Phenom II X4 820 2.8GHz 4x512KB L2/4MB L3 Socket AM3 Quad-Core CPU

The company I bought this processor from replaced the processor in a bunch of their systems with a newer model then boxed this processor with the stock heatsink from the new processor and sold it on Amazon. I feel like I got a great deal from this seller. To be honest I'd have prefered an Intel processor, but I can't afford the processors. The AMD processors give good performance, but tend to draw more power because AMD's fabrication isn't as new as Intel's. I'll keep buying AMD as long as Intel is priced out of my budget, but if I land some $$$ in the future I'd prefer to buy an Intel Broadwell or newer processor.

It was cheap and is the fastest processor that I could find that is compatible with my ancient AM2 board. It should help my old computer keep running until something else dies on it or Windows 7 is no longer is supported.

CPU arrived while I was traveling, so I didn't get to install it right away and when I did, it would not boot. Even my old damaged CPU will still boot. The cpu's are identical. When I tried to go through the return process, Entermedia responded right away that it would be highly unlikely that their CPU would not boot and that my damaged one would (I am an IT professional, I know what I am doing), but that I could return it no questions asked. But when I read the fine print, it read that used items, which this was, had to be returned within 7 days--It was more than 7 days before I'd even tried to install it. I called Entermedia, left a voicemail, but they've never returned my call.

This was purchased as an upgrade from an old AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+. Benchmarking shows that it is almost exactly twice as fast per core and has an added bonus of two extra cores. Unfortunately instead of the price going down it is going up dramatically. If you can afford to build a new PC it would be better to do so. However if you have no other option and have an AM3 board with an old slow processor (for example using an AM2 dual-core in an AM3 board like I was), then the Phenom II X4s are good if you can find a decent price for one. This was the best deal I could find on a Phenom II X4. Most X4s are well over the $300 mark (up from $70 - $200). This one was about $100 at the time of purchase. While true it would be better to get something like an I3 or even the newer AMD CPUs, this was a drop-in replacement, so I didn't have to spend another $400 for a new PC core on top of the CPU. I do like this CPU, but the price on it kills any real value. At best it extended the life of this old PC for another year or two.

New speed to an old machine!