Tom's Hardware: "The new Thuban-based six-core Phenom II X6 processor is available in two different flavors: 2.8 GHz and 3.2 GHz. Both come with the new Turbo CORE feature that dynamically increases the clock rate of up to three cores. However, the Phenom II X6 doesn’t necessarily run at maximum efficiency when it's operated at stock speeds. In fact, a reasonable overclock provides a solid increase in performance per watt.
Today we determine the ideal clock speed and look at the maximum overclocking speeds using air cooling, because this is where you want justification for spending those extra dollars compared to quad-core processors."
Benchmark Reviews: Enthusiasts have lost sight of the original purpose behind overclocking, which was made popular because it could make something slow become fast, thereby getting something more for your money. Then at some point the computer industry went from asking consumers to pay more for the faster products, to demanding you pay more for products you might be able to make faster. This article will focus on one of the lesser-known threats to the desktop PC platform: overclocking.
I think it's always been about bragging rights more than need. Forget about the special products to facilitate those users who wanted to overclock and can afford it. If you're a true overclocker, you won't buy any of the off-the-shelf, top-line overclockable products, but instead take more simple hardware to a faster level -- like the article says. It's all about the challenge. That said, fast hardware is cheaper than ever these days and unless you're a hobbyist, it's not really worth overclocking.
What’s the real benefit of six cores versus five, four, three, two, or one? This article looks at the performance, power, and efficiency of AMD's Thuban-based six-core Phenom II X6 1090T processor running with several different core configurations.
