Intel Pentium II - The Processor Emporium (UK) (Page 2 of 2)

The Pentium II processor: Image courtesy of Intel Corporation

Pentium II, a buyers perspective

The PII offered the ultimate in processing power during its 18 month reign at the top. It still offers PC users a great deal of power from the 233 right up to the 450 MHz model. As all up to the 333 MHz variant are now out of production, the early PII's are now only available on the used market. Recently 266 MHz versions have been seen on sale for above Ł100, which in the opinion of the Processor Emporium offers poor value compared to prices of new and used Intel Celeron A (not the original 266 & 300 models) processors, which offer more power for less money. Unless the user is running a 440FX motherboard or a low end server we would recommend you look at either new or used Celeron A chips.

The 350, 400 and 450 MHz variants of the Pentium II are all still in production, but will probably be phased out by Intel in favour of Pentium III and Celeron production soon. That said there may be some systems built around these PC's which offer very good value to the PC buyer. We would recommend these systems if they were significantly cheaper than Pentium III based machines (if not the PIII is a better bet) or are not undercut by a similar specced Celeron based machine.

Alongside the pincer movement being performed by Intel's own Celeron and Pentium III processors, the Pentium II has come under a challenge from AMD's latest offerings. The K6-2 300 outperformed the PII 300 and beat it by a large margin on value for money. The K6 III is a chip which offers performance (in business applications) superior to the PII 450 and should be considered by the cost concious buyer.

That said, the Pentium II does offer the PC user impressive level's of performance in all areas. It's integer performance has always been high as well as its very impressive floating point math capability. For 3D gaming, rendering and video editing the Pentium II is a processor which is very hard to beat. It really is a commsumate all rounder in the chip world.

Pentium II, the verdict

Although the Pentium II is a great all round performer, the Processor Emporium finds it very hard to recommend this chip. It is now out performed on the highest level by the Pentium III and is matched up to 400 MHz by the Celeron. It also has to contend with a concerted attack from AMD's K6-2 and super K6 III chips. The Pentium II's relatively high price tag precludes it from being recommended to the cost concious buyer as it offers NO advantage over the Celeron and very little over the K6 III. Also the high end user will want to buy the PIII as this has captured the kudos of the PII, and offers the ultimate in performance. That said owners of the Pentium II will probably not be disappointed but new buyers could do well to look elsewhere both inside and out of the Intel stable.

Intel Pentium II, Technical Data

Processor	Clock Speed	Bus Speed	Clock Muiltiplier
PII 233	233 MHz	66 MHz	3.5x
PII 266	266 MHz	66 MHz	4x
PII 300	300 MHz	66 MHz	4.5x
PII 333	333 MHz	66 MHz	5x
PII 350	350 MHz	100 MHz	3.5x
PII 400	400 MHz	100 MHz	4x
PII 450	450 MHz	100 MHz	4.5x

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