AMD's initial quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor was the fastest chip to date for the socket AM3 platform, and was quite affordable at the release price of $265 CDN (that price has now dropped to $195 as well). The 140W Phenom II X4 965BE used up a whole lot of power, topping PCSTATS' power test benchmark. Fortunately it didn't take long for AMD to release its follow-up act, a Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor that's been revised for a 125W TDP. AMD has also brought the processor's overall price down to just $199 CDN ($195 USD, £117 GBP) so it can compete directly with Intel's Core i5 750 processor.

In terms of performance the AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE running at 3.4GHz is almost exactly on par with the Core i5 750 CPU - both processors winning a few benchmarks against the other. Intel's processors do require a more substantial platform investment, while AMD has gone to great pains to keep the socket AM3 Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) cross-platform friendly.

AMD's socket AM3 processors like the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is a wonderful degree of backwards compatibility with Socket AM2+ and AM2 motherboards, not to mention bilingual memory support for DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. That's set to change in 2010 as AMD roadmaps transition to DDR3, but for the time being you've got your pick of super-cheap DDR2 memory and a vast selection of AMD motherboards.

Overclocking is the name of the game with every Black Edition processor, and the socket AM3 Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition doesn't disappoint! Using a mix of multiplier and bus speed increases, PCSTATS was able to coax the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition from its default 3.4GHz clock speed to a respectable 4.05GHz. Individually, the CPU multiplier overclocked as high as 18x on the chip PCSTATS tested, the Bus speed to a good 225MHz.

AMD's modest improvements to energy efficiency and price reductions make the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) easy to recommend if you already own an AMD system and are looking for a quick upgrade. A Phenom II X4 will bring you better performance numbers in massive parallel tasks like video creation or ray tracing.

If you're looking to build an entirely new PC from the ground up the choice is a little more complicated... Intel Core i5 or Core i7 PCs can be pricy to build but have their benefits too, of late that being early SATA 6Gbs adoption and USB 3.0 on a few Intel P55 motherboards released this fall. No AMD platform currently offers either of these two features as of this writing. That being said, you know what's best for your PC needs so don't be drawn into perpetual peripheral envy if you don't actually need SATA 6G. You owe it yourself to give the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) some consideration, it could very well have all the processing muscle you'll need.

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