Intel Pentium 100 MHz processor

Advantages: A great chip
Disadvantages: Upgrading could prove expensive.

...with the original Pentium, It made the computing power of the old 486 PC's look obsolete. The original Pentium revolutionised the way we think of PC power. Back then 33Mhz processors were seen as lightning quick. In fact, I can remember thinking back in 1993 when I first saw a Pentium machine, "this is awesome" Trouble was, there were not enough Motherboards to fit the chips on, such was the demand and I had to wait for ages for it to be delivered. Pentium 1 also saw the advent of MMX technology. MMX enabled better animation and graphic rendering and was capable of providing much more power. You could also reach clock speeds up to 200Mhz with this chip. A true top of the range product. In those days, a jump in 10-25Mhz was seen as a big leap in performance. 3 years later and the 2nd generation Pentium chip appeared. Pentium 2 technology was moving... Read review

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Advantages: Reliable
Disadvantages: Cost? ( see opinion )

...tag given to Intel processors is somewhat unjustified. For example my PIII 600 in May 2000 - cost £240 running at 800mhz. An 800mhz PIII at the time was approx £500, enough to get a top of the range graphics card and change. Admittedly there are some "hidden" costs to the overclocked version e.g. a good quality mainboard, roomy case for good airflow, and a better heatsink, but I think that these are good practice in building any computer, the other minus is there's no guarantee that the processor you get will sucessfuly overclock. I would however still recommend the Pentium III, it's a good, fast and stable processor even when pushed towards it's limits.... Read review

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Advantages: Will be fast when the software is optimised
Disadvantages: New socket format, special power supply, uses RDRAM at the moment.

...A lot has been said about the Pentium IV since it's launch, most of it being negative. This isn't the first time that Intel have been criticised for new processors, but ultimately their technology becomes more accepted and in some cases the standard. Remember MMX? It offered no benefits at launch but very quickly became a must have because games and software were written to support the instructions. This is now true of their latest processor, the Pentium IV. It has been slated for it's inability to beat a lower clock speed Athlon DDR, but this is un-realistic. There isn't ANY software that supports the architecture of new SSE2 instructions of the P4, and once they become available the benefits will very quickly be seen. Indeed, the latest drivers for nVidia graphics cards have been optimised for P4 and show a 100% improvement in some... Read review

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