# AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.20 GHz



## Omega (Dec 24, 2010)

The return of Phenom II X4 800 marks AMD's yet another push to secure its dominance in the budget market, and its first representative, the Phenom II X4 840 has all of the features to continue the legacy of legendary Athlon II X4 620 - the first $100 quad processor. Clocked at high 3.20 GHz, and priced at $102, Phenom II X4 840 is going to compete nicely in this segment.

*Show full review*


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## Rhenna (Jan 5, 2011)

I'd say the primary reason this isn't being marketed as the Athlon II X4 650, is that "Phenom II" looks more impressive on an OEM box to the average person seeking to buy a new PC. 

Having assembled a low-cost system for a coworker using a 3.0GHz 640, I can attest that these Propus-core jammies are very good bargains. The only real criticism I would offer is the stock heatsink/fan being a bit marginal if overclocking and/or using in a case with so-so ventilation.

When the "new" wears off the 840, and the price slips a little bit, I can see one of these finding it's way into one of the DDR2 rigs I have.

Any reason for not highlighting the 840 results in the bar-graphs?


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## Omega (Jan 6, 2011)

Rhenna said:


> Any reason for not highlighting the 840 results in the bar-graphs?



Yeah, I fuxxxd up 
Fixing. Thanks


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## blkhogan (Jan 6, 2011)

Come on AMD... Really?


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## RONX GT (Jan 6, 2011)

Nice review as always, Omega 

I guess i should've waited for this one instead of my 640, no BIG differences though 

The price to performence ratio for this one is Great. Loving you AMD


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## Melvis (Jan 6, 2011)

The power consumption is impressive for a 3.2GHz quad, very well done there


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## Pijoto (Jan 7, 2011)

Melvis said:


> The power consumption is impressive for a 3.2GHz quad, very well done there



Yeah, the power consumption steadily gets better everytime AMD updates their chips, but still nowhere near as low as Intel chips 

I wish TechPowerUp! includes low-voltage settings in their power consumption reviews like they use to.  AMD's default settings for their chips are at 1.4V, but they can usually be set at 1.2V safely (my Athlon II X2 250 is set at 1.2V) saving a lot of wattage on load.  Including low-voltage charts again on TPU's CPU reviews again would be very helpful for people who are interested in reducing their power consumption.


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## Melvis (Jan 8, 2011)

Pijoto said:


> Yeah, the power consumption steadily gets better everytime AMD updates their chips, but still nowhere near as low as Intel chips



Well compared to the ones in this review it killed them all, including intels  Apart from the i5 661

Unless you mean higher clocked quads???


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## NdMk2o1o (Jan 8, 2011)

Propus core, 2MB L3 cache, its an Athlon II x4, if you have nothing constructive to say AMD don't say anything, I highly doubt this will compete with anything other than dual core Sandy Bridge.... bit like the PII x4 975..... just pointless, a release for the sake of it :shadedshu

Just get the F**K on with Bulldozer already


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## Pijoto (Jan 8, 2011)

Melvis said:


> Well compared to the ones in this review it killed them all, including intels  Apart from the i5 661
> 
> Unless you mean higher clocked quads???



Mainly, I mean the Core i5 750/760, which has very low power consumption against AMD quads, but isn't on the competition list for this CPU review (being that the Core i5 quads compete against higher-end Phenoms, I guess).

In any case, I still would like to see a low-voltage comparison for AMD chips against Intels; would make AMD chips more competitive in power consumption if their stock voltages wasn't set at 1.4V.


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## Steevo (Jan 8, 2011)

Good price, however with low power decent performance APU's around the corner I'm not sure what niche they are trying to fill.


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## FatForester (Jan 8, 2011)

Does anyone know when this becomes available? I've been hunting around and all I can find are reviews. I re-purposed my old rig into a HTPC so I'm needing a stop-gap before Bulldozer comes out. I might just get the Athlon II X3 450 instead and hope it unlocks to a quad, it should essentially be the same thing.

I nearly forgot - great review Omega! Your reviews are always well thought out and thorough. Much appreciated!


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## Trac (Jun 23, 2011)

Hi All,
I have an old Gateway I'd like to upgrade, but there are no bios updates available for my mobo.  Since the 840 is backward compatible with AM2+, can I install this without changing the bios?
PC: Gateway GT5658E
Mobo: ECS MCP61PM-GM  2.1
BIOS: Phoenix 6.00 PG 12/14/2007
CPU: PHENOM X4 9500
SOCKET AM2+ (940) 65nm
Core Voltage 1.200 V

$95 at Newegg thru 6/27


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## plugmein (Jul 20, 2011)

Trac said:


> Hi All,
> I have an old Gateway I'd like to upgrade, but there are no bios updates available for my mobo.  Since the 840 is backward compatible with AM2+, can I install this without changing the bios?
> PC: Gateway GT5658E
> Mobo: ECS MCP61PM-GM  2.1
> ...



Shouldn't be that big of an issue, but Gateway machines have left me scratching my head a number of times in the past. Have you tried to get started yet? Last time I purchased a Gateway I was running a number of different software applications to get that thing fixed within a matter of months. Have you heard of www.coop-systems.com?


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## Thatguy (Jul 20, 2011)

Steevo said:


> Good price, however with low power decent performance APU's around the corner I'm not sure what niche they are trying to fill.



clear out inventory.


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