This CPU is a demon when it comes to overclocking, very easy but I am not going to focus on that aspect. We all want a CPU that works out of the box and that is what CPUs do...well nearly all of them. Don't get me wrong buy the CPU buy a compatable motherboard and it is going to work 'out of the box' your system will be fine. Now...gaming...this is where the product flaws itself. Not all games in fact only a few, will not run, won't start and will actually in every case give you a BSOD and force a system restart. Namely Mass Effect, will lose textures and Deus Ex, most recent one, will give you a BSOD. This seems to be only, I could be wrong, with Steam launched games, but a fact is it does happen. It happens with all FX CPUs 4,6 and 8 cores. AMD have addressed the problem with BIOS updates specific to your motherboard. I can say that for Gigabyte boards you need the F6e BIOS update. Once BIOS is patched all is well.
The CPU is very cool runs at 23c for me @ idle with liquid cooler and doesn't exceed 45c at stress. For multi-tasking its perfect, it is what it is designed for, when turbo core kicks in it will boost active cores as necessary while powering down inactive cores.
Just a note there is no 'Cool n Quiet' for this CPU it basically takes care of itself powering up and down the clocks as necessary.
Back to OCing. Very easy. Have had it up tp 4.0ghz with minor voltage increase but watch those temps.
Gigabyte board owners latest BIOS is F6f if you're using the GA-990FXA-UD3 v.1 or 1.1. v.1.2 uses a different BIOS available from Gigabyte site. According to some forums it seems that launchimg a game from Steam can sometimes result in the BSOD I mentioned but this has not been confirmed 100%.
Some of your say you can't find this BIOS. You have to remember board manufacturers are always updating BIOSes. This BIOS is now F6f. Make sure you select the correct BIOS version for your board, currently are 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 for the UD3, as the BIOS is sometimes different. Install CPU-Z and it will show you your currently installed BIOS and your board version.If you use @bios utility it will NOT show you beta BIOSes when you choose 'Update from Gigabyte Server'. You will only see the F5 BIOS which is what most of these boards ship with F5 gave me problems with Deus Ex HR, which I fixed by flashing BIOS to the beta F6e which is now F6f. To install beta BIOSes you need to manually download the BIOS file from Gigavyte site and in @bios choose 'Update from file'. Point to where you downloaded the BIOS and bingo. Tip: If you have altered any settings in your BIOS that you wish to keep Uncheck the box that says something like 'Load CMOS default settings after updating'.