The exclusive microprocessor by Advanced Micro Devices aimed strictly at hardcore overclockers and very experienced performance enthusiasts has been sold at an Ebay auction. The final price of the AMD Phenom II X4 42 TWKR chip was whopping $11 600 and it is probably the highest price for any desktop microprocessor ever.

For the gigantic price the buyer will get one of 100 AMD Phenom II X4 42 TWKR processors ever made and one of the two such chips that will be available on the public market. The pleasure of owning such a rare item and pay $11 600 for it is somewhat questionable: it will be at least scary to experiment with a central processing unit that costs like a small vehicle.

AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR microprocessor is designed to be extreme overclocker, which is why its "default" settings are not important at all: even though the nominal frequency of the chip is just 2.0GHz with 1.440V voltage, the chip will never be utilized at this clock-speed. Instead, professional overclockers will use extreme cooling methods, e.g., liquid nitrogen, dry ice, liquid helium, cascade, etc. Nevertheless, "TWKR" processors will not provide truly unbeatable overclocking results: AMD only expects maximum clock-speed to be in the range between 100MHz and 200MHz higher compared to maximum overclocking result of the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (3.20GHz nominal frequency) that costs $245.

Professional overclockers can make AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor work at about 7.0GHz, therefore, at least some TWKR processors will be able to work even faster than that.

There is another AMD Phenom II X4 42 TWKR available at Ebay at the moment.

Tags: AMD, Phenom, Deneb, 45nm, TWKR