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Another comparison point is Athlon II X3 425 located in the same price range as Athlon II X2. Thus, AMD allows users to choose between higher clock rate/cache and one more core at the same clock rate (215's clock rate is equal to 425's)

Source: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/amd-athlon2-215-p1.html

However, Intel LGA775 solutions (provided they have similar prices) can compete only with the lower solutions from the latter, namely Athlon II X2, abandoning the most interesting field (from the point of view of the mass market, but the former costs only $215, the latter -- $240. It's apparently better to add $20 for Hyper-Threading than $90. Do these processors have shortcomings? Yes, they do. For one, clock rate: 2.53 GHz and 2.66 GHz correspondingly.

Source: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/intel-xeon-x3450-p1.html

Athlon II X2 215 also looks good. Judging by our test results, this processor can replace the old Athlon X2 6000+. Besides, it's apparently more expedient to manufacture for AMD, and it's more power efficient. However, it must be noted,

Source: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/office-pc-2-p1.html

iXBT Labs - Computer Hardware In Detail As we all know, to uncover the full potential of the newest quad-core AMD Phenom X4 and FX processors one should install these into Socket AM2+ boards based on AMD 790FX, 790X and 770 chipsets. It is even more likely, since the current Athlon 64 X2 are not going to be rushed off the shelves. Considering that they have strong competitive capacity in comparison to equal in price Intel processors, they will complement the

Source: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/mainboard/analyse-middle-platform-socket-am2-page1.html