AMD Phenom II X4 975 BE & 840 Quad-Core Processors

Test Setup, Methodology, and Benchmarks Used:

Too keep things consistent and try to maintain and "apples to apples" comparison, we try to use as much common hardware across the board. Each system's BIOS was set to "Optimized Defaults", with a verification of CPU & Memory speeds and timings.

We started out with a clean install of Windows 7 and performed all the Windows updates to bring it up to current levels as of when this review was written. Then we installed all out benchmark programs and ran a disk defrag. Afterwards we disabled some un-needed Vista features that could affect results such as SuperFetch, System Restore, Defrag, Indexing, and Remote Assistance. Furthermore we ran the Bapco Auto-Configuration Tool and used its "Level 3" settings which disables a bunch more stuff:

• Disables screen saver
• Disables Windows Update
• Disables Desktop Cleanup Wizard
• Disables User Account Control (UAC)
• Disables the Sidebar
• Disables Windows Security Center warning messages
• Disables Windows Firewall
• Disables incoming Remote Desktop connections
• Disables Windows Error Reporting to Microsoft
• Prevents the Welcome Center from running at startup
• Disables Windows Defender

Each of the benchmarks were run at least five times, with the average being reported.

The following tests were performed:

• Synthetic Benchmarks:
  • Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition - v5.50
• 3D Rendering Performance:
  • POV-Ray - 3.7 beta 37a
  • MAXON CINEBENCH - R11.5
  • 3DS Max Design 2010
• Video Encoding Performance:
  • Tech ARP's x264 Benchmark - v3.0
• Math Calculation Performance:
  • Wolfram Research Mathematica - v7.0.1
  • wPrime - v2.03
• Gaming Performance:
  • Far Cry 2
  • Crysis Warhead
  • DiRT 2
  • TrackMania Nations Forever
  • Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark
  • Valve VRAD Map Compilation Tool
• Miscellaneous:
  • Adobe Photoshop CS4
  • Notfred Folding @ Home Benchmark