Remember the first Intel Pentium 4 processors sold bundled with RIMM memory modules? The same is happening with the AMD Athlon 64 chips these days. Mainboard makers are afraid of insufficient supply of the x86-64 processors for desktop applications from AMD and at the moment are trying to sell certain products bundled with AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU and a special Socket 754 cooler.

Japanese hardware retail stores are now offering MSI K8T Neo FIS2R mainboards with AMD Athlon 64 3200+ chip inside the mainboard package as well as ASUS K8V Deluxe/Bundle Edition with the same chip bundled. Both mainboards are based on VIA K8T800 + VT8237 core-logic and offer typical set of capabilities, including AGP 8x, Serial ATA-150 RAID, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire and so on. MSI provides an unknown cooler, ASUS gives its clients ThermalTake Venus 10 solution.

The bundle from ASUS is available in only one store, according to Akiba PC Hotline; it costs about $653, what is quite high given that the Athlon 64 3200+ chip does not cost more than $450. MSI’s set is presented a little bit more widely, its price in retail is from $627 to $680, what is also not low at all.

On the one hand, it is pretty comfortable to get a mainboard and a processor for a fixed price amid potentially limited supply of AMD 64 chips. On the other hand, as far as we understood from the previous AMD Athlon 64-related availability report, there are no problems to get the processors at this point, but there are not a lot of mainboards for them, indeed. The best case is probably when there are enough 64-bit chips and supporting mainboards, but since currently there can be availability constraints, the need for such combos for AMD and mainboard makers is nearly indisputable. The obvious advantage of mainboard + CPU sets is that it is ensured that you get both, the obvious disadvantage is the price.