For today's tests we'll be using the new AM3 Phenom II X3 720BE processor, which has a pretty decent TDP (peak wattage) compared to the last flagship products, 95 Watts (95 Watts peak, when all 4 cores in the processor are 100% utilized and stressed).

In combo with the AMD 790 chipset each processor core can be clocked down independently if not utilized, saving heaps of current. If the processors are temporarily inactive, they can pretty much put themselves in sleep-mode (clocking down). Hyper Transport will power down and a low-power state is activated on the memory.

AMD's Cool'n'Quiet technology has been updated to revision 3.0 and provides even better power management. Keywords here are improved power tuning with additional performance states, and up to 50% less power at idle compared to Cool'n‘Quiet 2.0.

As a result we notice our test platform peaked at roughly 170 Watts power consumption when we stress the CPU cores. Our system however idles at merely 80 to 90 Watts (integrated graphics processor used, not a dedicated one).

So the PC in idle with integrated graphics being used, utilized roughly 80 Watts. If we select Vista 'balanced' (energy aware mode) that number even drops to 66 Watts. We always measure in Windows Vista high-performance mode though. Once we stressed all CPU cores that number rose to 122 Watts (very low really).

Once we add a dedicated graphics card (GeForce GTX 280) we can add another ~50 Watts for the GPU alone. When we load up the CPU's cores, have the dedicated graphics card installed AND overclock to 3600 MHz we see the system pull 211 Watts from the wall socket.

Really that's pretty good. Mind you that while a dedicated graphics card was installed, it was not utilized. We only stressed the CPU cores here.

Speaking of that majestic topic called overclocking, let's have a look at that.

Phenom II overclocking & temperatures

First off this: if you decide to start an overclocking session with the Phenom processor; you are better off with the Phenom II BE editions (CPU multiplier unlocked), and thus the combo of an AMD 790 FX/GX based mainboard. In today's test we will overclock the triple core Phenom II X3 720 BE (Black edition, really easy to overclock, heaps of performance and a lot of value).

The key to the 790FX/GX feature set is AMD's Windows compatible Overdrive interface that allows graceful overclocking of the Phenom II (and last gen Phenom X4 Black Edition) processors. It's one of the best tweak utilities out there, and thanks to AMD's recently introduced Advanced Clock Calibration technology, the results on a 790 chipset based platform will certainly be good.

The new Phenom II processors can complement the 790GX chipset's overclocking capabilities very well. Example: A Phenom II (BE) can be pushed to 3.6 GHz relatively easily and is 100% stable with just an air cooler.

With real good air-cooling or water-cooling you should be able to reach 3.8-4.0 GHz. And as many news posts have shown, in demonstrations some freaks were able to super-cool the processor with LN2 and clocked it close to a geeky 6.0 GHz. If you decide to overclock, then you should be using an AMD 790 chipset based motherboard as this chipset supports Advanced Clock Calibration, okay? ACC, short for Advanced Clock Calibration, really enhances the overclocking potential of Phenom / Phenom II processors.

ACC has the ability to keep clock frequencies in sync and stabilize inter-chip communications between the CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge and memory. Mind you, this trick only works for Phenom II processors, particularly for the Black Edition processors.