14 DAY TRIAL // Dual-core CPUs have lost their appeal quite some time ago and they're hardly a novelty, unless implemented into ultra-mobile PCs. At the same time, quad-core chips might be an extreme choice, so tri-core processors are the optimal solution.
Luckily, system builders who would like to get their computers powered by tri-core chips can get some interesting units from AMD. Dell has already announced an entire series of computers based on AMD's Tolimans, and it's now Mesh's turn to get the tri-core powerhorses into its stables. The system builder has announced that it will release two systems based around the currently-unavailable Phenom 8400 and 8600 chips.
AMD's tri-core processors are common quad-core chips with one of the cores disabled, mostly as a result of a manufacturing error or flaw during the process. Apart from the number of cores, the chips would feature the same technical specifications, namely 2MB of L3 cache, the AM2+ CPU socket and the brand-new HyperTransport 3.0.
The systems offered by Mesh come at reasonably low prices. The lowest offer in Mesh's catalogs will have a price tag of $970 and will come with a standard memory size of 2GB. The 8600 Mesh xXx Pro model is priced at ?599 with 2GB of 667MHz DDR 2, a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics card, a 500GB 1.5Gb/s SATA hard drive and a dual-layer DVD writer. Of course, the maximum memory rate will range at only 667MHz memory compared to the 1,066MHz bus speeds of the new quad-core chips in the Phenom family, but memory has never been a problem for the AMD-based systems.
The tri-core Toliman processors will arrive just in time to compete with the low-cost offering from Intel, the Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 or even the Intel Core 2 Duo E2200. The Intel processors are dual-core chips, and the AMD units will be expected to perform much better in multi-threaded tasks, such as gaming, for instance.
Mesh is one of the system builders that have arrived at the end of the party. Dell and HP have already announced their series of tri-core Phenom-based machines in the Optiplex family.