The Athlon Thunderbird 1.2GHz should be available over the next few days from a few mail order houses, and from more places as time moves on. Several places are offering the chip but we do not believe any of them have it in stock at the time of writing.

AMD has managed to ship the fastest chip there is for consumers, leaving Intel behind for a short while at least. They have also undercut the competition on price by a wide margin. That margin will shrink soon, but AMD is still keeping ahead on the price/performance front. If you want excellent performance with good bang for the buck with no Intel equivalent, the AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.2GHz is quite possibly the chip for you.

• Fast, fast, and dare we say it, fast!
• You can actually afford one!

• Durability worries
• KT133 chipset is still proving problematic

Jon Simon
Assistant Editor

Alex "Sharky" Ross
Editor-in-Chief