I'm not trying to start a flame thread here, I just want people's honest answers.
What builds are Phenom's good for right now. Same question goes for the x2's.
I totally understand that people can upgrade from the 64 to the x2's and from slower x2's to higher clocked be's but if I were to build a completely new system, when would I consider AMD's processors?
Some quick history so nobody thinks I'm spilling gasoline waiting for somebody to bring a match; my favorite build from scratch was a AMD XP 1600+ with the 1st nForce chipset. For the most part, I build Intel machines and am wanting to have a good reason to build another AMD machine. Upgraded my father's machine from a Pentium D 840 to a used x2 4000 system I picked up a while back for $100 that included a gig of ram.
The only reason I can come up is video encoding, not even transcoding, but just pure h.264 and the like.
I personally prefer AMD's x2's for any pentium 4 family computers but sheesh, the Intel's seem to be steam rolling when you factor in gaming and/or overclocking.

We cannot show you what the matrix is you must see it for yourself.

we aren't with P4's anymore- that is why amd is now behind, because frankly K10 architecture just doesn't seem to deliver as much juice as Core 2, let alone penryn, however, if you can find one for cheap enough, it might be worth it for video encoding - better than any dual core anyway, since all phenoms thus far are quad

Phenoms are good for the same things as core 2's , just not as quickly. As far as X-2's, my x2-5600 was awesome, especially when it gotup to 3.2ghz. I hope to build a amd system again one day.

Anytime a thread starts with this as it's opening line, you should expect nothing but.

Asking what a Phenom is good for is like asking why you would want to use Firefox instead of IE.

You don't need any better reason to build an AMD machine other than the fact that you want to build an AMD machine. Who's approval are you looking for?

Starting with B3, cheap server applications.

Phenoms are good for any build, imo. If you want the fastest machine, look elsewhere. If you want a machine that runs applications, then the Phenom fits the bill. Not sure what exactly you're asking, since you didn't really give any specific tasks that you intend to run. You touch on video encoding, but not as a specific task you intend to do.

Hell, an X2, Core2, Quad, or Phenom will run whatever you want to run. It just depends on how fast you want to run a task, depends on the CPU you should get.

Anyone wanting a fine performing system that doesnt want to overclock, and maybe wants to save a buck or two, olus take advantage of a platform on the cheap (780G) for light gaming, yet great for HD playback. No overclock, price competitive per performance, yea thats who its for

A really good example what happens when Marketing does not talk to Design and Engineering?

Or you have a bunch of brainless twits sitting in your boardroom.

Forget about starting with a brand in mind, just make a checklist of what's important to you. Are you concerned about cost? What kind of apps will you run on it, and how often? Do you plan on overclocking? Is upgradability important? Follow your checklist to whatever processor it leads to and go with it.

If you start out wanting to have a reason to go one way or the other, you're apt to find one, regardless of how that reason stacks up against the real facts. That's a bass-ackwards approach IMO.

Or perhaps a decent HTPC setup. I like those "butter-smooth" HD playback comments about the 780G IGP. However I'd stick with a lower-power Phenom to avoid fan noise.

So far what I've gathered from your replies is that the phenom is a processor that is just the next x2 for everything (gaming included) when not considering overclocking. In other words, it's for a RTR machine that doesn't have any stand-out performance in one area other than maybe server apps and video encoding.
Considering overclocking and Intel walks away with just about every processor they make right now.
So the phenom is good (maybe not great) for an unspecific family computer that should last 4+ years without needing to clean out any dust bunnies .
I can't for the life of me find AMD pushing the chip for any specific application. Kind of sad really because I would think if they priced it as low as they did, they would try and sell them into some market slice. I remember when performance/watt was all the x2, but the price wasn't pretty, then the c2d was all that and then some but the price was stuck and forced the x2's down making them a great buy for a budget gaming build. Now it doesn't look like there is ANY benefit to going with AMD for an internet/office/gaming/family machine. The benefit would only be there if I already had a phenom ready mobo sitting here waiting for an upgrade .

The only thing i would build a K10 box for is MySQL servers. It's the 1 area where the chips shine over current Intel offerings. out side of that in the high end performance arena, a K10 is not the best of the best. It is a cheap quad core though.

Consider this.
On this board, most people consider AMD chips a failure just because they can reach Intel frequencies. On the other hand, Intel chip cost much more than AMD ones. Even at same performances level. CPU and Motherboard Intel based are more expensive. Yet, from an Intel CPU + motherboard you can get much more power, but you are going to spend more money as well. See the prices of those ultra-mega-super powerful Quad cores.
Phenom CPU costs for what they give.
In the end it all depends on what you use yor PC for (mainly). If you do video encoding/rendering o generally run very CPU intensive application a quad core would be much better than a dual core (even if the latter is faster in clock). If you mainly play games a dual core is still the perfect choice. Now, once you have decided how many cores you need, just look at you pocket and try to chose the best CPU+motherboard you can find for your money. If you desperately need to save 10 secs at each video you encode, then go for Intel Q67xx family. If you prefer to keep you pocket a bit fatter as you don't mind those 10 secs, Phenom may be a solution.
If you want to play Crysis on your brand new 24" monitor @ 1920x1200 with all enabled, go for a E8600 + the faster GForce you can afford (or a couple of them in SLI). If you are happy with a 1600x1200 with medium settings, probably a X2@5400-5600 may be a good choice for half (or less) the price of the previous choice.
Take into consideration than C2D are their end on the actual architecture. Next one will need a completely new motherboard/chipset/memory.
AMD announced that future Phenom CPU will remain compatible with current AM2+ motherboards, so a smooth transition in next months may be available trough that path.

I'm too debated on the