Introduction

Technology refuses to stop advancing. If you've ever done any research on technology, you've probably come across Moore's Law.  If not, I will recap it for you. Basically, Moore's Law states that the transistor count on integrated circuit boards will double every two years. Now keep in mind that this was created back in the 1970s before computers were in their prime. The law has been disputed and refined, but it is still to this day true in it's spirit of accelerating technology.

AMD has kept true to this philosophy while keeping the technology they produce current, cost effective, and backwards compatible. AMD's line of Athlon II processors has the technology of their upper end Phenom series, but at an affordable price. They were released in 2009 to meet the demands of the mainstream and budget computer market. Today, AMD is releasing 6 more processors within that series that will offer more power at the same price point. The new Athlon II processors will also remain AM2+/AM3 compatible, so the upgrade to them won't be painful.

The AMD Athlon II X4 640 will replace their current Athlon II X4 635 processor in price and with increased performance. The Athlon II X4 640 is rated 100MHz higher at 3.0GHz and still offers quad core performance. The 640 retains all of the AMD features, such as Cool and Quiet, to keep power consumption and heat to a minimum. I will be complementing the AMD Athlon II X4 640 with their new 890 motherboard chipset and an ATI Radeon 5770 for optimal compatibility and performance for a mainstream computer.