Athlon II X3 435 and more

CHIMPZILLA INTRODUCED eight new Athlon processors today, amongst which two models in particular were passed around to review sites that have promptly posted their tests on the Athlon II X3 435 and Athlon II X2 240e. The newest tri-core processor from AMD doesn’t break any land speed records, but it more than copes with today’s demanding apps. The X2 240e is a cheaper dual-core, but it offers you really good power/performance. You can actually find these listed in the UK from Yoyotech for just £42.11 and £34.62, respectively. That’s too much value to ignore.

Here’s a small list of reviews:

Anandtech

Guru of 3D

Overclockers Club

Xbit Labs

PC Stats

Chile Hardware

Hardware.fr

Firing Squad

Tom’s Hardware

HiTech Legion

In 2010, AMD will hit the six-core mark, according to available roadmappery. Considering AMD’s desktop hexa-cores are likely to be Istanbuls with little or no changes to the silicon, Xbit Labs has a preview of what to expect from AMD’s upcoming Thuban. Not too shabby, considering it’s still built on 45nm and you’ll eventually be able to plug it in an AM3 mobo.

Anandtech is fawning over Marvell’s new ARMADA SoC, whose higher-end units are based on the Core PJ4 processor running at >1GHz speeds. There’s a preview of the architecture, but from what we’ve heard, TI’s OMAP4 will be Marvell-killers.

Tom’s Hardware thinks the Mobility HD 3870X2 is still the strongest mobile ATI part out there... and it’s probably right. With the cancelled Mobility HD 4870X2, ye olde tech still delivers on performance. Oddly enough, at the end of the article there’s an offer from ASI Partner for a $200 rebate on the laptop on test. *cough* Good timing.

Benchmark Reviews has the Asus P7P55D EVO P55-based mobo on the bench. It’s the overclocker’s sandbox and it’ll do both SLI and Crossfire. It’s also a bit more expensive than mainstream cards, but not as expensive as the high-end.

Think Computers tests the Seasonic S12D 850W power supply. This unit already boasts ‘up to 90%’ efficiency and can power some serious dual-CPU setups, reason enough to feature here. Colin thought it was the proverbial dog’s you-know-whats.

The SSD main event is taking place at Hot Hardware. Dave has picked up an OCZ Z-Drive m84 PCIe SSD unit and put it through its paces. The Z-Drive is a quad-RAID array on a single PCIe x8 slot that uses an LSI RAID chip with plenty o’ RAM to cache data. Results were all over the place and definitely not as expected. Dave is nudging at the LSI chip.

DFI LAN Party motherboards, known for their gamer pedigree, are branching out into other areas like HTPCs and the likes. Legit Reviews tests the LANParty Jr. GF940 T2RS micro-ATX motherboard. It serves well as a mobile gaming rig or as an HTPC. Of course you can plop in a discrete GPU for added horsepower.

OK, so not all HD 4890s are cheap, especially the customised ones with very large frame buffers like the XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB video card. You pay a few bob extra, but we don’t really see the point for these cards nowadays... unless they are on sale. Legit has one.

TV, LCD, it’s just about the same thing, nowadays, isn’t it? Samsung’s SyncMaster P2370HD 23-inch HDTV is affordable, looks good and boasts plenty of connectivity. Hook it up with HDMI, DVI, VGA, SCART, composite video, RF-in and there’s also SPDIF out and earphones. You also look to its T240HD brother for an extra HDMI plug.

PC Perspective had some fun with the Dell Studio One touchscreen PC. It’s a fancy way to work, a 22-inch panel PC with multi-touch capability and could make a useful work tool or just family PC (although, we’d abstain from putting it in a kitchen, Ryan). Just $899, it seems. µ