As time has gone by, it’s become widely accepted that AMD’s 45nm processors have much to offer to a vast number of consumers. Starting from the runt of the pack, the Sempron 140 2.70GHz single core all the way to the bang per buck monster, the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition, the CPU manufacturer has aggressively pitched their processors against the entire Intel Celeron, Pentium and Core 2 range, often with lower price tags and/or higher clock-speeds. That's not all because there's also a cracking selection of motherboards from £40 to around £150, most of which sporting the infamous AMD SB710/750 southbridges, which can often unlock the cores of selected CPU's, unlock CPU Multipliers and unlock missing L3 cache. When you factor in that LGA775 will soon be as dead as a dodo and with AMD's plans to retain the same socket for future releases at least into 2011 (according to road maps), Socket AM3 CPU's have arguably become the #1 choice for all users barring the "extreme" performance enthusiasts.

 

So you'd think that after making so much progress after over two years of falling considerably short of Intel's offerings, AMD have some scope to feel a little smug? Sadly, far from it I'm afraid. They may have Intel's line up attended to, right up to the Core 2 Quad Q9650 with it's Phenom II X4 955 3.20GHz Black Edition but only in a matter of weeks, there'll be a new kid on the block who goes by the name of Lynnfield. To be more precise, Lynnfield is Intel's mainstream variant of the existing Nehalem Core i7 but on a new socket, LGA1156. Boasting the same architecture as the number crunching LGA1366 Core i7's, minus Triple Channel Memory, Quickpath Technology, the upcoming lineup is expected to pack a considerable punch within a smaller and less complex package which will inevitably cost the consumer considerably less. It remains to be seen how well these processors will perform and how well they will overclock but if one thing is for sure, now of all days would be the worst time for AMD to sit back with their favourite glass of single malt, watch some television then perhaps go for a nap. After all, if one fail's to prepare then one must prepare to fail and this is exactly what happened when the previous performance champion, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 series received a punch in the face by the well received Core 2 Duo "Conroe" core...And on that bomb shell I wish to present to you the latest addition to the Phenom II family. Meet the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition.