Will AMD blow its lead again in graphics? An analysis of the current state of play in the race for processor and graphics superiority

All the acronyms and obscure new technologies got you in a jargon jumble? Tim Dean busts it up to help us make sense of it all.

A world first on the desktop, Phenom is good but a long way from outstanding.

The creme de la creme of Athlon 64 products, the 4000+ is a socket 939 CPU with all the bells and whistles. This bad boy clocks in at 2.4GHz, features a 1MB L2 cache and 2GB HyperTransport memory interconnect to work in conjunction with its on-die memory controller.

Chip partners get closer together in fight with Intel.

Istanbul offers more performance at same power draw as quad-cores.

AMD’s next generation of CPUs brings 45nm technology and higher clock speeds - but is that enough to compete with Intel’s latest and greatest?

What happens when multiple-core processors are no longer sufficient for our demands? Stuart Andrews looks at the future of CPUs.

With so many factors to consider, choosing a motherboard can be a bewildering exercise. We put 11 models through their pace to find the ultimate in performance, flexibility and value

We've put AMD and Intel’s new processors to the test, and there's one clear winner.

Nothing incredible in terms of design, but it’s an impressively cheap way to get quad-core in your PC.

A smartly engineered processor, but for today’s applications it’s lacking in bang per buck.

LGA 1366 is Intel's first new desktop socket in four years. It uses the same ZIF design as the familiar LGA 775 architecture, but it incorporates many more contacts

The move to a new platform brings credible new challengers to Intel’s Core 2 processors

Intel unveils new laptop chips, while AMD launches its fastest desktop processors.

AMD celebrated its Opteron chip's sixth birthday in a fitting way by accelerating the six-core Istanbul release to June, and by announcing the 12-core total of two Istanbul dies in one Magny-Cours package to come out half a year later.

Curious to see what powers the Nehalem and Core i7 architecture? We reveal the tech behind the fastest Intel-powered computer on the planet.

The nForce2 is the only dual-channel memory controller available in the AMD pantheon. There are two Northbridges to choose from: one with the Integrated GeForce4 MX-class graphics (nForce2 GT) and one without (nForce2 ST). Both offer support for AGP 8x and up to DDR400 memory, although we recommend you use DDR266 or DDR333 memory in synchronous mode (DDR266 for chips with a 266MHz FSB, DDR333 for those with a 333MHz FSB) for best performance.