Chip refreshes typically don’t add many new features aside from a speed bump here or there and a bit more cahce to make things run smoother. Some chip manufacturers want to shake things up.

Intel’s Core i7 980X brings 6 Hyper-Threading capable cores and 12MB of cache to the party with some mighty impressive results for multi-threaded applications. Here are some of the reviews floating around the web:

The Core i7 980X Review: Intel’s First 6-Core CPU – AnandTech
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Review – bit tech
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme 6-Core Processor – Hot Hardware
Intel Core i7-980X Gulftown Hexa-core Processor Review – PC Perspective
Intel Core i7-980X 32nm LGA-1366 Six Core CPU – TweakTown
Intel’s new Gulftown Six Core CPU meets LN2 Extreme Cooling – TweakTown

The onward march of technology means sooner or later that fancy new chips will eventually come down in price for just about anyone to enjoy. Sadly that just means more processing power to be wasted away on rousing web-based games.

The AMD Athlon II X4 635 comes ready to tackle your computing tasks with four cores operating at 2.9GHz all at a reasonably low MSRP. TechwareLabs has the review:

The rest of you who are looking to squeeze the most out of a processor and are choosing between the 630 and the 635 will likely choose the 635 since we were able to over-clock the processor an additional 600MHz on air alone. Though overall we were looking for the Athlon II which was to follow the 630 to leave the 630 way behind, but the 635 at stock didn’t leave us speechless, but the 635 did make us smile while over-clocking.

In other words if you’re a tweaker on a budget this might just be your next chip.

The Tech Report has delved into Intel’s latest press briefings and pulled out some interesting information on the company’s upcoming 6-core processors and funk stuff they have going on in their labs.

Most notable are the massive power saving tweaks Intel has put into their Gulftown design which should help keep its heat output in check. One nifty design the company is working on should be of great interest to companies wanting to interface two high bandwidth devices using nothing but ribbon cable.

Intriguing technology any hardware head should be interested in.

Energy friendly computer hardware tends to cut out features or run things a bit slower in order to get their power usage in check. Then there are those cases where they cherry-pick the best of the best in order to make things run quickly and with less of a power load. This is one such case,

The AMD Phenom II X4 910e sports all of the great features the rest of the Phenom II lineup but operates in a 65Watt envelope. PCStats has the review:

The 65W TDP revision chip also lowers heat output, boding well for overclocking potential. While the Phenom II X4 910e is not one of AMD’s Black Edition processors, it’s still possible to overclock its core operating frequency. PCSTATS will see just how much we can crank up the Phenom II X4 910e processor a little later on in this review.

A powerful option for those small form factor PCs.

Nvidia’s graphics division is having a rough time getting new products out the door but that doesn’t mean the rest of the company is stagnating. The company has announced its newest system on a chip dubbed Tegra 2.

The new Nvidia Tegra 250 will sport a total of 8 RISC-based processor cores running at up to 1GHz for your low-power computing needs while its updated 3D and video decoding components will allow for some impressive mobile gaming and 1080p HD video decoding while on the road.

The company expects the chip to be used in a wide variety of mobile entertainment devices as well as a new segment of “netbook-like” computers and tablets coming out this year.

Exciting stuff

Intel has been on a bit of a roll when it comes to their processor offerings. While they’ve certainly made the high-end happy with their performance the budget conscious system builders have been looking for something a little friendlier, price wise, to offer customers.

In comes the Intel Core i5 661 which sports a graphics chip nestled closely to the CPU offering basic video processing for the office user set. Here’s a roundup of some review links:

The Clarkdale Review: Intel’s Core i5 661, i3 540 & i3 530 – AnandTech
Intel Westmere 32nm & Clarkdale Core i5-661 Review – HardOCP
Intel Clarkdale Core i5 Desktop Processor Debuts – HotHardware
Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale Processor Review – Westmere debuts – PC Perspective

If you’re really into computing hardware you tend to seek out information on the top-end products that are available, unfortunately many of those high-end processors are cost-prohibitive for some…that doesn’t mean there aren’t speedy bargains to be found however.

X-bit labs tests some of the most inexpensive processors out there and comes up with a few impressive performers in the bunch, especially if you enjoy overclocking:

And our supposition proved totally right. The first CPU, AMD Athlon II X2 215 did very well during our overclocking tests. Without touching any voltages, we could easily push its frequency from the default 2.7 GHz to 3.6 GHz.

Plenty of performance to be found without breaking the bank on a snazzy new processor.

VIA’s game these days has been based on their low-power processors and chipsets which don’t offer a heck of a lot of performance but you’re sure to get plenty of battery life out of devices using their chips.

The company’s new Nano 3000 series of CPUs are set to introduce a slew of new features to speed up HD video playback, encryption and security functions, as well as hardware virtualization support .

Hit the break for the full PR.

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It might be chic to be green in order to save Earth and all of that feel-good stuff but, when you take a look at your wallet, there are real monetary benefits for going with hardware that doesn’t consume power like mad. Do you really need that quad core when the system is mostly stuck using office apps and surfing social networks all day?

The AMD Athlon II X2 240e simplifies things by going with the dual-core approach and manages to bring down its power usage with a few other tricks of the trade leading to some interesting results. PCstats has a review:

Under load, the results are just as good, the Athlon II X2 240e’s power draw with both cores active is just 153W, which means that only the AMD Sempron 3600+ draws less power. It really does look like AMD has engineered a properly power-efficient mainstream processor, which has been a thorn in AMD’s side during its 65nm days. The 45W Athlon II X2 240e doesn’t quite manage a 20W lower power draw when compared to the 65W Athlon II X2 250 processor, but that’s more likely because the the latter chip draws less than 65W to begin with.

A perfectly suitable chip for those office computers and home theater PCs you have planned.

AMD’s Athlon brand resurfaced in a big way as a value lineup that brings the fancy architecture features the Phenom processors have down to a more affordable price range which means even those on a budget can enjoy great performance.

InsideHW has a look at the AMD Athlon II X3 435 and X4 Athlon II 630 CPUs and their performance as well as other associated tweaking benefits:

Athlon II X3 without unlocked core operated with no problems even at 3.6GHz with 1.35V, while it was cooled with standard BOX cooler. With Cooler Master Hyper 212 cooler, we managed to reach even 3.8GHz. Difference between Athlon II X3 at default (2.9GHz) and unlocked and overclocked at 3.7GHz is immense.

Speedy even under stock cooling meaning your spare build machines will tear through programs with ease.