The Phenom is still a month away or perhaps more, but many have been eagerly anticipating it for some time and wondering how much being an early adopter will set them back. There are now reports of pricing being leaked, and overall the prices don't look as obscene as you might imagine for a new-gen CPU.

The Phenom 9600 and 9700 are listed somewhere between $290 and $330 retail, making their price range very aggressive towards Intel currently lineup of Core 2 and Core 2 Quad processors. On top of that, AMD supposedly plans to continue down the path of “cheaper”, which may result in Phenoms going below $260 to compete with the lower-priced Intel desktop CPUs.

AMD originally got their name in the spotlight not on performance, but on price – perhaps that is exactly what they are intending to do once more. After all, with their plans to unleash a triple core Phenom, they obviously want to fill out all pricing brackets.