AMD A8-5500 Trinity 3.2GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7560D AD5500OKHJBOX

Pros: fast, easy install, Over clocking can be done easily. Low power consumption

Cons: The fan and heat sink seem a little small, so if you plan to over clock, spend some money on a bigger fan.

Other Thoughts: Price was great for a quad core , easily over clocked, nice when paired with a video card, on board graphics are ok but dont expect gaming.

Pros: I have to say every desktop and server I have ever built in the last 10 years has been the other brand CPU. I am very impressed by the ease of installation of the AMD cpu. I was unsure because it was a PGA type CPU that it would be easier to damage. But I am very impressed by the overall design of these CPUs. Someone with out much or any tech experience could install these without any fuss.

I bought this for a High use Freenas build, and it performs very well! it stays around 40 degrees C with stick Cooler and Thermal paste. the built in GPU is a very nice feature for a build like mine that doesn't great a dedicated video card. Under heavy load of the freenas server this CPU is only about 50% or less utilization. Highly recommend this product.

Cons: it was not free

Pros: This thing seems to run cool and perform pretty hot. I am not really pushing it, but stays cool with stock fan and performance seems very good. All for 65W power for CPU & graphics and a cheap price

Cons: Not as fast as the latest, but uses less power

Pros: It works! hardly uses any power. am using a 250w PSU.. (didnt worry about only using a 4 pin connector on the 8 pin CPU power socket on the mobo). but I plan to do further testing to see what my system draws as a whole.. was a perfect cheap way to replace my parents old computer.

Cons: stock fan is noisy. was slightly confused about the lack of the realtek lan driver. (again more an issue with mobo) needed to download that and use a usb drive to get that installed. It wasnt until I did that, that I could connect to internet and activate our retail copy on win 7. my tech knowledge is limited so things like that throw me off. easy tune 6 software isnt very good.. again thats a gigabyte product. but I think thats the only way I can learn what temps are going on at the cpu lid. some other software I tried doesnt seem to give correct temps for the cpu. initial install of all drivers and software seemed to be a bit of a pain but after that and all the windows updates happen its smooth sailing. which isnt really a con. :D

Other Thoughts: well I bought this because my parents needed a new desktop and these APU's looked like an attractive option. I was able to buy an inexpensive 250w gpu to run this thing with all the other hardware. It even has enough power for some light gaming like minecraft and a few other steam games that arent too demanding on hardware. In short this thing is performing really well. very pleased.

Pros: Excellent value, integrated GPU is (theoretically) perfect for a home theater PC

Cons: The latest Linux drivers (v 13.4 at time of writing) for the integrated GPU make this APU useless for a Linux HTPC. In the older driver version included in Linux Mint 14.1, the HDMI audio passthrough would not work. After installing the latest driver, HDMI passthrough is working, but acceleration of video decoding hangs the computer, requiring a hard reboot. Everything is peachy on Windows though I would much rather be able to use a free platform with lower maintenance.

Other Thoughts: Assuming driver issues were resolved, this would easily be a 5-star product for an HTPC.

Pros: Best bang for the buck APU in the Trinity line. Runs cool, has 256 video cores, low watt usage, total power consumption of my rig is 55 watts.
This CPU matches the Phenom 965 in Ghz, has built in video, and runs cooler by 30 watts, for only $10.00 more. I can play all my DX 9.0 games just fine. For heavier gaming buy a card and Crossfire system.

Cons: No, you can't play heavy games on it, but it handles the five common tasks of the internet-Facebook, Youtube, Netflix, Skype, and email-just fine. Office work would probably put half the cores to sleep. Save your money and get a dual core APU for that.

Other Thoughts: My rig:
Asus A55FM2 board
Antec 835 series 2 Workstation case.
OCZGameExtreme 600 watt PSU
Thermaltake K8 Silent Boost CPU cooler
Seagate 160 gig HDD
Generic DVD Burner.
2 80 mm Enermax cooling fans

Power draw via UPS monitoring software- 55 watts. Running 24/7.

Pros: quad core that uses 65w, great low power consumption. this thing performs much better than the 3870k I use to have. This thing with integrated graphics handles League of legends, which is the primary game I use with this build, handles at about 55 fps solid. at 1600x 1050

Cons: none so far, great cheap rig using integrated graphics.

Pros: Quite peppy for something that is a mid-level part. Decent performance and not too much heat provided you use a higher quality cooler than what comes with it.

Cons: Temperature sensor diode is unsupported by almost all third party software (or the readings are incorrect until the CPU is fully loaded)... Not overclocking but this could be a problem for those who do without a reliable way to keep track of temperatures.

Other Thoughts: I decided to grab this CPU as a sidegrade to a previous build so that I could extend the life of a system by having a socket that will be further supported for a while (was on AM3, now on FM2)... I ended up replacing only the CPU, case and motherboard. I went from an Athlon II Quad Propus 2.8Ghz CPU to this, expecting it to be about the same overall. The build, using mostly the same parts, feels like an upgrade. I didn't even have to reinstall Win7 fresh to feel the difference.

Arguments between fanboy camps are pretty stupid overall... so take with a grain of salt when people say the latest Trinity offerings are lackluster, at best. They're decent, solid and will likely offer benefits over anything more than 2 generations old. This is not cutting edge, bleeding fast and something to brag about... but it is certainly worthwhile. I can do video editing without any slowdown, not one game I have fully loads the CPU (it's sits more idle than loaded) and nothing's lagged on me at all.

As I said, I was only expecting to get a sidegrade, no improvement, just more of same. I certainly got an improvement overall.

Pros: Ridiculously low priced for the performance.

Cons: Whiny stock cooling fan.

Other Thoughts: Get an aftermarket heatsink/cooling fan of 120mm and set it to very low RPM and you wont even know your PC is powered on.

Pros: THIS IS AN UPDATE TO THE PREVIOUS REVIEW. WE HAVE OVERCLOCKED THIS CPU TO 4.4 GHZ ON AIR! AMAZING, JUST AMAZING! IT RAN FOR 25 HRS. WITH NO PROBLEMS WHAT SO EVER. TEMPS ARE AT 91F. IMAGINE THIS THING AT 5 GHZ(LOL). WELL THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN SO KEEP IMAGING....

Cons: NONE!

Other Thoughts: VALUE FOR THE DOLLAR IS UNBELIEVABLE! YOU ARE BASICALLY GETTING A PHENOM II X4 PERFORMANCE WHICH YOU CAN ONLY OVERCLOCK TO ABOUT 3.7 GHZ MAX ADDING ANOTHER 700 MHZ. ALMOST INSTANT PERFORMANCE FOR SMAL APPLICATIONS. I WOULD PLAY MEDIUM LEVEL GAMES ON IT THOUGH, BUT JUST FOR DAY TO DAY INFO. THIS IS THE WAY TO GO.