Of course, at 2.4GHz, the Opteron 250 threatens to be the fastest system we've ever tested here at TR. Will these newcomers distinguish themselves in an insanely crowded field? Keep reading to find out.

Our centerfold
The Opteron 250 comes in a ceramic package with a 940-pin socket interface and an attractive metal cap, of which I've taken an extreme close-up photograph.

The Opteron 250

The Opteron 250's 940-pin underbelly

Physically, the Opteron 150 and 250 are identical, but they are slightly different internally. Both chips can support up to three 16-bit, 800MHz HyperTransport links to the outside world, but none of the HyperTranport links on the 100-series Opterons are coherent, or capable of being used to talk to another CPU. As a result, only the Opteron 250, which has one coherent link, can be used in dual-processor systems. (For systems with four or more CPUs, you've gotta pay the price for the Opteron 850, which has three coherent HyperTransport links.)