has been fielding new CPU's faster than any other company has in recent history. They are unveiling the Phenom 2 X2 550 BE and Athlon 2 X2 250 at Computex (2009). Two new reasonably priced dual core CPU's that promise to be excellent values as well as promising to be good overclocker chips. Coming in at 3.0 GHz on the Athlon 2 X2 250 and 3.1 GHz on the Phenom 2 X2 550 they provide enough speed out of the box for most mainstream users and the overclockability of the new 45nm CPU's promises enough excitement for the overclocker crowd.

With new lost cost alternative motherboards like the Gigabyte 770T-UD3P coming in at around $85 USD and overclocking like a champion you can be setting on a Motherboard/CPU combination for around $170 - 180 depending on the CPU you choose. Not to shabby for a nice fast dual core setup but how will they compare to existing CPU's like the E8400? Well we don't expect a chip that cost $102 to compete with a chip that cost $160 but it would be nice if the new Athlon 2 and Phenom 2 CPU's perform at enough of a level to compete with chips like the E7400 and provide a cost friendly alternative to more expensive Intel rigs.