AMDFX 8-Core Black Edition FX-8300 3.3 GHz with 4.2 GHz Turbo Octa core Processor (FD8300WMHKBOX)

I gave myself a project to build a virtual pinball setup. I wanted to be able to run tables from The Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX2. Some of the tables can be fairly demanding at the highest settings, so I needed a good mid-range system with adequate CPU, RAM, and GPU. I bought a custom-built mid-tower system off someone nearby on Craigslist.Gigabyte motherboard with AM3+ CPU socketAthlon II FX4 640 CPU with Rocketfish cooler8GB RAM250GB SSD (with Win10)500 GB HDD (for other storage)GeForce GTX 750 Ti GPUDVD/RW optical driveNetwork card6 USB3 portsAll at a very attractive price. I added an Xbox controller with force feedback to work the flippers, plunger, and select tables. I also built a frame to set a 46" Samsung 1080p TV sloped in the vertical orientation, as the pinball playing surface. I stand up and play or sit on a bar stool. It's the same height as a real pinball machine. Finally, I mounted satellite speakers to the sides of the frame, and added a subwoofer from an old PC speaker set.I loaded Steam and the pinball software, and then bought and downloaded about 20 tables. They ran pretty well, and we had a lot of fun in the rec room. You could sometimes experience a slight lag with the flippers and sometimes in multiball when a lot of activity was going on. I could tweak the settings to minimize this.After about 5 months, I decided an upgrade to a beefier CPU would get it up to prime specs for pinball. The AM3+ supports the final generation of AMD FX chips. I was looking at the FX-8300, FX-8320, and FX-8350. While they all come from the same die, the 8320 and 8350 passed higher benchmark tests at the factory when overclocked. You can really push these chips. The last 2 run at 125 watts, while the 8300 runs at 95 watts. Not a big issue, but we all want our chips to run as cool as possible.For the price/performance, and power issues, the FX-8300 was the best option. I do not plan on overclocking, as it is fast out of the box. It's nice to know this CPU arrives unlocked, and my bios allows me to boost if if I want.The Verdict:I couldn't believe how much faster this CPU runs than the old Athlon quad core CPU. It's night and day. Windows boots faster, the games load faster, and they run perfectly smooth on high settings. I am extremely happy with this CPU and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an AM3+ CPU socket. It's not the latest and greatest, but for the money, it is hard if not impossible to get more computing power at a price anywhere close to this. Any Intel chip that is comparable costs twice as much.With the 46" TV, the booming speakers, and the flipper controller, it looks great, sounds great, and plays great. I expect to have many pinball sessions with friends and family over the years. New tables are available every few months, and there are already well over 100 to choose from, so I will never run out of new pinball tables to play. It's like having a massive pinball collection in my rec room. In some ways, it is not the same as playing the real thing, but I'll never have to repair a finicky pinball machine, as they are always breaking down. My system should be trouble-free for many years. Some day I may build a more authentic looking cabinet so it looks and feels more like a real pinball machine.

The product is highly rated for its value, meaning its total efficient is high per the cost to the consumer. The FX-8300 does three things very well. Gaming, video/audio encoding, and parallel tasks such as desktop or work productivity apps. The product pairs well with another AMD video card in the R9, RX or Vega product classes, making it quite effective for parallel computing on the desktop and high demand apps such as the latest games. I'd recommend this product for its cost/value as a computing investment over the next three years, at which time AMD Zen 2+ CPU/GPU products in the 7 nm and smaller fab process sizing will be the affordable replacement for next-gen games, media, and apps.

One of the best processor even to this day, I feel it can support most games and applications.Pros:* Multi processor cpu.* Fast stock speeds* An amazing overclocker, got mine upto 4.7Ghz on air.* Works amazing under Linux operating system* Cheaper than Intel 8 core processor.Cons:* Already old technology* Not as powerful as some of the Intel CPU but a lot cheaper than most Intel Chips.*Generate to much heat due to the TDP of the processor compare to Intel CPU so you need a good cooler like Hyper 212, Noctua NH-D14 or Be quiet! Dark Pro 3 cpu cooler etc... or a Corsair H100+ CPU cooler.

It was all fine and good. worked wonderful untill it started reading 80c + and my computer keeps shutting off... driving me crazy, I have a giant liquid cooler on it too with 6 large fans on either side of it.

short lived. overly priced for used item compared to what's out there now. had it only for a year. my pc had issues shutting down and restarts. took it back out. the cpu pins wore out badly; found some bent pins. I was sure I looked at the pins before I installed it; however, did not put it under a magnifying glass with led spotlight when I first got it. I have installed cpu's before. the cpu fitted in all the way. secured it with the latch lock on my am3+ socket m.board. the m.board I have is fairly new, got this cpu to replace the dead cpu on the dead m.board. this was a rebuild with this cpu and new graphics cards, new rams, new 1k psu and newer hdd's.

If you have a ddr3 based socket am3 motherboard with an older amd CPU, this is a good way to max out the system and avoid an expensive upgrade to a Ryzen or Threadripper based new setup, where you would have to upgrade everything. ( memory, Mobo, cpu, and probably PSU). Just get one of these, max out the amount of ddr3 memory you have and you get a reasonably fast system, good for another 2-3 years. The latest and the greatest is not dramatically better/faster. The biggest perks you get with a Threadripper system is quad channel memory and being able to use an m2 based nvram drive. Other than those perks, the upgrade is not all that compelling. An 8 core system with a 95w power envelope still has plenty of life in it. Going from a quad amd system to an 8 core is a quantum leap. Imo for a low budget upgrade, this particular cpu is the sweet spot ( for AMD)

i have put two FX series Cpu's in to my computers. and love the performance i get for the price.i have the 8300 in one computer and the 6300 in the other. iv set them up with the 8300 in the bedroom of my house and the 6300 in the living area. I use the Computer with the 8300 to run my games and stream them to the 6300 downstairs. why? (asked nobody) pretty much because i can. But i can easily say, pared with a good gpu this setup works very well.i wouldn't mind building a few more computers with this cpu. dated as it is. it holds up pretty well. and for the price i'm very happy with it. as in, it does a fantastic job.cons: the cpu cooler it comes with is garbage. get a hyper 212 evo or a water block to cool it. it run HOT. if you don't.hot = bad.