AMD Athlon64 X2 4200EE Review @ Neoseeker
Neoseeker reviews the AMD Athlon64 X2 4200EE cpu, which is the energy efficient version of the standard X2 4200+. Neoseeker writes in the conclusion:
This chip definitely presents some interesting numbers for those intrigued by the low power concept. Here’s a quick rundown of everything we noticed with this chip.
- We’ve tested the chip at stock speeds - and found that it performs pretty much how we would expect it to, compared to its slower (AM2 X2 3800+) and faster (AM2 X2 5000+) brothers.
- After finding its limits, we even got it to perform in the same ballpark as a stock FX-62 - for much less money. Granted, it did not overclock as high as we might have hoped, but 2.79GHz is nothing to sneeze at.
- It really does save some power - up to 18W under full load, and 11W when idling on the windows desktop.
Is the savings worth the price premium? For the average home user, the answer is ‘NO’. It would take 2-3 years of “normal” use before the price differential was recouped.
For a server farm, the answer is “YES”. The price differential could be saved back in little time, and the savings over longer terms can be quite worthwhile. This chip does foreshadow roughly the power consumption we should see when AMD moves to 65nm - as all their X2 5000 and lower rating 65nm processors are rated at 65W TDP - the same as this X2 4200EE. This should definitely make things more interesting as far as overclocking ability goes, and we wouldn’t be suprised to again see an EE range of processors pop up sometime after the launch of the 65nm Athlon 64’s. In the meantime, the chips that are available now do what they are intended to do very well and will be a good choice for those who deem the heat and energy savings an important buying decision factor.
Read the full review of the AMD Athlon X2 4200EE here.