Frys is having the Phenom II 955 Black with a cheap MSI mobo for $169. really tempting...

The only phenomenal thing about this is the amount of heat you have to dissipate. 125W = central heating for a room.

If you don't give a crap about the free printer, and would like a CPU that uses a bit less power, NewEgg has the "AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor" for $150 or $151 with free shipping. I don't know what the difference is between these two CPUs. They are both retail box Deneb 3GHz 45nm 95W, 4x512k L2 cache, 6MB L3 cache, heatsink/fan included:

$150: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103696

$151: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103809

Negating #2 comment about the "included" GameRoom heater,.... how is the performance... specwise/$ sound quite-decent!

#3: good find.
#4: having negated my previous comment, go find out yourself.

The two #3 linked look the same except 2nd link is their newer box design. Well, that and the CPU itself may have a later manufacturing date which on average could mean it's likely to be a better overclocker.

Also, 95 vs 125W is not much of a difference, especially if your software can't peg all 4 cores at 100% so you never see that theoretical max power in use... but it does mean a little attention needs paid to which motherboard is used as neither is acceptable on the low-end boards meant for ~ 65W CPUs.

I always wonder what the manufacturers were even thinking designing boards with such a low power margin.

Dave_C, thanks for the clarification in regards to the CPUs.

This thread was informative!