AMD Athlon X4 845 CPU Review

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With all the Intel processor reviews out there today, Neoseeker thought they would be different and post a review of the AMD Athlon X4 845 CPU. According to the review, the cooler is near silent and the price is right. So if those are things you are looking for, this review is right up your alley.

Today I am going to test the Athlon X4 845 CPU, on an Gigabyte F2A88X-UP4 motherboard, against two other new CPUs – the Athlon X4 880K and the A10-7890K APU with a set of DDR3 RAM at 2133 MHz. The comparison CPUs are both multiplier unlocked and have higher base and turbo speeds as default, plus they both leverage a 125 W cooler. All of these factors will give the newer CPUs a definitive advantage so I don’t expect the Athlon X4 845 to perform better, just consistent with its speed and design.
 
not to mention that 8x is all any single card setup needs. there's virtually no difference between 16x and 8x with a single card.
 
amd turbo speeds always sound so silly. The x4 is already slow, and a 300mhz turbo boost doesn't sound like it will do shit.
 
plus they both leverage a 125 W cooler

I call blasphemy on the new cooler with the red fan.

It looks like the same junk extruded aluminum used in all of the past APU coolers, AMD just cut it 3x as tall and used a different color fan. The aluminum used in these coolers feels like it was whipped full of air, making it even less able to conduct heat.

The one with heatpipes looks like it might be worth something though. It's similar to old high wattage 939/AM2 OEM coolers, which actually worked well.
 
I call blasphemy on the new cooler with the red fan.

It looks like the same junk extruded aluminum used in all of the past APU coolers, AMD just cut it 3x as tall and used a different color fan. The aluminum used in these coolers feels like it was whipped full of air, making it even less able to conduct heat.

The one with heatpipes looks like it might be worth something though. It's similar to old high wattage 939/AM2 OEM coolers, which actually worked well.

You are very wrong on the 845 cooler. It's not the same cheap cooler, and it's not just aluminum. There is a large, round copper center, but most times you can't see this because of the factory installed thermal compound covers it up.

The copper center is very tall, and goes all the way up to just under the retention lever that holds the heatsink in place. It adds a lot of weight.

This review of an 845 shows the weight difference:

Hands-on Review & Overclocking Athlon X4 845: Carrizo Murah Tanpa IGP

379 grams vs 221 grams of the old aluminum only heatsink
 
A better cooler is not going to help unfortunately. You can OC the crap out of them and they still are what they are.
 
You are very wrong on the 845 cooler. It's not the same cheap cooler, and it's not just aluminum. There is a large, round copper center, but most times you can't see this because of the factory installed thermal compound covers it up.

Having a copper slug pressed into what appears to be the same junk poor heat conducting aluminum doesn't make a better heatsink. The heat has to go somewhere, and if the copper can't reject it into the aluminum then it's just going to turn into a charcoal briquette. If the fins were made out of a heavier metal like steel, then it might be worth something. Copper has a thermal conductivity ~104% better than aluminum and 957% better than aluminum oxide.

Both AMD and Intel have used the copper slug in aluminum fins gimmick since the early 2000s and the CPUs get just as hot.
 
Having a copper slug pressed into what appears to be the same junk poor heat conducting aluminum doesn't make a better heatsink. The heat has to go somewhere, and if the copper can't reject it into the aluminum then it's just going to turn into a charcoal briquette. If the fins were made out of a heavier metal like steel, then it might be worth something. Copper has a thermal conductivity ~104% better than aluminum and 957% better than aluminum oxide.

Both AMD and Intel have used the copper slug in aluminum fins gimmick since the early 2000s and the CPUs get just as hot.
If you had translated and read the review I linked you would see that the new heatsink does a much better job than the old one.
Hands-on Review & Overclocking Athlon X4 845: Carrizo Murah Tanpa IGP
With the old aluminum only cooler, under stress, the cpu hit 62 C. With this new cooler, same load, it only got to 50 C. I'd say that's a nice improvement, especially considering this is a budget cpu.
 
If you had translated and read the review I linked you would see that the new heatsink does a much better job than the old one.
Hands-on Review & Overclocking Athlon X4 845: Carrizo Murah Tanpa IGP
With the old aluminum only cooler, under stress, the cpu hit 62 C. With this new cooler, same load, it only got to 50 C. I'd say that's a nice improvement, especially considering this is a budget cpu.

It looks like that metric was taken with the board out in open air, not inside a case. Those style coolers tend to eat their own exhaust unless you use one of those cases with a door snorkel and run much hotter.
 
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