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SCAM OF THE DAY: "Phenom" X4-840

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  • 26-04-2011 7:48pm
    #1
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    A warning in case you don't know, as I've seen no mention of it here so far: AMD is now playing the name game as fraudulently and unethically as nVidia in the industry's race to the bottom.

    Those of you scouting components lately have undoubtedly tripped over a great bargain: the Phenom X4-840, a powerful 3.2GHz quad doing the rounds for a very low €85 in most places.

    If you checked the tech specs, you may have noticed a slight oddity that the L3 cache size isn't specced. It happens. Except in this case, there's a very good reason... when is a Phenom not a Phenom? When its an Athlon of course! :pac: Although you'd never realise this unless your spidey-sense told you to Google the discrepancy and check AMD's official datasheet. A search which turns up a bunch of scam warnings...

    Phenom 900-series chips have 6MB of L3, 800-series chips have 4MB. This CPU has a total of ZERO L3 cache. And its not a Stars core either, its a Propus. So in other words its an Athlon X4-650... only AMD has in their dubious wisdom renamed it the "Phenom X4-840" despite having the wrong friggin' die inside. The only possible reason is to make punters think they're getting a bargain when in actual fact they're being taken for a ride :mad:


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    #2
    GEasy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,692 ✭✭✭GEasy


    This is why I frequent this forum :)
    Peeps like you in the know :cool:


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    #3
    Monotype
    Registered Users Posts: 6,710 ✭✭✭Monotype


    This is old news. :pac: I saw that in a review two months ago or so. I guess I should have shared it though :o
    That's pretty much the reason why I've been recommending the 955 when it's affordable.

    However, I did notice a slight improvement on the power consumption from the 600s in some reviews.
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Phenom_II_X4_840/10.html

    Higher binned? Lower voltage?


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    #4
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    I'm only counting since they really hit the retail channel and no-one posted anything so once I bumped into them I felt it was the responsible thing to do :p

    Yeah, they're surprisingly frugal, AMD has been improving the Propus and Stars cores constantly since introduction to the point where they have rolling updates every few weeks now with an extra 100MHz here and some power consumption shaved off there... I'm fairly sure the 840, despite being fast, is also the best, highest-binned Propus silicon out there.


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