Much attention has been paid of late to AMD’s new 6-core desktop CPU, the Phenom II X6 1090T. While its performance is certainly impressive, its price—over $300 at time of publication—can be off-putting to many system builders. For those whose wallets run a bit leaner these days, AMD has brought us the Athlon II X4 640. This quad-core CPU promises good performance at a low price. Let’s take a closer look, and see how it stacks up.