AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR Black Edition Processor Review

• HotHardware:
  
  

  "Under dry ice, the TWKR produced admirable results, but we weren't able to achieve the kind of overclocks these chips are known for. Even our watercooling overclock was surprisingly average. So what gives? The main culprit is cooling, according to AMD. For the TWKR to reach its fullest potential, liquid nitrogen or liquid helium must be used. Doing so would allow for a much higher overclock, "dropping (cooler base) temps from -70C to -188C makes a huge difference in terms of TWKR clockspeeds. You would likely get another GHz or more extra speed with LN2" we were told. The lesson here is to not skimp on the cooling when it comes to the TWKR. Once we get a hold of some liquid nitrogen or helium, we will post some more results and update this article. For now, here's a glimpse of what some others were able to achieve."

  
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• Legit Reviews:
  
  

  "At the end of the day the AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR processor was a blast to play with. Compared to our two retail Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processors the TWKR was around 100MHz higher through 3DMark06, but a whopping 300MHz higher with the CPU-Z max frequency. If we can source more LN2 it'd be interesting to see how each individual core performs but overall it is safe to say the TWKR will scale roughly 100MHz to 200MHz higher than the average retail Phenom II X4 955 no matter what cooling method you are using.
  
  Reaching nearly 6.6GHz on a Phenom II X4 processor was an awesome experience and it just goes to show how far these cores can go with the right cooling. AMD has done a great job with the Phenom II processors and the TWKR edition processors really highlight that success."

  
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