Black edition query

[trustafox]

I've been looking at getting a Phenom II x2 but have a burning question mark in my mind which is this:

You can get a Phenom II BE 550, 555, 560 and 565. Each increasing in speed. Now with them being BE's and unlocked multipliers, whats the point of having a range of cpu speeds when, if I'm right, you can clock a 550 to run the same as a 565. so why doesn't everyone just buy the cheaper 550? instead of any of the others?

Am I missing something here?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Because the higher rated ones pass a higher level of test, maybe the 560 stock is unstable at 565 speeds, so its binned to a lower category
I'm sure someone else will fill in more completely but thats basically it
Moto

 

[jim45682]

Sure you can buy the cheaper 550 and clock it to be as fast as the 565, but you can also clock the 565 to be even faster since it starts out at a higher speed, it has a higher threshold of where it can be stable <in theory>
So that 550 at stock 3.1 speed might get to 3.8 stable but the 565 at 3.4 stock might be able to go over 4.0

 

[trustafox]

Sure you can buy the cheaper 550 and clock it to be as fast as the 565, but you can also clock the 565 to be even faster since it starts out at a higher speed, it has a higher threshold of where it can be stable <in theory>
So that 550 at stock 3.1 speed might get to 3.8 stable but the 565 at 3.4 stock might be able to go over 4.0

I think that makes reasonable sense. So a 550 is a poor quality 565!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Pretty much yes, they are all from the same wafer, deneb,thuban etc,
its just that some are higher quality than others so some get graded as lower end chips, they are fine for what they are, just not 'acceptable' as the higher versions
Moto