AVADirect Jumps on the Llano A-Series Bandwagon

Find yourself enamored by the prospect of having a CPU and GPU integrated into the same slice of silicon? You have options, friend, one of those being AMD's newfangled Fusion-powered Accelerated Processing Units. These APUs require a new socket -- FM1 -- which won't be a big deal if you're starting from scratch anyway. For those of you not planning to roll your own rig, system builder AVADirect is now offering systems with AMD's Llano A-Series APUs underneath the hood.

AVADirect allows you to get your Fusion frenzy on starting at just over $450. That's not a big investment by any stretch, and in return, you get all the makings of a modest daily workhorse, including:

• AMD A6-3650 APU (quad-core 2.6GHz)
• Gigabyte GA-A75-D3H motherboard
• Compucase HEC 6C28B mid-tower
• 2GB DDR3-1333 memory
• Seagate 1TB hard drive (7200RPM) w/ 32MB cache
• 24X DVD burner w/ Lightscribe
• 585W power supply

Add a C-note and change to toss Windows 7 Home Premium into the mix, or download yourself a Linux distro and call it a day (AVADirect offers a few different flavors ranging from about $12 to $58).

There are plenty of upgrade options to choose from, and we'd start with the RAM. Playing around briefly with the configuration pull-down menus, we kicked things up to an A8-3850 APU, 4GB of Crucial DDR3-1333 memory, Antec Dark Fleet DF-10 case, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit for a final tally of $625, or just over $600 if sticking with the A6-3650.