AMD Athlon II X2 240e Processor

CPU-Z Info

No great surprises here, CPU-Z basically confirms AMD’s spec sheet.

Overclocking

First, an important, if oft-repeated notice: overclocking your CPU will shorten its lifespan, if it doesn’t outright fry it.   A bad overclock can take down your CPU, your mainboard, your memory, your hard drive, your video card, or any combination of the above. Do the research before you begin, and realize that you are voiding your warranty. That said, a good overclock can wring a fair bit of extra performance out of your system while it lasts.

I’ve never been terribly keen on the idea of overclocking.  When your PC is on 24/7, the chances for something to go wrong are that much greater.  That said, when AMD hands me a CPU this cool-running, I get curious.  On their website, AMD provides a utility called AMD Overdrive for system overclocking.  Using the Auto Clock portion of this tool, I was able to achieve a stable core clock speed of 225MHz, putting the CPU clock at 3.15 GHz.  While the gains were somewhat modest, this is still better than I expected from a multiplier-locked, budget priced CPU.  Also of note is the temperature: at no point during this process did the CPU core temperature rise above 34 degrees C. That’s only six degrees above room temperature, while overclocked.  Those of a more adventurous mindset may be able to get a bigger boost with overvolting and other such methods.

  Previous Page         1. Intro and Specs2. CPU-Z Info and Overclocking3. A Closer Look and Testing4. SiSoft Sandra and Kribi Bench5. Cinebench R10, WinRAR, and ScienceMark6. PCMark Vantage and 3DMark Vantage7. Crysis Warhead8. Unreal Tournament 39. Team Fortress 210. Conclusion11. View All         Next Page