Here I am, a forty-year-old father of two who tries to keep up with the comings and goings of the PC industry. I don't have the time, inclination or expertise to configure and build a system for myself, and my five-year-old Athlon XP2100-based system has given me no trouble during its tenure as my main PC.

Trouble is, upgrading would almost be as expensive as buying a new one, complete with new-fangled technology such as PCI-Express, quad-core processors, and DDR2 memory - or so I'm told by the guy at the local computer shop.

Now, I've been looking to replace the ageing but sturdy beast with something that will last for another five years. To that end, I've done a little research and reckon that a quad-core CPU is a must, as applications, given enough time, will begin to fully utilise the parallel processing power.

Reading reviews around the web, I've noticed that AMD's launched what's called the Spider platform, comprising of a quad-core CPU, 7-series motherboard, and Radeon 3800-series graphics card. Looking at the benchmarks numbers and analysis from the sites that I trust, it appears that whilst the trio aren't the absolute fastest around for the money, performance is reasonable. That's why I've set my heart on such a system, after having such good experiences with my present AMD-based machine.

I want value for money and wish to purchase from a etailer that'll be around in five years, too, as the system integrator of my present machine has gone bust - an affliction that's affected the majority of smaller builders, I note.

Looking around the web at the larger players - including Dell; MESH; PC World; HP; Fujitsu Siemens ; et al - I cannot find one AMD Phenom-powered system for sale. As I peruse the sites and slot in my £999 budget, I'm faced with a plethora of Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600-equipped machines running midrange NVIDIA or ATI graphics.

Why is it that as we're nearing the end of the first week of December, some two weeks after the platform was launched, and an opportune time for AMD to cash-in with folks like me who use Christmas as an excuse to purchase expensive toys, are there no machines around? I'm forced to opt for the Intel-based PC which, by all accounts, will provide a little better performance, yet, really, I've got my heart set on a Phenom.

It's all fine and good AMD stating the synergistic virtues of the Spider platform and lulling potential buyers into perusing system integrators' sites, but there's surely something manifestly wrong when you can't buy a system from the larger players in the run-up to Christmas, right? I don't care much for L3 cache-related problems, let me tell you. I'm sure that Bill down at the local PC shop would knock me up a system in a week or so, assuming he can get hold of the faster speed-grades, but I'm worried, rightly so, that his business won't be around to service the warranty.

AMD's missing out on my festive-fuelled custom by not ensuring that its Phenom-equipped boxes are available in the high-visibility stores and etailers. I've even telephoned a leading etailer and was told that 'such SKUs are in constraint and we don't expect to see any this year'.

Oh, well, it's an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MiB system for me.....

Flammable material or a fair indictment of AMD's woes? You tell Rod.