Just forked out for a new rig with a fast processor on board? Then Nvidia has some very bad news for you. Your PC is "obscenely" imbalanced thanks to an overpriced, underperforming CPU - probably courtesy of Intel. It's just the latest salvo in the burgeoning war of words between Nvidia and Intel this year. But what exactly is Nvidia getting at? Talking to TechRadar earlier this week, Nvidia's VP of Content Relations Roy Taylor outlined a developing strategy for leveraging Nvidia graphics technology to accelerate a wide range of PC applications. Very soon, the world will discover just how pathetic conventional CPUs really are.

Yeah, cause your GPU is going to run the OS, and interface with the chipset, and the memory, and all that jazz.

AMD has for quite some time provided the most power efficient processors on the market. In fact, the ULV versions of the Athlon 64 X2 processors have been able to draw as little as 45watts, and at speeds of above 2GHz. Now, that’s something even the laptops would love to have running in them, yet they are desktop processors. How’s that for efficiency? Today we are testing out AMD’s latest addition to its 45watt TDP family with a clock speed of 2.5 GHz; that’s pretty efficient for such a powerful processor with Dual Core functions. Rather than just being a CPU review, today we are looking at the new Athlon 4850e processor as a HTPC component in conjunction with the AMD 780G chipset and Radeon HD 3450 graphics card.

In the end the Hiper HMC-2K53A-A3 Media Center barebone offers a lot of functionality for roughly 299 USD. Don't forget, you receive the chassis with VDF module, the mainboard with integrated graphics, memory card reader, power supply, nice remote control, sufficient enough audio options and next to Ethernet even wireless Wi-Fi. So if you add a 60 USD processor, spend 40 bucks on memory and 50 bucks on a nice HDD, 25 bucks on the cooler and you are good to go for roughly 475-500 USD, the prices in EUR are not that far off either by the way.

Interestingly, AMD-based models in the v7000 series come with Nvidia graphics, not AMD-ATI graphics, a synergy that AMD has had trouble realizing in some segments. Configurations are offered with either the NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE, GeForce 8400HD, or GeForce 8500GT graphics chips. Phenom X3-based systems start at around 69,930 yen or just under $700.

Alienware's Aurora gaming desktop has been updated so users can choose AMD's Quad-core Phenom 9850 Black Edition working at 2.5GHz. The Spider platform based Aurora allows you to choose a single ATI card, two card Crossfire or even CrossfireX with two HD 3870 X2 cards.