You can now buy a quad-core x85 processor for less than $100 (£61/€68). It's the AMD Athon II X4 620.

The 45nm part is being pitched at system builders planning to put together PCs for Windows 7, AMD said. It will offer the chip with its 785G integrated chipset, which, AMD claimed, has all the graphical oomph punters need for a good Windows 7 "experience" and decent HD video playback.

HP is putting the CPU into some of its cheaper desktop systems.

The Socket AM3 620 runs at 2.6GHz and contains 2MB of L2 cache - 512KB per core. It consumes no more than 95W of power. AMD is also offering the 2.8GHz 630. It's not as cheap as the 620, though AMD has yet to update its public pricelist with the two new chips. ®