Intel

Intel CPUs
CPU	Current	2/22/02	Change	Company	Rating
Pentium 4 2.4 GHz 478-pin	$533	-	-	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium 4 2.2 GHz 478-pin	$417	$468	-51	Krex	8.24/10
Pentium 4 2.0 GHz 478-pin	$266	$306	-40	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium 4 1.8 GHz 478-pin	$181	-	-	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium 4 1.6 GHz 478-pin	$128	-	-	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium III 1.26 GHz Tualatin	$204	$238	-34	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium III 1.2 GHz Tualatin	$125	$179	-54	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium III 1 GHz	$141	$112	+29	NewEgg	9.37/10
Pentium III 933 MHz	$124	$106	+18	Directron	8.9/10
Pentium III 700E MHz	$87	$96	-9	NewEgg	9.37/10
Celeron 1.2 GHz	$65	$84	-19	NewEgg	9.37/10
Celeron 1.1 GHz	$59	$72	-13	NewEgg	9.37/10
Celeron 1.0 GHz	$58	$64	-6	TCWO	8.6/10
Celeron 900 MHz	$57	$51	+6	NewEgg	9.37/10

Notes

You might have noticed that we’ve chopped the P4 list of prices down quite a bit. We made a mistake in the last two price guides that was just realized. The Northwood P4 only comes in four flavors, before the release of the 2.4GHz. Intel only released Northwoods in 200MHz increments, as a result we had 1.7 and 1.9GHz CPUs masquerading as Northwoods in our price guides. Since we tend to take out CPUs that are wholly worthless from our guide, we decided to remove those last to thorns in the P4’s side. Regular socket 478 256kb cache P4’s are essentially worthless in comparison to the Northwood, which has 512kb of cache. Not only is the Northwood faster, but it is also considerably more overclocking friendly.

We’ve been spouting this for ages, and it still stands. The Northwood CPU is absolutely stunning in terms of its overclocking capabilities. People have got 1.6GHz versions up and beyond 2.2 GHz. The 1.8 has been known to hit 2.4 GHz and beyond also. Despite all the overclocking, they do end up only rivaling an Athlon 2100+. But once you pair that system up with an i850 setup, the extra RAM bandwidth is bound to give a nice boost in performance once the 533MHz bus is released. We’d really suggest getting a 1.6A or a 1.8A. The others cost far too much to even consider buying.

The rest of the Intel lineup is abysmal. The PIII should only be bought as a quick upgrade. Buying a new system is automatic death. There are no more new CPUs coming out under this line. Ditto on the Celeron - also a dead end for those considering a new computer. You might have some luck with the newer Celerons for overclocking, but those also require new motherboards to work, which means consider something else. Not to mention that a Duron of similar clock speed will cost less and out perform.