Phenom9500
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HP's Phenom 9500-powered Pavilion Media Center m8330f PC
Remember those tasty Phenom chips AMD loosed back on November? We sure hope so, because that's the CPU HP's relying on in its forthcoming Pavilion Media Center m8330f PC. Here's the specifics: 2.2GHz AMD Phenom 9500 quad-core CPU NVIDIA's nForce 430 chipset 3GB of DDR2 RAM Twin 320GB 7,200 RPM SATA hard drives HP's Personal Media Drive Bay LightScribe-enabled SuperMulti DVD burner NTSC / ATSC / FM tuners HP Media Center remote control with IR receiver Front-mounted 15-in-1 multicard reader Beyond that, you can expect six USB 2.0 ports, a pair of FireWire connectors, audio in / out, HDMI and DVI sockets and an HP mouse / keyboard combo. Like the s3330f PC already mentioned, this too will be landing real soon with a price tag starting at $959.
AMD launches quad-core Phenom -- Intel shrugs
Just like we heard, AMD has gone live with Phenom. With it, we've got an entire new platform, codenamed "Spider." The Spider PC platform combines AMD Phenom quad-core processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics, and AMD 7-series chipsets with CrossFireX and AMD OverDrive software for what AMD calls the "Ultimate visual Experience." That's the hype. Early reviews, however, are pretty much "underwhelmed" by the launch. Oh, the HD 3800 cards are ok (for mid-range graphics) and the 7-series chipset "is in good shape," but AMD needs to roll-on those clock speeds beyond the 2.2GHz Phenom 9500 ($251), 2.3GHz Phenom 9600 ($283) and 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz Phenon 9700 and 9900 (available in Q1 2008 for $300 and $350, respectively), and do it quick, if they hope to pull ahead of Intel's quad-core offerings. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely. Read -- AMD Spider press releaseRead -- PC Perspective benchmarkRead -- HotHardware benchmark
