to setup and I'm impressed with the way it's running Windows 7.

Cons: AMD motherboards are very hit or miss. It took me three tries to get one that worked correctly - the Gigabyte and MSI boards I tried failed almost immediately, and after two or three returns to Newegg, I wound up going with the Asus M4A87TD Evo and it's worked perfectly fine ever since. It's certainly not the CPU's fault - but with motherboards I've learned that you get what you pay for, and it's certainly the case going with a processor as good as the Phenom II is.

Overall Review: I wish I had bought one of these for my home system!

Pros: Ran very well, perhaps beyond what I'd expected even without active overclocking. I do 3d animation and games, and it worked very, very well at stock speeds.

Cons: With extra spice comes extra heat, beyond what I was expecting even for a 6-core. The night of day 36, the computer shut down. The system accepted power and the motherboard was okay, but the top of the processor had burned through the thermal goo and strip, and burned itself out. Having burned the goo, it apparently made it act as a glue instead, as when the heatsink was removed, the processor pulled out of the motherboard right along with it. It took a toothpick, razor and a peice of construction paper to macguyver the two apart without causing external damage.

Overall Review: My thought is that this is a poorly designed stock heatsink. I've been building computers for almost a decade, plus I had some friends take a look themselves and they've not seen this kind of thing. While it seems like the heatsink was working well, it seems under a load, the processor is simply too much for it. If you buy this, assuming it isn't later found to be a design flaw, I really do encourage you to look into high performance heatsinks. It's usually a good practice to begin with, especially for overclockers - which I am not - and may cost more on a processor like this, but it's that or you risk ending up like me, and out the full price plus what's lost by having the computer disabled until a replacement arrives.