AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 Dual-Core 2.6GHz Processor

FX-60 IS THE NEW BARGAIN BARNSTORMER OF THE YEAR!!!

Strengths: This Star Of The 2006 AMD Fleet is still to this day, the standard of which all dual-core processors benchmark themselves!!! Thank You AMD for your wonderful pricing cuts :-)

Weakness: The only con I can find is that it runs warm, but not extremely hot! You'll want to get away from AMDs stock cooling if you want to extract this beasts Full Performance....

Finally, after waiting about a year from its original release date, the FX-60 Dual-Core processor is now simply The Best Dual-Core Value Available, with the new 07 Bargain Pricing. This processor is simply amazing. Easily pushed to running @3.03GHz (liquid cooled) without any sign of instability. Very Highly overclockable... The Unlocked Multiplier has always been the Sweet Icing on the FX series...
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Finally, after waiting about a year from its original release date, the FX-60 Dual-Core processor is now simply The Best Dual-Core Value Available, with the new 07 Bargain Pricing.
This processor is simply amazing. Easily pushed to running @3.03GHz (liquid cooled) without any sign of instability. Very Highly overclockable... The Unlocked Multiplier has always been the Sweet Icing on the FX series cake!

Who Dare Say OBSOLETE????? Think about it...

This processor is far more powerful (Today, in 32bit/single thread world) than any average daily user would need, and is by no means close to obsolete! Now, with just a hint of future applications showing up in the market, using dual-core and 64 bit technology, how could this sweet processor be even close to ineffective.
This FX-60 is like a Pumped Up Olympic Sprinter, simply waiting at the starting line and just itching for someone to pull the dual-core/64bit programming trigger.... Trust Me:-) You Haven't Seen Anything yet!!!!!!!

By wadeduck58 - Jan 6, 2007

The Last Great Socket 939 FX Processor

Strengths: Unlocked Multiplier, Integrated Memory Controller, Overclocks to 2.9 Ghz on air (3.0 on water), Low heat output for its power level, watch porn and run antivirus at the same time (just kidding)

Weakness: Now surpassed by Intel's Core 2 Duo chips, does not give backrubs or bring you cold beers in the evening

I have discontinued this review because as any tech geek knows, times change and better products are manufactured. If you are currently in need of a high end processor then take a look at the Intel Core 2 Duo series. Intel has come back from the edge and has now bested any of AMD's latest offerings. (My review from here was written in March of 2006) When I first got into building power computers...
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I have discontinued this review because as any tech geek knows, times change and better products are manufactured. If you are currently in need of a high end processor then take a look at the Intel Core 2 Duo series. Intel has come back from the edge and has now bested any of AMD's latest offerings.
(My review from here was written in March of 2006) When I first got into building power computers for my graduate research a few years back, I said, "Amd, smay-m-d". Nothing was better than a Pentium. Then I noticed the fans in my box making a hell of a whirling sound. Even later, I noticed my BIOS reporting 77 degrees C for the CPU ! (WTF !!!) To cap it off, I saw my friend's AMD box run games like Doom 3 almost TWICE as fast.
OK, I said, so lets see what all this FX and X2 Dual Core crap is about. Long story short, a year on and one X2 4800 and now the FX-60 and I am converted. Want to run FarCry (which rocks), FEAR or Oblivion at 1600x1200 at 70 FPS while checking for viruses - yep, check. Want to transcode video to DivX while also watching streaming iFilm movies - yep, check. Want to run Matlab neural network simulations while editing high res photos - no problem. The FX-60 blows away the competition (lesser AMD models and everything Intel). The FX-60 takes Intel's new top Extreme Edition 965 Presler (3.73 GHz) and steals its lunch money, pulls a wedgie up over its head, slaps it silly and then exits with the hot slutty cheerleader. The 965 Presler is finally able to pull even with the FX-60 when it is overclocked to about 4.26 Ghz (versus 2.6 GHz for the FX60) in many office benchmarks but still cannot match the FX-60 in gaming. The FX-60 also runs full bore at only 42 degrees celcius (at 2.6 Ghz) versus the Presler's roughly 78 to 89 C at 3.73 GHz. Basically you do not need to run your case fans at jet turbine speeds to have a nice experience with the FX-60. The competition between AMD and Intel is cyclical, and maybe Intel can get back up after its most recent KO (this is likely to happen in the third quarter of 2006 when the Conroe architecture is implemented, more about this below) but right now, they are taking an across the board beating from the FX and X2 dual core lineup.
How is this possible? Well, you have two cores that have true intercore communication (they do not use the FSB as Intel dual cores do). The X2 lineup then make s great use of its integrated memory controller to communicate directly with your system RAM (no Northbrige stopover like Intel). You also have the two separate L2 (one MB each) caches as well. Furthermore, without going into engineer babble, the microarchitecture is just plain better. And overclocking you ask? - it will reach 2.9 gigs on air and hits 3.05 GHz on my watercooled setup (so more than two FX-57s for 50 percent of their combined price and the temperature is still 48 C). Even better, with the FX-60, the multiplier is unlocked so you can overclock this CPU without raising the FSB (which for laymen means that you can overclock pretty high even with crappy memory).
So, to the average Joe, you have two butt kicking cores working in tandem (instead of waiting for one another as in Intel) like reciprocating pistons. Imagine transcoding your favorite DVD movie while attacking the Germans on the Normandy beaches in a game, while the fans in your case hum along quietly, the CPU temperature holds steady at 44 degrees and your significant other asks how you have been able to get so much done in the last few days - thats the power of the FX-60 (and the entire X2 lineup). Is it cheap - nope, but you get what you pay for. In June of 2005 when AMD introduced Dual Core, very little software was coded for multi-core. Now, in April 06, we have ATI and Nvidia graphics drivers that are starting to change, FEAR, Quake 4, FarCry, Matlab, Mathematica, soon Vista (Longhorn), and the list will continue to grow each month.
So the question is should you buy it, even if you have the moolah? Well, the short answer for this five star processor is suprisingly, "No". If early benchmarks are any indication (and they may not be), Intel's upcoming Conroe architecture will likely surpass the next generation AMD socket AM2 cpus by some small percent come Sept 06. So why blow a grand now, when AMD is changing their socket and Intel's Conroe is right around the corner. The FX-60 is socket 939, and this will be supported by AMD until mid 2007, so not bad. However, by May 15th, 2006 we should see the new Socket M2 motherboards (which are not socket 939 compatible and will use DDR2 memory). The much better buy if you cannot wait, is the AMD X2 3800+ cpu. It is much cheaper ($275 now), dual core, reaches 2.5 Ghz overclocks on air, and is also socket 939. I also suggest looking into the Socket 939 Dual Core Opterons. Folks are reporting very high overclocks from the 165 model ($290) and the Opterons are built very tough because they have to handle server and workstation loads (and they still use

By jayhall0315 - Jan 15, 2006

AMD Athlon 64 FX-60

Strengths: Fastest AMD socket 939 processor.

Weakness: None to date.

With the current prices as low as they are now for this processor, now is the time to make the upgrade if you have anything less. That is, unless you have a big wad of cash to go out and buy a new motherboard, processoer and ram etc. This is the fastest dual core processor that AMD will ever make for the socket 939, and they are no longer producing it, so if you have interrest, you better get it...
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With the current prices as low as they are now for this processor, now is the time to make the upgrade if you have anything less. That is, unless you have a big wad of cash to go out and buy a new motherboard, processoer and ram etc. This is the fastest dual core processor that AMD will ever make for the socket 939, and they are no longer producing it, so if you have interrest, you better get it before there all sold out. This thing can run anything I've thrown at it to date with very high benchmarks and it still has room for more. Thanks to PriceGrabber for making searches a breeze. I will update this post in the future, but I had a real hard time even getting this post up here for some reason.

By EchelonOne - Jan 10, 2007

Excellent Processor

Strengths: Very fast and powerful, Dual-core

Weakness: Stock heatsink and fan can be somewhat noisy

This is a completely awesome processor. I would definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to put the best possible processor on their 939 board. This processor just makes any task you can think of that much easier to handle. The stock heatsink and fan can be somewhat noisy, but with the performance you get out of the CPU it's very easy to overlook that.

By Anonymous - Apr 7, 2007

The last of its kind.

Strengths: 939 Flagship. TOP performance upgrade at a fraction of the cost.

Weakness: None.

I have been eyeing this CPU since it was released. It was always out of reach until now. Newegg came through with a huge price drop from $1200. Still a lot when you consider the new high end Intel Core2 Duo CPUs are the same cost but outperform. However, this is AMD’s flagship and the last of the 939 kin and “the final” upgrade without going all the way. Comparatively you would need to...
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I have been eyeing this CPU since it was released. It was always out of reach until now. Newegg came through with a huge price drop from $1200. Still a lot when you consider the new high end Intel Core2 Duo CPUs are the same cost but outperform. However, this is AMD’s flagship and the last of the 939 kin and “the final” upgrade without going all the way.

Comparatively you would need to spend at least $800 on the mid to high end Intel CPU, mobo, and DDR2. At the time of this writing, any budget upgrade to AM2 or Intel yields no great performance boost. So in any case, this makes for a great upgrade at a fraction of the cost.

As far as overclocking goes, I have this stable at 2.8 GHz but have not pushed any limits either.

Some have reviewed the processor suggesting the FX57, but without consideration of the ONLY dual core for the socket 939. She is truly the flagship and the last of her kind.

By glanglitz - Dec 9, 2006