You really have to like AMD to spend US$259.99 for a 2.2GHz clocked Phenom 9500. This is the current price at newegg.com and you will get free shipping with this CPU.

AMD still has not sent any of these CPUs to us for review, so we are in process of getting some from the channel, as we don’t have any other choice. One thing is clear: Q6600 Quad Core is far faster and costs only $20 more.

We couldn’t find any Phenom 9600 CPUs, clocked at 2.3GHz and, any faster CPUs are delayed till late Q1 2008. Intel is preparing to launch 2.5GHz Quad cores based on Penryn and this on the track for January announcement. You can get one here.

AMD is not in great shape for pre-Christmas sales.