AMD Phenom II X3 705e and Phenom II X4 905e Processors

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

The AMD Phenom II X3 705e and Phenom II X4 905e processors are great energy efficient processors that are best suited for low wattage system builds or the HTPC crowd. The consume far less energy than other triple and quad-core processors and the performance is just a tad slower since the clock frequencies on both of these processors is just 2.5GHz.

These processors do make a great drop-in replacement for those of you running an older and slower processor though. We were able to replace the AMD Phenom X4 9350e, which is a quad-core, 2GHz, 65W TDP part from last summer, in our 780G Maui system and drop in the AMD Phenom II 905e after a quick BIOS update. The extra 500MHz boost in performance is noticeable and best of all the power consumption and temperatures on the system actually lowered. The load power consumption was only 8 Watts lower, but that is impressive for a processor that is running 500MHz faster on the core clock and with 4MB more L3 cache!

CPU Name	Cores	Clock	L2/L3 Cache	HT Bus	Socket	TDP	Price
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE	4	3.4GHz	2+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	140W	$245
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE	4	3.2GHz	2+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	125W	$210
AMD Phenom II X4 945	4	3.0GHz	2+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	125W	$187
AMD Phenom II X4 940	4	3.0GHz	2+6MB	3600MHz	AM2+	125W	$196
AMD Phenom II X4 920	4	2.8GHz	2+6MB	3600MHz	AM2+	125W	$160
AMD Phenom II X4 905e	4	2.5GHz	2+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	65W	$184
AMD Phenom II X4 810	4	2.6GHz	2+4MB	4000MHz	AM3	95W	$181
AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE	3	2.8GHz	1.5+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	95W	$130
AMD Phenom II X3 710	3	2.6GHz	1.5+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	95W	$99
AMD Phenom II X3 705e	3	2.5GHz	1.5+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	65W	$130
AMD Phenom II X2 550	2	3.1GHz	1+6MB	4000MHz	AM3	80W	$103
AMD Athlon II X2 250	2	3.0GHz	2MB	4000MHz	AM3	65W	$76

When it comes to pricing there is a price premium on the energy efficient processors, which is one downside to them. In case you are curious the other downside would be the poor overclocking that we saw from our processors. At $183.99 shipped the AMD Phenom II X4 905e isn’t really that expensive, but versus the AMD Phenom II X4 810 it seems like the better choice for the long run if you aren’t big into overclocking. If you want to run an AMD system and keeping the power consumption is a concern to you the AMD Phenom II X3 705e and Phenom II X4 905e processors will not let you down. In fact they are the way to go and the AMD Phenom II X4 905e has happily replaced the AMD Phenom X4 9350e processor that we have been using in our HTPC since last year.

Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Phenom II X4 905e and Phenom II X3 705e are killer energy efficient processors that get the job done and do what they were designed to do perfectly.