System Cost:

We have put together all the prices except PSU, Case and Drives, While the MSI 785GM-E65 is not any more available we changed it to the MSI 785GM-E51 which also supports X6 CPUs, the Intel 1156 CPUs uses an ASRock H55M Pro (a tad more expensive compared to the non-Pro version) and the i7-975 got an MSI X58 Platinum. All systems with 4GB DDR3 memory clocked at 1333MHz regardsless of the X58 triple memory support. Because the X4-620 is not any longer available we changed the CPU to the X4-635 and upped the 620 scores 11% to reflect the increased clock of the 635.

Conslusion:

Do we really need six Cores? That depands on what you want to do with your computer. For people into rendering, video encoding more CPU cores won't hurt. For gamers it's just not that important, because most games are limited to three threads. So while gamers may not benefit of more cores they might benefit from the Turbo-Core function which is similar to Intel's Turbo Boost.

The really amazing thing is the quite low power-consuption of the six Cores. There is not much difference in power drain with the X4 CPUs but clearly AMD gives Intel a run for its money. As usual the AMD CPUs are a tad slower clock by clock and due to limitations of mostly not AMD optimized codebase. In the latest FCC ruling against Intel, it come to light that Intel might have slowed the competition on purpose, which is not a nice thing to do. Would we use later software version of the x264 codec AMD would have beaten an Intel i7-975, but as you know to retest every platfrom and CPU takes lots time.

The cheaper 1055T is direct competition for the i5-750/760 CPUs. Nowadays you can get a boxed 1055T for €174,- which is just a tad more expensive then a i5-750. The Black Edition 1090T which is unlocked is available for €252,- which is quite a bargain as an i7-950 costs double.

We were impressed with the new six-cores and if you planning upgrading your system you can't do anything wrong using them. Especially the Phenom II X6 1055T can only be recommended for its excellent price/performance ratio for a high-end CPU.