This processor is hard to beat for the price. The stock heatsink looks like it would be noisy; I used a Noctua NH-9LA low-profile CPU cooler. Since this machine is for my partner, instead of the usual overclocking route many people tend toward I left the clock speed and turbo settings at stock and lowered the CPU voltage 0.03 across the board. Even with all 8 cores running (using Handbrake to encode several DVD movies), that little 0.03 voltage drop lowered my CPU power down to a peak of 66 watts, according to HWiNFO64. No stability issues when running at 4 GHZ (two or three cores running full-tilt) or when running all 8 cores loaded at 3.2 GHZ with this reduced voltage.
Since my CPU cooler isn't rated for 95 watts I didn't attempt any serious overclock, but without adjusting voltages I was able to bump the base clock to 3.5 GHZ and the turbo clocks up to 3.8 GHZ and 4.2 GHz, respectively. I expect the frequency increase would push the processor out of the 95 watt range, but not by a large amount. I'm not sure how stable the overclock would be, but it ran Elder Scrolls Online for an hour or so without any glitches, and that's with my 65 watt CPU cooler.
I have been waiting to replace my old Core i3 work rig with a Ryzen setup when they are released, but I am seriously considering just buying another one of these and waiting to see what happens with Ryzen in a year or so.
My build (for my partner):
Corsair Carbide 100R Tower
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GS 650W fully modular 80+ gold power supply
MSI 970A Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard
Noctua NH-9LA CPU cooler
(RAM, SSD, and video card were from the previous computer).
| Processor | 4 GHz amd_fx |
|---|---|
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Memory Speed | 1866 MHz |
| Wireless Type | 802.11a |
