AMD Introduces New Socket FM1 Athlon, Price Changes
by Andrew Cunningham on November 15, 2011 2:15 PM ESTIn addition to its new Opteron chips, AMD yesterday announced a few small changes to its processor line-up, including adjusted prices for several of its Llano-based APUs (and one of its FX-series socket AM3+ processors) and a new, faster GPU-less Athlon II for Socket FM1 boards.
The Athlon II X4 651 is a 3 GHz quad-core chip with a 100 watt TDP and 4 MB of L2 cache, and a suggested retail price of $92. For people building an FM1-based system with no need for an integrated GPU, it will deliver slighly faster performance than the 2.9 GHz, ~$140 A8-3850 at a lower cost. It differs from the already available Athlon II X4 631 only in cost and clock speed.
As for the price changes, they are as follows: the AMD A6-3500 has dropped to $85 from $89, while the A4-3300 and A4-3400 have both received price increases of $2 (to $66 and $71, respectively). The Bulldozer-based FX-6100 sees the biggest price change, with a drop from $165 to $155.
Source: CPU World
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
33 Comments
View All Comments
kmmatney - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
If you need a new MB/cpu combo, Microcenter still has the best deal - I bought a Phenom XII 560 and motherboard for $88, and the cpu easily unlocked to 4 cores.http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMD...
It doesn't come anywhere near the Intel 2500K in performance, but its so much cheaper.
buildingblock - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
IMHO not a good deal, even at $88. You could have had the GigaByte 1155 GA-H61M-DS2 for $53 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.... and the Intel Sandy Bridge Celeron G530 2.4GHz for $40 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.... Total $93.Performance (PC Mark) G530 2374 - Phenom XII 560 2053
So your 560 does not even come anywhere near the G530. Agreed the AMD CPU is $5 cheaper but for me it's another win for Intel Sandy Bridge.
Hubb1e - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Did you miss the part where he said he unlocked the extra 2 cores? That's the value in his system. The Celeron is a great chip too, but when you can unlock extra cores it certainly adds to the value proposition.Now where's the black edition FM1? I hear these things overclock well, but I'm not a fan of messing around too much with the FSB. It makes me worry too much about my settings if I ever have lockups.
MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I did a MC combo as above, and my BE560 unlocked to 4 cores as well. I went with this MSI board: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.... Add the unlocked multi of the 560 and the fact that my combo motherboard has VGA, DVI, and HDMI, 6 SATA slots, 6 USB ports on back, and a PCI slot for legacy cards, and I'd consider it a pretty darn good deal.Compare that to the H61 motherboard: VGA only, 4 SATA, 4 USB running that locked-down Celeron. Not to say that is a bad combo, but it depends on what you'd like to do.
My only rub on the MSI board was that they totally screwed me on the MIR. Damn, I hate MIRs.
jabber - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Yeah not a fan of using Intel in the budget arena either.The CPUs are fine, if a little choice limited at the low end. But its the low end Intel motherboards that suck.
On a cheap AMD MB I can probably get DVI/HDMI and e-SATA which is nice to have. Maybe even USB3.0.
On the cheap Intel board I still get parallel and serial ports. It's like it's still 2004 for Intel at the low end.
If I can get the same features on a cheap Intel board as a 880G m-ATX board then we'll talk.
kmmatney - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
That is a good deal on the Sandy Bridge. I bought my upgrade a while back, before that SB was available, and I also had 4 GB of DDR2 that I wanted to re-use, so the AMD deal was the best at the time (and it unlocked to 4 cores, and easily overclocks to 3.6 Ghz). The unlocked multiplier is nice.It would REALLY be nice if the Celeron G530 could overclock, then it would be a no-brainer to go SB.
kmmatney - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Also, that GigaByte 1155 GA-H61M-DS2 is really basic. No DVI, e-sata, only 4 USB ports on back. It also has no IDE connectors (I'm still running an IDE Lightscribe DVD) but has COM port and Parallel port headers? Pretty bizaare for a MB supporting the latest processors.EthanW - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
Even still - board features aside (which is the case with the entire line of motherboard from both sides - you're paying a lot more for an Intel version of the same board at the top of the market, too.)Overclocking. You should be able to push that 560BE close to 4GHz. The Celeron isn't moving past stock speeds. That's before we unlock cores.
Plus, knowingly using a Celeron will make most people sick in the stomach. At least move up to a Pentium. :P
Beenthere - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
Thankfully some folks have a moral compass and refuse to buy Intel products due to their multiple convictions for anti-trust violations, multiple convictions for U.S. tax fraud and pending prosecutions for more anti-trust violations. It's not just about PC performance, it's about ethical business practices or the lack there of.Consumers can control the marketplace if they vote with their wallet.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2120866/i...
frozentundra123456 - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
I vote with my wallet to buy the best product for the money. I get tired of the picture of AMD as some great white knight in shining armor while Intel is the evil wizard.And by the way, didnt you post this exact same thing in the forums earlier??
Well, I still disagree with you.