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The differences between the four models of X2 come down to the core speed and L2 cache, so the 4200+ runs at 2.2GHz with 512KB of L2 cache on each core, the 4400+ is 2.2GHz and 1MB, the 4600+ jumps to 2.4GHz with 512KB cache and the 4800+ is the daddy at 2.4GHz with a full 1MB of L2 cache on each core.

This allows AMD to continue its desktop numbering series seamlessly from the Athlon 64 4000+, but the pricing takes a big hike.

Official AMD pricing per chip, which is in US dollars and for a tray of 1,000 processors is as follows:

4200+ $537
4400+ $581
4600+ $803
4800+ $1,001

Working from those figures we estimate that the X2 will sell in the UK inc VAT at these prices:

4200+ £375
4400+ £400
4600+ £560
4800+ £700.

A few points jump off the page here. First, the gap between 4200+ and 4400+ is so close that you wouldn’t bother with the 4200+ but would instead go for the 4400+. Second, the price gap between the 4600+ and 4800+ is very high for a bit of extra L2 cache. Third, the dollar price for the 4800+ has surely been chosen to dissuade customers from buying it. $999 looks steep but $1,001 just looks enormous.

Put an Athlon 64 X2 on the bench next to a regular Athlon 64 and you won’t be able to tell the two processors apart as all of the changes are internal, and as with the dual core Opteron you should be able to upgrade your existing Athlon 64 after a BIOS flash with no need for a change of motherboard. Indeed, with the 110W power rating we would hope that you would be able to continue using your existing heatsink/fan unit.

We built the AMD hardware into a test system by adding an Areca 1220 PCI Express RAID card and four Raptor WD740 hard drives in a RAID 5 array, along with an Antec True550P EPS12V 550W power supply that we had on the test bench and which happened to be exactly the model that AMD recommends. We let the side down a bit by installing an Asus N6600GT graphics card as that’s what we happened to have to hand. Yes, a 6800 Ultra or X850PE would have been nice but as you’ll see it wouldn’t have affected our test results one little bit. So that we at least looked like we were trying we ran the Asus N6600GT at 550MHz core and 1100MHz memory on Detonator 71.84 drivers.

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