AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition – Luck of the Draw

Introduction to the Black Edition

Enthusiast products probably come under more scrutiny than most other products, and for good reason. When something is advertised to run faster, clock higher, or pretty much be the best of any product that is marketed, you expect it to be so. Even if the product is only that for a short time, you just expect great results.

There was a lot of hype surrounding the AMD Phenom processors long before they actually launched. There was also a great hope that AMD would be on the comeback trail and once again be competitive against Intel. Well, by now everyone knows that not only did the Phenom let us down as far being a competitive product when up against a similar Intel CPU, but the release of the first generation of Phenom CPU’s had issues that caused grief among consumers.

Not long after the initial release of the Phenom CPUs, AMD introduced a Black Edition for overclockers. At least, that is what was assumed by many in the enthusiast crowd. To their credit, AMD was not charging any more for these (even if retailers were).

So what did the release of the Black Edition mean? It meant that you were getting a CPU that had unlocked multipliers which can be a true dream to those that like to just absolutely push their systems to the max. A low multiplier and a high front side bus or HTT is what overclockers dream of. But we want to make one thing clear from the beginning of this article. Phenom is not built for high HTT settings. Our overclocking endeavors were actually very frustrating because of this. With that in mind, it is obvious why AMD wanted to release this part with unlocked multipliers and why they are not charging any extra. If you want to overclock Phenom at all, your best bet is to be able to raise the multiplier. I know I am giving away the rest of the article here, but I think it is important to say this right up front. It is what it is!

Legit Reviews got their hands on one of these bad boys, and today we put it to the test to see if the Black Edition really is a big deal or not.