AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition Processor Reviewed

AMD recently released its Athlon X2 7000 series processors. Initially, three (3) models make up the series: Athlon X2 7550 2.5 GHz, Athlon X2 7750 2.7 GHz, and Athlon X2 7750 BE 2.7 GHz (Black Edition, features unlocked multiplier).

Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition Features:

• Codename: Kuma
• Socket AM2+
• 65 nm production process
• Stars (K10) Microarchitecture
• 2 Cores
• 2.7 GHz Clock frequency
• L1 cache: 2 x 64+64 KB
• L2 cache: 2 x 512 KB
• L3 cache: 2 MB
• Dual-channel DDR2-800/1066 SDRAM Memory Controller
• 3.6 GHz HyperTransport bus frequency
• 1.8/2.0 GHz Integrated North Bridge frequency
• 95W TDP
• 450 mln Transistors

"What also really impressed me was unexpected, the ease in overclocking. As stated in our article, we used an uber low-end standard stock air cooler on the processor and still were able to clock it to 3200 / 3300 MHz. I would not be surprised to see many of you clock this puppy to 3.4 - 3.7 GHz fairly easy with nothing more than proper air cooling, and sure, that again brings more value to the table. ... None the less, with the Athlon X2 series 7000 AMD brings mature, stable and extremely affordable processors to the market. It'll be fast enough for most modern applications on a Vista platform, and as such comes very recommended. Also I just realized what an excellent and affordable processor this would be for a HTPC. Very nice." [Guru3D | AMD Athlon X2 7750 BE review]

"Objectively speaking, new Athlon X2 7000 series processors will hardly be able to improve AMD's market standing at this time. The thing is that even though the top Athlon X2 7750 from the Kuma generation turned out faster than the top Brisbane CPU, the advantage is not very significant overall. On average the improvement makes only 3-5%. Moreover, other Athlon X2 7000 series models will not be able to offer any improvement over the already existing Athlon X2 from 5000 and 6000 series. ... Unfortunately, Athlon X2 7000 have the same problem as the Phenom CPUs: the combination of low frequency potential and high power consumption do not let us see the progress that we could have seen otherwise." [X-bit Labs | AMD Launches "Phenom X2": AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition Review]

One of the most interesting aspects of the Athlon X2 7750 (and the other two Athlon X2 7000 series processors) is its pricing: the Athlon X2s will be cheaper than comparable processors (in terms of stock performance) from Intel. Those who need a dual core system can benefit from immediate savings on the processor when going the Athlon X2 7000 series route.

IceRocket : 7550, amd athlon x2 7750, black edition, kuma