Not for Sale.

[ChrisMorley]

Our AMD rep and one other who flew in from Houston hand delivered these processors to our office in New Jersey last week. We were notified about their existence just a few weeks ago. We were given the ok to talk about them publicly. Hence the blog post. They aren't altered in any way.

[Alexko]

Yeah, according to Pt1t it's basically a Phenom II X4 955, except it can take a really high voltage and is therefore very well suited to phase-change/LN2 overclocking. But under air or even water-cooling it shouldn't be very different.

[y eye]

Welcome to SA Chris. Lots of rumors about this CPU. Can you fill us in with correct information? One source is calling it a Phenom II X42.
Thanks for posting-up .

y

[ChrisMorley]

Originally Posted by y eye

Welcome to SA Chris. Lots of rumors about this CPU. Can you fill us in with correct information? One source is calling it a Phenom II X42.
Thanks for posting-up .

y

Thanks for the welcome!

Here's a few things:

1) We were all unaware of the 42 marking when we got them. I don't know right now what that means, but I'll find out. I immediately thought of Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy...personally I wouldn't read anything into the 42 marking.

2) It is indeed a Phenom II X4 part - it's a high current part that, you are correct, will take some TLC to get up there but AMD thinks they will clock very high. They were never 'binned' per se so you can't just say they're a 955 BE - they're just Phenom II X4's and we are left with what frequency we would decide to run them at.

3) With a BIOS update this part WILL be correctly identified in the BIOS as a TWKR.

4) We have not yet found out its limits. We are working on building one into a system and seeing what they can do. Meantime we still have a business to run, so please forgive us if we don't get info out right away.

5) We are the only system integrator to be given these chips. There are more out there, and the enthusiast should have different opportunities, however rare, to score one. I don't know that scope just yet. We may wait to see what AMD does before we decide what to do with our batch.

[y eye]

Thanks for the update...
Looking forward to hearing from you...

y

http://www.wallacesantos.com/ Home of the X42

[Reynod]

Thanks Chris and welcome.

Could you post some cpuz screenies when you fire one of these TWKR's up so we can see what stepping etc is identified?

Many thanks for clarifying a few things.

I hope you package up a suitable phase change rig for the radicals out there too.

[265586888]

Originally Posted by Reynod

Thanks Chris and welcome.

Could you post some cpuz screenies when you fire one of these TWKR's up so we can see what stepping etc is identified?

Many thanks for clarifying a few things.

I hope you package up a suitable phase change rig for the radicals out there too.

I think that's probably covered with NDAs should that be an actual product that will be released soon.
Also, for this particular tweaker version, I think AMD means extreme overclocking with LN/LHe, phase-change may not be enough to handle that much heat.

[Reynod]

My homemade compressor rig can punch the numbers down pretty low thanks.

Pointless buying one of these and not being able to get it to run in a stable operating environment (high volume water or compressor rig).

The LN idiots are just that ... making futile e-peen gestures at the moon like dumb wolves.

If it can be pushed to even 5Ghz and run stable there is a market.

Otherwise only 20 of them will get sold ... or given away.

Think it through ... sales drive a product being released ... surely ... or ?

Charlie ... could this be ... a PAPER LAUNCH ??

oh gods ... not NVidia again .... sob.

[265586888]

Originally Posted by Reynod

My homemade compressor rig can punch the numbers down pretty low thanks.

Pointless buying one of these and not being able to get it to run in a stable operating environment (high volume water or compressor rig).

The LN idiots are just that ... making futile e-peen gestures at the moon like dumb wolves.

If it can be pushed to even 5Ghz and run stable there is a market.

Otherwise only 20 of them will get sold ... or given away.

Think it through ... sales drive a product being released ... surely ... or ?

Charlie ... could this be ... a PAPER LAUNCH ??

oh gods ... not NVidia again .... sob.

"When the CPU can stand high enough currents, why not push it to the max?"

Extreme overclockers would not care if their overclocking CPUs can run stable (i.e. passing some stress tests for 24 hours) at what frequency(-ies), nope, just enough for them to capture the CPU-Z screenshot (maybe even some 3DMark) and save the screenshot to ripping.org is fine to them.

Don't use "everyday computing principles" such as stability to argue with extreme overclockers, because they don't care about that when they go overclocking, that's why the adjective "extreme". In that case, you will never understand them. But big deal, go on with your compressor.

I'd think this processor is aimed at maintaining AMD's appearances in the extreme overclockers' club, rather than pleasing normal PC enthusiasts which require stable operations under a certain frequency(-ies) after overclocking, as Core i7s did suck in extreme overclocking in terms of GHz and OC%, and AMD got rid of the "cold bug", they can proudly proclaim victory in the category of "x86 Quad-core CPU extreme overclocking", and that special edition CPU may just be a trophy, that's why the "TWKR" (=Tweaker) name.

And if you think that CPU will be launched for retail at any time, I would recommend that "don't get your high hopes on that".

[charlie]

Originally Posted by Reynod

My homemade compressor rig can punch the numbers down pretty low thanks.

Pointless buying one of these and not being able to get it to run in a stable operating environment (high volume water or compressor rig).

The LN idiots are just that ... making futile e-peen gestures at the moon like dumb wolves.

If it can be pushed to even 5Ghz and run stable there is a market.

Otherwise only 20 of them will get sold ... or given away.

Think it through ... sales drive a product being released ... surely ... or ?

Charlie ... could this be ... a PAPER LAUNCH ??

oh gods ... not NVidia again .... sob.

It is a halo product, no question there. But the whole point of Halo products is that they sell in small amounts, but drag a lot of lower end stuff with them.

How many Nascar fans buy a Chevy because their favorite driver drives one? The same is true for computers, if CPU X can get to 9 trillion GHz, then the crap lines must be good too.

In the end, it is marketing. Making 100 extreme CPUs cost less than an ad campaign, and probably reach more people.

-Charlie