The AMD phenom range of processors has been around for a since 2007 and the range of their processors include dual, triple and quad core processors.

These include the single and dual core versions as well as the x3 and x4.

Today I will be focusing on the x3 and x4 processors for my review.

The Phenom x3

This powerful triple core processor has an L1 cache of 64 KB data and 64 KB of instruction per core, An L2 cache of 512 KB per core and an L3 cache of 2 MB, which is shared between all the cores.

It has a dual channel DDR2-1066 MHz memory controller with unganging option, sits in an AM2+ socket and runs at 2.1 to 2.5 Ghz.

These are well priced, retailing on ebay for just $24 at the time of writing this.

The Phenom x4

These little suckers are essentially the same as the x3 with the l1 cache of 64 KB data and instruction, L2 cache of 512 KB per core and an L3 cache of 2 MB. The only major difference is that it has 4 cores instead of just 3.

These are retailing for around the $100 mark at the time of writing this article.

While they aren’t as good as the Intel chips, they are very cheap and if you have an AMD Motherboard, sorry but unless you are willing to buy a new MOBO, you are stuck with one of these.

While these are certainly great little chips, the have some key differences in the chip architecture which leads on to speed and capabilities as well as the all important price!
I3 :
the i3-xxx series processor chips run on an LGA-1156 socket and have a factory clock speed of 2.4 to 3.0g Ghz, and while they are only dual core processors, they certainly still pack a punch with an L3 cache of 3-4 Mb and at the time of writing this, they are retailing on ebay for as little as $124 ,Thats is not a whole heap for a powerful little processor!

I5:

The I5 6xx and I57xx processors come in either dual or quad core and certainly pack a punch with a FSB speed of 2.5 Gt/s, an L2 cache of 256 MB and an L3 cache of 4 to 8 Mb and also run on an LGA-1156 socket.

At the time of writing, these little powerhouses are retailing on ebay for as little as $170

I7:

The i7 6xx, 7xx, 8xx and 9xx processors sit in either an LGA 1156 or 1366 socket and are all quad core. They pack a serious punch with a FSB speed of either 4.8 or 6.4 Gt/s, an L2 cache of 4×256 Mb and an L3 cache of 6-8 Mb!

At the time of writing these babies are retailing for as little as $255 on Ebay!

If you want the ultimate performance though, the I7 9xx(x) processors are 6 core powerhouses, they sit in an LGA 1366 socket with a FSB speed of 12.8 GT/s an L2 cache of 6×256 KB and an L3 cache of 12 MB these retail in excess of 2G so you are going to need to shell out for one of these, but think of the competition you are going to crush!

The New 2010 Core Processor family is shaping up to be some interesting little gadgets which have been cooked up by Intel’s engineers to bring you only the best of the latest technology in the Processor market, please see the following videos for details on what these babies can do!

all I can say is “wow, cant wait to get my hands on one of these!”

Well, This one is at the moment a tough one to answer, It all depends on the use and abuse you are going to put your system through and of course, like everything else, it all boils down to price.

If you want to check your emails once a week then there really is no need to buy a PC at all, just $2 to your local internet cafe will do the trick, But on the other end of the spectrum if you are going to spend your time playing the latest games and need a machine that is going to keep up to the ever increasing demand from game developers, you are definately going to need to invest in the latest Intel i7 or AMD phenom!

Read on for a quick guide to dual and quad core processors.

Pre Dual Core:

Well you can pick up a 3ghz Pentium 4 for almost nothing nowadays, find an auction on eBay and its all yours, that will still run a PC, check emails, surf the web, all the basics not a problem just don’t expect it to make you a coffee in the morning, in fact don’t expect it to do much without at least 5 to 10 minutes to startup (a Bit like me!)

Dual Core

These are still very decent processors to use and will run nearly any application you can throw at it, even half decent games if you have an upper market one, As I write this these range in price from $20 to $280 on ebay depending on exact specs.

Quad Core

These are top of the line processors and will run any software that is available today, top of the line games and will damn near make a coffee in the morning (but if there is coffee pouring out of the CD-Rom drive, I’m pretty sure you have major problems!).
As I write this, they range in price on Ebay from around $200 to $1400, If you want to future proof your PC for as long as possible, it is highly recommended that you go for one of these bad boys!