AMD announced back in August that it would be shipping its new dual-core Opteron series of processors and the public has been eagerly awaiting on a few of them since then. Just two weeks ago however, our channel sources confirmed that the Opteron 165, a dual-core socket 939 processor had indeed started shipping.

AMD's Opteron processors are aimed squarely at the server and workstation market and thus come with extra features such as larger caches which help speed up repetitive processes. Up until recently however, processors from both AMD and Intel with large amounts of cache (1MB and up) demanded a hefty price premium and most retailers did not carry them. If you wanted an Opteron processor, you would tend to have to search online or be queued in a waiting list. Today however, the channel pricing for the Opteron 165 seems to have changed, which puts this processor right in the realm of affordability for many people.

The Opteron 165 is a 1.8GHz processor with a 1000MHz bus speed. Its appeal however, isn't that it's a dual-core Opteron, but rather its current set price -- less than $300. Originally, AMD has priced the Opteron 165 at $417 in lots of 1000. You can find AMD's current lot pricing on their processor pricing page. Update: Thanks rgreen83. The newest price sheet is here.

Today however, our channel sources tell us you can find the Opteron 165's for less than $300 - as our price engine further confirms [RTPE: Opteron 165], $299 right now at Monarch. The 2.0GHz Manchester X2 3800+ generally only costs about $20-$30 more, but the additional 200MHz core clock sacrifices half the cache found on the Opteron 165. Don't forget either, the Opterons are known for their general overclockablity, so going with one of these new low cost behemoths and then overclocking in excess of 2.6GHz on air with the stock HSF is an easy possibility!