AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail [HDZ550WFGIBOX]

Reviewed by: Milkman (Isle of Man)

This is a great CPU for the price. Unfortunately I did not by from Overclockers, but I currently have this CPU clocked at 3.8ghz per core on stock voltages with stock cooling, not that I needed it as this runs any game on the market today. It idles at about 35 celcius and goes up to 55 on full load. Enough said

Reviewed by: Ian (Derbyshire)

These days id thought and had gone down hill and not worth looking at. Boy was u wrong. Used this in a system i built for a friend and its gobsmacking. Amazing value and its gonna last a long time. 5 stars well done amd

Reviewed by: mark (wales)

Absoloutley chuffed with this processor. Bought it as I was on a budget, and I'm so glad I did.

I bought it along with a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P motherboard to the sum of £140~, with the knowledge that if I wanted I could *possibly* unlock this to a quad core.

Anyway, once building my new system up, which included a sapphire 5770 and 4gb ocz obsidian ram I was chuffed to bits at the peformance this chip considering its price.

Its great at in games, and goes great with my 5770. I'd imagine it would be awesome with higher end cards aswell.

I managed to unlock this to a quad core in the bios, but have left it as a dual due for the time being as I'm still running the stock cooler and don't want to run it too hot.

All I can really say is this is an awesome chip for someone on a budget, I've come from a e2140 @ 1.6 ghz and the difference is massive.

One thing though, only buy one if your happy with a dual core. Its luck of the draw as to wether it will unlock or not!!

Reviewed by: Matt (Alsager)

Bought this today. Unlocked the other 2 cores , so in essence a quad core for half the price. Extremely happy!

Reviewed by: Dave (Birmingham)

Just bought this cpu from overclockers and can not believe the performance gains over my old Phenom 9650,
1/ it came with a brand new game which I was going to buy anyway which would cost me £30
2/ I have unlocked it to a quad core and overclocked it to 3.2Ghz without a voltage increase, so effectively I have got a £130 phenom 2 955 for £39.99 (minus the cost of the game)

Reviewed by: Ben (Chester)

I would give this chip 4 stars due to the price point making it somewhat pointless compared to the Athlon II X2's. However, this chip does come with a chance of unlocking disabled cores when coupled with an SB710 motherboard - giving you a PII X4 B50 which is radiculous value at this price. Even if you dont get a chip capable of this you still have a quality Dual core CPU.

Reviewed by: steve b (manchester)

easily runs 3.5ghz@blood temperature with a £20 cooler and deals with any gaming needs you care to mention- why spend a fortune?

Reviewed by: Jason (Stoke-on-trent)

This is my First build in many years the last build i did was when the Barton Cpu had just come out. As can be seen by the other reviews excellent tweeking properties. Im currently using it as it was supplied settings wise and im very happy, but i know if i get to a point where the Cpu starts to lag, with a few tweeks and not £££ i can get abit more out of the chip

Reviewed by: Dave (Cheshire)

Bought this for my first build budget gaming rig and I'm very happy with the speed of my machine and the performance of this CPU. Paired with an ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo AM3 socket motherboard you can unlock all 4 cores in seconds through the BIOS! What can I say, an AMD PhenomII QUAD core 3.1 for less than £80, unbelievable performance at a silly low price.
My whole rig came in at a snip over £500 (which includes an Antec 900 case and 650w Corsair PSU) and it absolutely flys...
Buy this processor :o)

Reviewed by: Vince (Norfolk)

Have to say this is an outstanding Dual Core CPU for the money.

Built a test rig with this CPU, Using a mid range board, Mid range graphics, 4 gig of Basic DDR2 ram, etc....!!!!

Basically a box of bits I had left over from previous upgrades.

Running with Win 7 64bit home premium, All set up as bog standard default values.

It fly's through everything I have thrown at it, Makes the older Athlon dual cores look like 486s...

Very chuffed, Got a flying machine, Made of spare parts, That cost almost nothing, By todays standards.

Reviewed by: Adam (Bolton)

Got one of these a few weeks back, sadly not from OCUK. Rock Solid Stable at 3.9ghz on air. searching for the right bios for a discounted quad core highly recomended

Reviewed by: Andrew Fryer (London)

Superb Processor.

Left BIOS voltage standard and clocked straight up to 18.5 multiplier. It will go higher but processor now not the rate limiting step......

Reviewed by: blim (isle of wight)

great, really happy with this as a heavy gamer This really hits the spot.

unlocked all cores with bios update with no problems. dont know much about clocking but i got 3.7ghz with stock cooler. keeping it at 3.4 with max 50c by the window :P

Reviewed by: jon (blyth)

cpu arrived today, brilliant service as always from overclockers,
up graded from a athlon 64 4000.
what a difference this cpu has made to my system, i havent overclocked it at the moment, for £77.99 this cpu is a give away, thanks

Reviewed by: Danny

Amazing value for money, if your lucky it may become a fully stable 4 core processor (with the right motherboard and bios settings).

I have mine at 3.7ghz at 1.42v, 1.2v nb vid, 1.2 nb, 2400 nb, 2000 ht (fully stable)

Even as a dual core processor it handles pretty much everything with ease.

Whilst not as fast at encoding, decoding and I/O operations as a i7 - if your a gamer, then the Phenom II close's the gap on the i7, sometimes superceding it.

Cost/performance ratio is amazing.

PS. If it does unlock, and you plan to overclock and have a highend graphics card - ensure you have a power supply that is capable to do this ( instability issues are often due to insufficient amps on the 12v rails or unclean power)

Reviewed by: Mac

Put this in my new build and Overclocked it to 3.5Ghz with just a simple BIOS tweak and is a paragon of rock solid stability.

It could easily go upto 3.8 or 3.9Ghz with a voltage tweak, but why bother?...its fast enough as it is.

It is simply blazing fast in gaming, CPU intensive emulators, in fact just about anything you can throw at it.

To get this performance at just £80 is remarkable.....

Until Quad core CPU's become essential in gaming, save yourself some cash and get a better GPU...

Well done AMD.

Reviewed by: Gis

Purchased this cpu to replace my 5600+
Pro`s
Its a Phenom2
Has 6 mb L3 cache
Its easily over clockerable
Its backwards compatibility with AM2+ boards
Its the best amd dual cpu to date

cons
none really except the stock fan its quite naff but thats me being petty

Had this running stable @ 3.9 ghz with a artic freezer Pro cooler but wind it back to 3.5 ghz with no voltage changes

Summary a really cheap & worth while upgrade to those on a budget

Reviewed by: robert scriven

Brilliant cpu, running at 3.9ghz at 1.39 volts, hoping to unlock the extra 2 cores with a different motherboard.