AMD's new X2 5050e 2.6GHz 45W

According to speculation AMD has a new 45W dual core processor coming out October 8. The 5050e should slightly outperform the venerable 4850e since it is clocked a 100MHz higher than the 4850e.

I can't decide if I want to go with the X2 5050e with the ATI 4550, or go low ultra power and undervolt the 9550 to 65W and use the 780M (MSI 7411). Decisions, decisions...

As an aside, I really wish AMD would bump up the HT speed on this part and the X2 "e series" in general. Bumping up the HT speed on these CPUs to support HT 2.0 would (for me) make them the perfect HTPC CPU to have with an integrated ATI IGP. In addition to great video post processing, you could even do a bit of lite gaming, all on a budget since these procs are clocked decently high. Unfortunately, since the HT speeds are stuck at 1GHz the post processing stinks and gaming likely suffers. :-(

Kirk: Scotty, we need HD video in 3 minutes or we'll all dead!
Scotty: She can-nuh take 720p captain. She'll blow sky high!

Besides, the chipset and Intel mandated platform limitations are tough to accept (1 1x PCIe slot, 2GB RAM, etc.). Maybe when they come out with dual core ATOMs it might become a viable HTPC candidate for some.

Cool... I heard they were announced but I didn't know they were shipping product at this point. I thought the GP was just talking about the announcement.

Still the platform limitations kill this as an HTPC for me. I haven't seen an Atom board with more than 1 PCIe slot. That means you have to choose between great video (discreet GPU) or great audio (discreet sound card). Additionally, Vista will run Ok (not great) with the imposed 2GB RAM limit and ATOM's marginally capable CPU.

By the time you end up working around all of these limitations you might as well get a low power Intel or AMD IGP solution which will be more flexible and future proof.