AMD Athlon 2 X3 435

INTRODUCTION

AMD is cranking out processors in every price range and market segment faster than most of us can keep track of. They've released everything from dual core Athlon 2 X2 to Quad core Phenom 2 X4 and done so in an almost impossibly fast schedule. The new Athlon 2 line is more for budget minded end users and we've seen quad core Athlon 2 X4's as low as $99 which is unheard of for any quad core CPU until now.

With AMD covering every market segment and price range they new lineup of CPU's is very attractive from a price performance standpoint. Your not going to get Intel i7 975 performance from the new CPU's but your also not going to pay in $1000 for a CPU. With the ability to run on AM2 or AM3 motherboards and use DDR2 or DDR3 AMD has the most affordable upgrade path and if need be you can incrementally upgrade. Start with a AM2 board with DDR2 sitting on it and plug in an AM3 (any model) CPU and upgrade the board and ram later if you want.

We're going to take a look at the new AMD Athlon 2 X3 435 triple core CPU and see if we can't unlock it's potential, then we're going to try and unlock that disabled core. You should know that unlocking that disabled core is a crap shoot and not every Triple core CPU can handle it. We'd venture a guess that as many as 50% of the triple cores are capable of unlocking and functioning. That usually comes at a cost, most often you lose a little OCing capability. Typically an unlocked core CPU that overclocks to 3.GHz will OC as high as 3.5GHz so you lose 300 - 400 GHz OCing capability but gain a core. Other triple core CPU's won't stabilize with the core unlocked. If you have a little luck and a board capable of the trick you might extend the already great value of affordable AMD CPU's. Even if it doesn't unlock the Athlon 2 X3 435 running a mere $87 dollars at launch is still an exceptional value for budget minded enthusiasts.

Lets jump right into the specifications of the Athlon 2 X3 435 and see how far we can drive it.