Price Guides March 2005: Processors
by Kristopher Kubicki on March 27, 2005 11:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Pentium M
For weeks, the Pentium M saga continues to unfold with new chapters almost weekly. This week, the talk of the town seems to be ASUS’s clever little Socket 479 to Socket 478 adaptor, which enables any mild budget 865PE and 875P motherboard to compete with the high end 885GME motherboard solutions from DFI [RTPE: DFI 855GME 855GME-MGF] and AOpen [RTPE: AOpen 855GME i855GMEm-LFS].Again, our tests proved the Pentium M can completely run the gamut from being a killer overclocker to a complete dog in tests like Unigraphics on SPECviewperf. Surprisingly, however, there were definite performance improvements when using the Pentium M on ASUS’s CT-479; some of which can be attributed to the newer core logic and faster memory capability. As Anand puts it, “There's no reason to even consider an 855GME motherboard from AOpen or DFI; the ASUS solution is cheaper, better performing and is even a much more stable overclocker.” Enough said.
We are slowly starting to introduce 533FSB Pentium M’s into the processor lineup, but availability is still very poor. A few select merchants claim to carry the processors, but in reality, almost all are preorders for the chip. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice many of these chips claim delivery times of up to six weeks! Obviously, we don’t list merchants like that in the RTPE, but buyer beware!
Celeron
As usual, nothing interesting seems to have occurred to the Celeron lineup again. We always recommend Athlon XP or Sempron processors over Celeron chips, since the motherboards and processors are cheaper. This week turns out to be no exception either.The Celeron D 335 [RTPE: BX80547RE2800C] just squeaks underneath the $100 magic price point. Although we clearly recommend AMD’s solutions over these low end desktop processors, the 2.8GHz Celeron D 335 isn’t half bad for a desktop chip considering the price.
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Possessed Freak - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
What is with the DOS based looking graphs?jlanter1 - Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - link
Does anyone know how much longer the Socket 462 Athlon XP mobile chips will be available? I know it won't be available forever. The amd cpu roadmap isn't clear about when this chip will be retired.Jared
Avalon - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link
Kris, your pricing engine lists the s754 Sempron 2600+ and 3000+ with a 256KB L2 cache option. There is no such chip. The 2600+ and 3000+ models only come in 128KB L2 cache. Look at the model number and see for yourself. Also, under your AXP Mobile pricing list, you don't show the 35w mobiles, which are just as plentiful and often a good alternative to the 45w ones. Just to let you know.KristopherKubicki - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
PrinceGaz: I wouldn't put a lot of money on the chips only taking a week to get to retail :)Kristopher
PrinceGaz - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
It's worth noting that the long awaited Venice (E4 revision) A64 S939 3000+, 3200+, 3500+, and 3800+ parts will replace the current Winchester and Newcastle (3800+) processors on April 4. It will take them a week or two to get into retail, but they should be seriously overclockable, better than the current Winchesters.On April 15, the 4000+ is transitioned from ClawHammer to San Diego (E3 revision), which is likely to be the cheapest 1MB cache version.
I've no idea what is happening with the A64 FX-55 or much rumored FX-57, but I suspect AMD could release a San Diego at 2.8 GHz if they wished, and rename the FX-55 as a 4200+ or 4300+.
The chip to get will have to be one of those mid-range Venice cores, as coupled with a good overclockable mobo you should be able to take it up to at least 2.7-2.8GHz if AMD/IBM have got the SoI plus strained-silicon fabrication working well. A Pentium 4 (or Pentium 5xx/6xx if they abandon the P4 name) just isn't worth considering when the A64 is so competitive.
stephenbrooks - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
On the last page I see:Intel Xeon 3.2GHz 533FSB 512KB ZipZoomFly 690.00 0.00 690.00
Intel Xeon 3.2GHz 800FSB 1MB AllStarShop 348.95 7.95 356.90
...so I guess nobody's going to be buying the 512KB model then.
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
bupkus: We only plan on moving the front end so that the entire AnandTech site is uniform. The backend and bot will remain Perl/PHP/MySQL.Kristopher
semo - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
why does the price of the athlon 64 3000 939 (winchester) not fall here in the uk. there have been virtually no price drops since it was launchedjustly - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
It might be nice if the Anandtech search engine could differentiate between OEM and retail.I thought I had seen the Sempron 2600+ on Newegg cheaper than the one listed for Monarch so I checked. Newegg had the retail version for $77.99 (free shipping) while Monarch had the OEM for $78.00 (not sure but I think it also had free shipping).
This just shows that prices can change quickly, and you should allways compare the item and price for yourself.
mongoosesRawesome - Sunday, March 27, 2005 - link
"This week, the talk of the town seems to be ASUS’s clever little Socket 479 to Socket 478 adaptor, which enables any mild budget 865PE and 875P motherboard to compete with the high end 885GME motherboard solutions from DFI [RTPE: DFI 855GME 855GME-MGF] and AOpen [RTPE: AOpen 855GME i855GMEm-LFS]."As yet, only a few Asus motherboards are supported - not "any mild budget 865PE and 875P motherboard."