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Overclocking

Getting to 3.2GHz with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition was trivial. No need to do anything except change the multiplier to 16 - and presto, you have a X2 6400+!

But moving beyond 3.2GHz... now that was a journey.

But in the end, it was a succesful journey. The best stable overclock I was able to achieve was a very pleasing 3.396GHz. This was achieved by running the chip at 12x283MHz, and the memory at 849MHz.  All this was done with air cooling.

To get this result:

• manually set the HT speed to 283MHz for both the processor and the chipset
• set the HT multiplier to 4x - again, for both processor and chipset
• leave the Vcore alone, the automatic settings do a great job (or manually set for 1.45V)
• set the DDR voltage to 2.1V
• choose the "DDR667" memory speed setting, this will map to 849MHz with a 283MHz FSB
• set the memory timing to 4-4-4-12
• manually force the "2T" option

I have to say that I was blown away by this overclock. This was the best OC I've ever achieved with an Athlon X2!

Power Consumption

Due to the lower default Vcore, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition required less power than either of the 65nm or 90nm AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+'s, and the power consumption was still very good when overclocked.

Conclusion

If you have an existing AM2 based system that can handle a 5000+, don't walk to your local hardware store -- run to the store to get yourself a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition.

The AMD Athlon X2's always performed very well for office applications, and the Black Editions of these CPUs were no exceptions. As you saw from the low resolution gaming benchmarks, the 5000+ X2 Black Edition is no slouch at gaming either. At higher resolutions there is even less dependence on the CPU, and more on a GPU, so combining this processor with an ATI Radeon HD 3850 or an Nvidia 8800GT would make for a very cost effective upgrade for a gaming rig. This CPU tied with one of the newest generation of  GPUs would make for an excellent gaming rig -- one that'd give a lot of higher-end Core 2 rigs a run for the money.

The Athlon 64 5000+ X2 Black Edition is a VERY cost effective upgrade, and should entice many AMD fans out there with its great overclockability.

For $130, which is less than you can buy an Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 for, you can easily run at 3.2GHz - at stock Vcore! Honestly, this chip impressed me to the point that I now intend to upgrade one of my multimedia machines at home with one of these beauties; no need to change motherboard, coolers, etcetera -- I'll just just pop in one of these, and be done with it. 

In the end, I think for most people, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition is a better upgrade than the new Phenom 9600 - and it costs less then half as much. And for a stable overclock of just under 4 GHz, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition also demands the awarding of Neoseeker's Overclocker's Award.