14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices will soon launch four socket AM1 accelerated processing units, but the chips have already gone up for pre-order. You might want to hold off on buying them though.
Why? Because the chips suffer from the oft-encountered syndrome of early overpricing. Which is to say, the lone retailer that accepts pre-orders for them has taken the liberty of setting the prices higher than they should be.
After all, it's not like it has any competition at the moment. It's a standard (if somewhat distasteful) marketing tactic really.
Anyway, there are two Kabini-based Athlon-branded chips, and two Semprons, all of them quad-core except for the Sempron 2650.
We may as well take them in order. So, the Sempron 2650 is a dual-core unit with 1.45 GHz clock, 1 MB storage space and HD 8240 integrated graphics (400 MHz), plus a DDR3-1333 controller. Its price is of $35 / €35.
The second chip, Sempron 3850, is a 1.3 GHz quad-core with 2 MB cache and HD 8280 graphics (450 MHz), plus DDR3-1600 memory. The price is of $39 / €39.
The Athlon 5150 is a 1.6 GHz quad-core with 2 MB cache, HD 8400 graphics (600 MHz) and DDR3-1600 memory. Pre-orders are made for $45 / €45.
Finally, the Athlon 5350, which also happens to be the strongest of the lot (and priced accordingly at $54 / €54). A quad-core with 2.05 GHz frequency, it has 2 MB cache, HD 8400 graphics (600 MHz), and DDR3-1600 memory.
All four new accelerated processing units have a TDP (thermal design power) of 25W. For those wondering where the AM1 socket came from, it's not really new. Only the name is. Previously, the socket was called FS1b.
The main competitors against AMD's AM1 socket APUs will be Intel's Bay Trail-D central processing units (CPUs).