CPU Price Chart - June 30, 2002

Notes and Recommendations: Since the last chart Intel has really stepped up the pressure on AMD by ramping up the clock speed on the Pentium 4 and introducing new 1.7/1.8 GHz Celerons based on the P4 core. Intel has also released a 512K cache version of the Pentium 4 which significantly outperforms the original P4's running at the same clock speed. Therefore if you are buying a P4 make sure it is the 'A' version- people are still selling the 256K cache versions out there for about the same price. The 2.2 GHz and faster P4's all have 512K cache so there's no 'A' version for those. AMD has discontinued the Duron but even if you're looking for a value PC you can't beat the Athlon XP 1800+ at an average price of $105. At the high-end, however, the Pentium 4 2 GHz 'A' version hits the sweet price/performance spot, with the Athlon XP 2000+/2100+ not far behind. Although AMD has fallen behind in the high-end, they have big plans ahead with the introduction of a 512K cache Athlon XP later this year and, of course, the promosing 64-bit Opteron in the first-half of next year.

Best high-end, best-bang-for-the-buck CPU for this time: Pentium 4 2.0 GHz (A version)