Let's be honest. AMD has been taking a beating from Intel for the past 18 months, both in terms of pure processor performance and the pricing thereof. Although AMD remains a more keenly priced alternative, the advantage it benefited from in the past isn't nearly as significant as before. AMD has had to bend over backwards to resurrect its loyal following in the market. Barcelona, its new server chip, failed to impress last year, so the heat really is on. It's latest - and realistically final attempt - to regain the market's backing has come with the introduction of Spider, a platform that consists of a new chipset, graphics technology and processor. Depending on how you look at it, AMD may succeed.

Spider isn't the fastest platform available today, but it will, according to AMD, be cost-effective and go some way towards resurrecting the price performance benefit offered by the company two years ago, albeit at the low- to mid-range sectors of the market. Let's dissect the beast to find out what's inside.