With the current price war going on between Intel and AMD at the lower-end of the market, consumers are left with more affordable options than ever before. One can argue that there has never been a better time to build a computer or upgrade an aging system, especially with the cost of relatively high-performing hardware finally reaching attainable levels. And with AMD's recent launch of their first $99 quad-core, enthusiasts have run out of excuses to postpone the jump to multi-core computing.
AMD continues to expand their product line up with mainstream processors at competitive prices with the launch of eight new Athlon II models today. These chips range from dual to quad-core varieties and feature lower power consumption as well. Today, we will be looking at two variants from this launch, the dual core Athlon II X2 240e and triple core X3 435 processors. Come on by and take a look...
AMD Athlon II X2 240e and X3 435 Mainstream CPUs

Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com