Lenovo ThinkCentre A60 Embraces AMD

With all the hype over Intel's Core 2 Duo, Lenovo's ThinkCentre A60 desktop zigs towards AMD with configurations based on AMD Athlon and Sempron processors.

All the media buzz lately might be about Intel’s new Core 2 Duo lineup putting the enormous processor maker back at the head of the performance pack, but Lenovo has just taken the stand that Intel rival AMD still offers pretty decent bang for the buck.

Lenovo’s new ThinkCentre A60’s are available in either minitower or small desktop configurations with AMD Althon 64 X2, AMD Athlon 64, or AMD Sepron processors, offering greater flexibility and performance with the enterprise-oriented features ThinkCentre buyers expect.

“Customers want stable solutions and innovative technologies that help them reduce costs,” said Thomas Tobul, Lenov’s executive director of Global Desktop Marketing said in a statement. “Our new ThinkCentre A60 with AMD processors, coupled with our ThinkVantage Technologies, expands the range of flexible and innovative solutions available to our customers through the ThinkCentre lineup.”

Lenovo’s ThinkVantage Technologies are a suite of tool enableing users to diagnose and repair their systems, including contacting help, recovering from virus and other malware problems, software crashes, and other problems even if the computer’s operating system won’t boot. IT folks will appreciate the System Migration assistant, which helps with transferring user data and settings to a new machine, and the ThinkCentre drives and cards are all designed to be accessed without tools.

The ThinkCenter A60s offer up to 1 TB of Serial ATA storage (two 500 GB drives), up to 4 GB of DDR2 memory, Nvidia GF 6100 integrated graphics controllers, PCI Express, 6 USB 2.0 ports, front-side audio and headphone jacks, internal speakers, gigabit Ethernet, 48x CD-ROM (with additional optical drive options available). Prices start at just $379 for Sempron-equipped units; Athlon-based systems start at $519 and the Athlon X2 dual-core ThinkCentre A60s start at $669.