Price Guides October 2004: CPU and Motherboards

Intel Processors

Intel has been pushing their new Socket 775 just as aggressively as ever, and this week is not an exception. The new socket, which moves the pins from the CPU to the socket on the motherboard, was initially met with some mixed reviews as some questioned the physical reliability of this new design. Many cited the fragility of the new design as a possible major flaw, but so far, so good. It seems that those who have already adopted this new format have not had any more problems with bent pins than with older designs. For this reason, among others, it is certainly worth looking at the newer 775 chips when making a purchase.

Intel's 2.8GHz Pentium 4 (775) 520, which sports an 800MHz FSB and 1MB of cache, is a well-priced option for anyone looking to adopt the new socket, and the other niceties that come along with it, such as boards supporting PCI Express and DDR2. Since the core doesn't change with the socket, the performance will be pretty much the same regardless. The advantage is that since Intel will be moving completely to the new socket, your investment in a new motherboard will last longer as you will be able to upgrade the CPU for a longer period of time and will also be able to take advantage of said PCI Express and DDR2 as those technologies begin to see store shelves. For now, only a few video cards support PCIe, and DDR2 itself can be prohibitively priced, but this will change as time goes on and adoption picks up.

If taking the plunge isn't within your means or you just wish to err on the side of caution, Intel's 3.0GHz Pentium 4 (800MHz FSB, 1MB cache) for the older socket 478 is priced to sell this week. Although this chip isn't as future-proof (and we use that term very loosely), it is still a very fast processor that will last most users for at least one or two years after purchase.