TECH GADGETS

As was increasingly expected, AMD has officially updated its Phenom II processor line with two new, slightly faster CPUs. The unlocked 3.2 GHz Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (about $245) supports overclocking and is the company's fastest yet, while the Phenom II X4 945 (about $225) is clock-locked at 3 GHz. AMD says the former flagship 3 GHz AM2+ Phenom II X4 940 BE (about $195) will "remain available as an overclockable Black Edition for a period of time."

The new chips again feature a total cache (L2+L3) of 8MB, and though geared for use with Socket AM3/DDR3-memory motherboards, are also backwards-compatible with AM2+/DDR2-memory systems; so the good news is that you needn't upgrade your entire PC to use them.