Yesterday evening, AMD unveiled a surprise addition to the Athlon 64 processor lineup, the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition.
I’m sure most of you are sitting waiting around for Phenom and wondering why AMD is bothering to release more K8 processors?
At face value, it is a dual-core processor based on a 65nm process running at 2.6GHz and features two 512KB L2 caches. The thing that sets this apart from other Athlon 64 X2 5000+ processors is the fact that it has an unlocked multiplier and still comes with a respectable price tag.
The unlocked multiplier will allow enthusiasts to overclock the processor without having to stress their motherboard’s HyperTransport bus.
There is no UK pricing or availability date at the time of publication, but an AMD representative has confirmed to bit-tech that the processor will be coming to the UK, even despite AMD's Black Edition homepage suggesting otherwise.
According to AMD’s price list, the chip will be sold in 1,000 unit quantities at US$136 per CPU – an $11 premium over the standard X2 5000+. Taking UK pricing for the standard Athlon 64 X2 5000+ into account, we can expect the Black Edition to come in at around £85-90 (inc. VAT).
Obviously Phenom isn’t far away and I’m sure that is what most enthusiasts, including ourselves, are waiting for, but this is a nice treat for anyone looking to spice up an AM2 system before Phenom does arrive.
Discuss in the forums
I’m sure most of you are sitting waiting around for Phenom and wondering why AMD is bothering to release more K8 processors?
At face value, it is a dual-core processor based on a 65nm process running at 2.6GHz and features two 512KB L2 caches. The thing that sets this apart from other Athlon 64 X2 5000+ processors is the fact that it has an unlocked multiplier and still comes with a respectable price tag.
The unlocked multiplier will allow enthusiasts to overclock the processor without having to stress their motherboard’s HyperTransport bus.
There is no UK pricing or availability date at the time of publication, but an AMD representative has confirmed to bit-tech that the processor will be coming to the UK, even despite AMD's Black Edition homepage suggesting otherwise.
According to AMD’s price list, the chip will be sold in 1,000 unit quantities at US$136 per CPU – an $11 premium over the standard X2 5000+. Taking UK pricing for the standard Athlon 64 X2 5000+ into account, we can expect the Black Edition to come in at around £85-90 (inc. VAT).
Obviously Phenom isn’t far away and I’m sure that is what most enthusiasts, including ourselves, are waiting for, but this is a nice treat for anyone looking to spice up an AM2 system before Phenom does arrive.
Discuss in the forums
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