Thermaltake has dropped a few lines on its home page, announcing its newest mid-tower case with an engine nomenclature. Measuring 462 (H) x 208 (W) x 485 (D) mm, the V9 Black Edition (sounds like an AMG with a supercharger) weights in 6.76kg, has a mesh design and what's more, comes with all-black powder coating including the interior. V9 Black Edition includes two 230mm (800rpm, 15dBA) fans on the side panel and on the top pushing the hot air out from the top. There are two more 120mm (1300rpm, 17dBA) turbo fans placed in front and out the back of the case, front fan also glows in red and can be replaced with a 140mm one. If you're looking for even more cooling, there's a cutout for a small 70x70x10mm fan that can be attached to the back of the motherboard. Inside the case you can put up to 4x 5.25-inch drives and up to 5x 3.5" HDDs, the PSU is bottom mounted and features a dust filter. For more details, please visit this page here. The V9 Black Edition is yet to be priced.

Today, AMD is announcing two new processors to its products line - AMD Phenom X3 8850 Black Edition and AMD Athlon X2 5050e. The Socket AM2+ triple core X3 8850 (TRAY OPN# HD8850WCJ3BGH) works at 2.5GHz, has a TDP of 95W and 2MB of L3 cache. The Phenom X3 8850 is the first triple-core Phenom processor to be part of the company's Black Edition series and as such it has unlocked multiplier for overclocking. The AMD Athlon X2 5050e (TRAY OPN# ADH5050IAA5DO) is a dual-core 45W processor that operates at 2600MHz.
Sooner or later AMD is also expected to commence shipments of two low-power chips - the single-core 1.6GHz Athlon 2650 (TDP 15W), and the dual-core Athlon X2 3250e, running at 1.5GHz and requiring up to 22W. November will also see AMD's "Ultra-Value Client (UVC) Solutions", the chips that will possibly compete with Intel Atom CPUs for netbooks. These are only for the OEM customers, though.

Phenom X2 is intended to be the latest dual-core processor from AMD. It is based on the newer K10 architecture. The 65nm Kuma core is what sits inside the first to release models of the Phenom X2. Although based on K10 architecture and Kuma core, the initial batch being 65nm, AMD for some reason chooses to call it Athlon X2 saving the Phenom brand name perhaps for the 45nm batches? At least the sample Expreview got had the Athlon X2 etching on it. The chip carried the "AD6500" label and came with a 2.30 GHz clock speed.

Here's something to ponder: 6500 isn't a performance rating, it is just a model number. The Athlon 64 X2 6400+ had a 3.20 GHz clock speed. As performance evaluations will soon show, the Phenom/Athlon 6500 isn't anywhere close to the performance of the X2 6400+. However, architectural improvements meant that Kuma outperforms Brisbane (K8, 65nm) on a clock to clock basis. To ascertain this, Expreview used a Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition (Brisbane) that was underclocked to 2.30 GHz, the clock speed which AD6500 comes with. Super Pi 1M benchmark was run. While the Brisbane chip crunched it in 39.374 s, Kuma did it in 33.43 s indicating a performance increment of roughly 15%. The test-bed consisted of a NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI motherboard and GEIL 1GB DDR2-800 memory. Kuma AD6500 comes with a shared L3 cache of 2 MB apart from dedicated L2 caches of 512 KB per core. It uses a broader HyperTransport 3.0 system interface at 3600 MT/s. It supports DDR2-1066.

TG Daily reports that AMD has cut the prices of its triple-core Phenom X3 processors once more. According to Pricegrabber.com, AMD has once again lowered the value of four Phenoms with 5% within the last two weeks. The Phenom X3 8450 now sells for $104 (down from $125 in July), the X3 8650 for $119 (down from $145), the X3 8750 for $129 (down from $175) as well as the new X3 8750 Black Edition with unlocked multiplier, which is priced at $134. Furthermore Advanced Micro Devices has released three more "new" X3 processors all featuring a TDP of 65W, 2MB of L3 cache and HyperTransport 3.0. First is the above 2.4GHz Phenom X3 8750 Black Edition which we already mentioned has unlocked multi and is sold as overclocking friendly processor. The other two CPUs include Phenom X3 8450e operating at 2.1GHz and Phenom X3 8250e at 1.9GHz. Last two Phenoms are yet to be officially priced.

There is a brief insight into what AMD has in store for the desktop CPU market till towards the end of this year. The good news however is that AMD's 45nm conquest flags off by the end of this year. Chile Hardware published yet another company slide from AMD. This one lists out AMD's desktop processors lined-up for release (both actual and on paper) by the end of this year.

To begin with, AMD will continue to make additions to the Athlon X2 energy-efficient dual-core processors. On October the 2nd, Athlon X2 5050e would be released in both tray and processor-in-[a]-box (PIB) stocks. This processor is rated at 45W and has a clock speed of 2.60 GHz, that's 13.0x 200 MHz. It is based on the Brisbane 65nm core. Later in November, this line would be expanded by the Athlon X2 3250e. This Brisbane-based part comes clocked at 1.50 GHz and a rated TDP of an incredibly low 22W. There's also a single-core part based on the Lima core, the Athlon 2650e, an energy efficient single core rated at 15W with a clock speed of 1.60 GHz.

DigiTimes made today the early announcement of two low-power AMD desktop processors that are to appear sometime in November. The Athlon 2650E and Athlon X2 3250E will both be part of the company's UVC (Ultra-Value Client) product line targeting OEMs. The single core 2650E CPU will have a core frequency of 1.6GHz and TDP of 15W, while the dual-core Athlon X2 3250e will have a core frequency of 1.5GHz and TDP of 22W. The two CPUs will be fabbed on a 65nm process and will initially be provided to OEM customers only. Manufacturers like ASUSTeK Computer, Acer and Shuttle, are expected to show up machines powered by the two processors in December. In additional news, AMD is also planning to launch a triple-core Phenom X3 8850 CPU using a 65nm process in early October. The CPU will feature a core frequency of 2.5GHz and a maximum TDP of 95W. The company will also launch a new Black Edition CPU in December.

After Intel slashed the prices of several dual and quad core processors in the beginning of the week, today AMD informed it is tweaking the prices of three Phenom CPUs, too. First to receive price reduction is the 2.1GHz clocked triple core Phenom X3 8450, going down from $125 to $104. Second one is the 2.2GHz Phenom X4 9550 lowering down from $175 to $154. Third and final is the 2.6GHz X4 9850 Black Edition down from $205 to $194. All prices are for 1000-unit tray quantities.

As we reported earlier here Diamond Multimedia is preparing a special unlocked Black Edition Radeon HD 4870 card. We just received a first picture:

AMD Introduces New Phenom X4 Processors

AMD Introduces three new Phenom X4 quad-core desktop processors, the flagship Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition along with two low-power parts, the Phenom X4 9350e and Phenom X4 9150e.

The Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition is targeted at the performance/enthusiast segment, it features a 2.60 GHz clock speed and comes with an unlocked FSB multiplier among standard AMD Phenom specifications. This part however has a rated TDP of 140W and not all motherboards will be able to run it owing to its thermal and power characteristics. ASUS have already released a partial list of their motherboards that are ready for these 140W CPUs we covered here. You have to check with your motherboard vendor for compatibility. This chip attains its speed at a voltage of upto 1.3 V.

The RV770 is perhaps the best thing that happened to AMD in a long while. But more than AMD, it's perhaps the best thing that happened to us, the consumers. But general product launches seem to be just the tip of the ice-berg. The new PCB's designed by ATI for RV770 cards are actually running at well below the clock speed they can support and there is every reason to believe that these cards will be challenging NVIDIA's very best.

The HD4870 PCB with two 6-pin power connectors can support a maximum TDP of 225W (2x 75W from the power connectors + 75W from the PCI-Express interface). While at stock parameters, the HD4870 will not consume over 170W, it implies that with a fair bit of binning for high-performing parts, there is a serious lot of room for overclocking way beyond what the ordinary HD4870 cards can take.

As expected, AMD has announced the Phenom 9600 Black Edition. The quad-core processor runs at 2.3 GHz, sports 2 MB L3 cache and 512 KB L2 cahce per core. Just like the previous Black Editions, it comes with an unlocked multiplier and Black Edition also means handpicked cores, but since this can't be a B3 stepping it still suffers from the TLB bug. Together with the recommendation from AMD to force the crippling BIOS fix, the Phenom 9600 Black Edition looks anything but lusterous, which is a real shame because the previous Black Editions have been bright rays of light shining through the otherwise dull and gray clouds over AMD's headquarters.

According to a press event held in Japan, AMD is planning on releasing a Black Edition of its quad-core Phenom 9600 processor. It will go on sale by the end of the year and it's obvious that the Black Edition Phenom will offer unlocked multiplier. In addition, Phenom 9700 (2.4GHz) and Phenom 9900 (2.6GHz) will be available in 1Q 2008. The first triple core Phenom 8000 series and Phenom FX will also be announced in 1H of 2008.

Although AMD has launched the Black Edition Athlon 64 X2 5000+ CPU with an unlocked multiplier, some motherboard makers are taking a conservative view over whether the CPU will help win back market share. Although it is available for about $130, motherboard makers have no plans to adjust their current shipment proportions since they do not think the Black Edition CPUs will lead to any increase in demand for AMD motherboards. Currently, motherboard makers are putting their hopes on AMD's next-generation Phenom processors, but even so, they are not expecting to see any real boost in demand for a couple of months. AMD will launch the first Phenom-based CPUs on November 20th this year.