Hmmm... people might be real pished off with this particular CPU. It's not what we see in reviews or ES samples which is why I don't give a damn about reviews/ES samples really, it's actually v.poor for an unlocked version. Seems this one is the rejected 9900 TBH and I'm seeing random lockups (which looks either like a CPU problem or ATi drivers) which are halting the oc.

It's no way like the X2 5000/6400 BE's. In fact, to be brutally honest, it's worse oc/stability than my 1st 9500 and 2nd/3rd 9600s.

Early facts: Yep, on all Phenoms so far I could hit 2600MHz stock volts/vid (screenable/benchable and perfectly stable with the 9500 at least). The 9600 did it at max but the 9500 would do 2815MHz uptil my last attempt and 2705MHz was fully benchable easily at 1.35V. 1980MHz on NB/HT was easy stable with it. On this one:
Change multi: no 2600.
Change HT ref: no boot/lockup after 212MHz HT ref.
Max volts: no 2600.
Max vid: no 2600.
Max everything: no 2600.

Problems: Very low HT ref. limit, as I said much earlier. If they'd given my 9500 with an unlocked multi/vid, you'd have 3GHz bagged. But even with 1.604V, 1.5VID CPU, at any multi/HT ref., stock RAM/NB/HT, 2600MHz will freeze very quickly (hence why I'm not even trying for it because it's totally luck based). It is tougher to oc than even the last Phenoms I tested, it's going to take much time but I don't see much improvement.

Power: And yep, the power shoots up massively once you change the VID/Volts, just like with any CPU incl. Penryn. 447W AC is maximum draw so far (bootup) with max VID/Volts on CPU at 205x11.5 up from 160W AC at the same MHz but stock VID/Volts. No matter what the case, I never run 400W 85% load CPU settings if 100MHz less would be 190W. It's not feasible.

Max no reboot/no lockup: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=295627

Stability: And yes, no matter what voltage/vid I gave it, that was totally unstable. It couldn't even pass SysTool 16M.

This is definitely worse than I expected and I have a gut feeling this is going to throw the enthusiast crowd totally off AMD and pretty damn anti (ignoring fanatics). Even though no Yorkfield or Kentsfield (EU, maybe in NA too) is competing for the price/segment with Phenom yet especially bought used or whenever they release Yorky according to their revised Q1 plans and not withstanding the fact that all early Yorkfields (non-cherry) so far but the >$1000 QX aren't oc'ing higher even unstable than ~3.8GHz on air (Q9450/Q9550), the problem of high FSB expensive boards required due to the low multis... still, all thats far higher and better in performance than Phenom 9500/9600/9600BE. A Q6600 is the closest and only competitor yet and it beats all 3 Phenom offerings in perf/oc.

BIOS: I've tested BIOS 113 and 122 so far. Both seem as if they don't even support this CPU. No NB FID changing, no NB VID changing (CMOS clear needed to POST). I obviously do have the latest decent BIOS and I'll test it next.

Very nice Jack. My 9600BE has that HSF included.
Although, I hope yours is better than what we've seen 3 users experience with retail so far. Basically, a non-oc CPU.