Strengths: Price, energy efficiency high under normal use, oc to 3.2GHZ

Weaknesses: 140w motherboard compatibility issues

Summary: This quad is competitive with e6600 from price /performance comparison. the chip is energy efficient under normal use but energy consumption ramps up under load. The 140w chips need a 790fx or 790gx motherboard. I have heard a 125w version is in the works. This chip is not plagued by the TLB erratum.

Strengths: Fast. Quad Core. Very Overclockable.

Weaknesses: Not that many apps that truly take advantage of Quad core yet.

Summary: The best thing about the AMD black edition CPUs are that they have an unlocked multiplier so you're free to overclock as much as it can handle. This CPU overclocks great and reliably. This is one of the few Black Edition CPUs that actually come with Fan & Heatsink in the box. (Of course for any extreme overclocking, get some good aftermarket stuff).The quad core is cool and you should probably go ahead and buy one if you're in the market now for a CPU but really most end user apps don't really get much out of a quad core - yet.