Quad cores are now officially cheap. They are now selling for under €100 for 2.3GHz quad-core. This money will get you AMD Phenom X4 9600 Black Edition, 4x 2.30GHz, unlocked one. You can get one here.

You will be getting Agena 65nm quad core with 95W TDP but this should be enough for most of the users. Intel’s cheapest quad is selling for €130 and this money will buy you Core 2 Quad Q8200 clocked at 2.33GHz.

AMD Phenom II X4 810, 4x 2.60GHz, boxed is selling for €147.98 here, and this is the cheapest Phenom II X4 to this date but it offers good price performance ratio and cost just slightly more than Intel’s 2.33GHz quad.

The economy is tough but the prices are going down, and that can't be bad news for end users.