AMD is announcing eight new additions to its Athlon II desktop microprocessors line today. The new chips are aimed at mainstream computer users looking for bargains on new PCs during the holiday season and include two quad cores (the X4 2.3GHz '605e' and 2.2GHz '600e'), four triple cores (the X3 2.9GHz '435', 2.7GHz '425' and 2.3GHz '405e') and two dual core processors (the X2 2.8GHz '240e' and 2.7GHz '235e').

They are all made using a 45-nanometer production process and consume either 45 watts or 95 watts of power -- energy efficient variants carry the 'e' denominator. AMD intends these new Athlon II processors to compete against Intel's midrange line of CPUs, including the Core 2 Duo E7000 series or E8000 series, with prices ranging from $69 to $143. The chips are compatible with both Socket AM3 and Socket AM2+ motherboards.

Heavyweights such as Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo are all expected to launch products in the coming weeks, with AMD promising media oriented PCs featuring reduced heat and noise across the board and sleeker designs.