AMD Intros New Unlocked K-Series Llano APUs: A8-3870K & A8-3670K

When we first reviewed Llano we thought it was a fairly competent desktop part if you needed a solution that didn't rely on discrete graphics. My biggest issue with Llano on the desktop was its price, at $135 for the top end A8 it seemed a bit too high. Today AMD is using the normal process improvements you see with any design over time to deliver a slight frequency bump without increasing prices. The extra 100MHz you get at the $135 and $115 price points isn't really going to change much, however AMD is introducing two K-series parts (they are also known as Black Edition SKUs) into the Llano lineup:

The A8-3870K and 3670K are fully unlocked (thanks to AMD for the clarification) partially unlocked parts allowing you to overclock an extra 500MHz on the CPU clock and an extra 200MHz on the GPU clock. Stock Llano parts are multiplier locked above their default multiplier and their GPU frequency isn't adjustable from what we've seen. AMD's new K-series SKUs give you another 5 multipliers above the default multiplier on the CPU side, and let you ramp up the GPU clock independently as well. In our original overclocking experiments we found that hitting 3.5 - 3.7GHz via bus overclocking on an A8-3850 wasn't too difficult, so these new K-series parts should let you reach close to what you could before without as much effort. In theory it should be pretty effortless to take a 3670K and turn it into something a bit faster than a 3870K, allowing you to pocket the $20 difference.

The 3x20 parts are new as well - these are mild speed bumps over their 3x00 predecessors. These parts are available starting today (err how about in the coming weeks):

Cyberpower
IBUYPOWER
Amazon
NCIX
TigerDirect

There are also new mobile Llano parts being officially announced today, although we already reported on them earlier.

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