System Builder Marathon, March 2011: $500 Gaming PC

CPU And Cooler

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 925

The quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 925 has four 512 KB L2 repositories and a heaping 6 MB of shared L3 cache. This 45 nm Deneb-based processor runs at 2.8 GHz and has a 95 W thermal design limit. Our C3 stepping HDX925WFGMBOX has since been deactivated, but the older C2 revision is now back in stock.

Read Customer Reviews of AMD's Phenom II X4 925

CPU Cooler: AMD Retail Boxed Heatsink & Fan

Unfortunately, this boxed cooler uses a small, all-aluminum heatsink, and not the copper heatpipe-based design bundled with the more expensive 125 W Black Edition chips.

The thin 70 mm x 70 mm x15 mm PWM fan is fairly quiet at idle, but easily audible as it approaches its 3000+ RPM maximum speed.