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We have collected 2 reviews of the AMD Phenom II X4 905E. Experts rate AMD Phenom II X4 905E 7/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the AMD Phenom II X4 905E and AMD Processors.
How much are you willing to pay for improved power consumption and lower thermals? If you're a home cinema addict, reduced noise and smaller form factors are certainly desirable. For a price, the AMD Phenom II X4 905E promises to make all that possible.Like its Athlon II X4 610E sibling, the 905E is a low-power variant of a familiar AMD processor. In this case, it's the full-on Deneb die found in high performance processors like the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. You therefore get all four cores and the full 6MB of L3 cache memory.What you don't get is high clockspeeds. The Phenom II X4 905E runs at 2.5GHz. However, it's also rated at 65 Watts. That's a small fraction of the 140 Watt TDP of a high end quad-core AMD processor. For a chip that trades on efficiency, the AMD Phenom II X4 905E's results in our platform power consumption tests are ugly. Using optimised motherboard settings, it actually consumes more power than the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. Something is clearly not right. Very likely, it's a problem related to voltage settings and our test board's BIOS. Anyway, two obvious lessons come out of this.
The small ‘e' tacked onto this Phenom II's model denotes that it is an energy efficient CPU.Looking at the chip's maximum thermal design power (TDP) confirms this, as it is rated for a maximum consumption of just 65-Watts. When strapped into our test bed this processor proved to be a cool operator; it's idle and load temperatures were just 39- and 44-degrees Celsius, using a stock AMD cooler. As a result this CPU is a decent buy for those looking to build a compact and silent HTPC machine using an AMD platform. It'll also save you money in the long run - despite its initial high price - because of its restricted appetite for power.Unfortunately despite its cool-running nature the 905e isn't an overclocking beast because unlike the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, this CPU isn't multiplier unlocked. Running the CPU through our benchmarking gauntlet the 905e proved the slowest processor in this grouptest; it simply couldn't keep pace with Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. However, considering its 500MHz clock deficit it kept pace quite well with the faster clocked Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition.