December 1999

Well, one or two things seem to have changed since the last chart at the beginning of November. The first being that there now appears to be a reasonable supply of Athlon motherboards reaching the UK. The most popular it appears being the Asus K7M and the Gigabyte GA-7IX, although both are not cheap. The second being that Intel's latest "Coppermine" Pentium III (E) processor is now reaching the retail channel, albeit in fewer than expected numbers

Prices this month haven't moved much, but expect to see some price cuts on Intel's new 0.18 μm Pentium III processors on the 12th.

This chart does not include processors in ready built PC's, so to meet the criteria for the chart, the processor in question must for sale separately and in volume.

The criteria with which we rate the processors currently available is simply what we judge to be the best value for money. Raw power alone can not top the charts (unless we think that it is significantly good enough to warrant a high price tag), and other factors such as all round performance and availability (at time of writing in the UK) also influence our decisions. We do not use a chip's overclocking potential as a factor in this chart, thus giving a guide to those who do not wish to overclock their CPU. Plese note that this rating is purely the opinion of the authors.

So onto the chart...

No. 1

AMD Athlon 500 MHz. It hangs on to Number 1, but only by a small margin. Only its sheer power keeps it at the top spot. It may be the baby of the Athlon range, but don't let that fool you, its as fast as anything bar a Pentium III 600 and its bigger siblings. What's even better is that it's price tag just keeps on falling, so it represents incredible value. Now down to around £150, the Athlon 500 is still at number one, but only just.

No. 2

Intel Celeron 500 MHz. How did the little Celeron 500 hang onto the tail the mighty Athlon from our chart? Quite simply, it is still probably one of the best performers out there, and at a price of £120 it can't be beaten. So why can't it get the top spot, well it loses out to the Pentium III and Athlon in sheer power and its 66 MHz bus may hurt the performance of some newer games. That said, it is still VERY fast and it hangs onto number 2 for yet another month.

No. 3

AMD Athlon 550 MHz. Holding onto number 3, the Athlon 550 has seen a steady price sit at £215 for a while now. Unfortunately the new Athlon 750 hasn't caused any price drop on this processor, which is a shame.

No. 4

Intel Pentium III 500 MHz. Holding onto the number 4 spot, is Intel's 500 MHz Pentium III. A good all round processor, but with a price tag of just under £200, it seems just a little bit pricey compared to the Athlon.

No. 5

Intel Pentium III 500 (E) MHz. Yes the 0.18 μm "Coppermine" Pentium III has made quite a high entry into our chart at number 5. Why isn't it higher? Well, it is still pricey at just under £200, but it does beat it's older 0.25 μm "Katmai" PIII 500 sibling for performance. So why doesn't it oust the resident at No.4? Well, the new FC-PGA Pentium III requires a Socket 370 board which meets the new VRM 8.4 voltage standard, which rules out many of the current Socket 370 boards not made on the i810e chipset. When more Socket 370 boards support the FC-PGA Pentium III, it will get a higher placing.

No. 6

Intel Celeron 466 MHz. At £80 barrier this is a teriffic bargain. It still can make a user look away from the 500 MHz model and so sits at No.6.

No. 7

AMD K6 III 400 MHz. AMD has stubbornly refused to price the K6 III at a price level we have really been happy with. Well the 400 MHz K6 III is now at a priced at around £85 it is very good value, with terrific integer performance, and good gaming if the title supports 3DNow! instructions.

No. 8

AMD K6 III 450 MHz. The K6 III 450 rises two places this month. This is mainly due to a drop in price to around £120, which makes the K6 III better value. Why isn't it higher, well Super Socket 7 is getting a bit long in the tooth and the Athlon is now out, for not an excessive amount more.

No. 9

Intel Celeron 433 MHz. To have the Celeron 433 as a non-mover down at number 9 just shows how crowded it is at the high end of the market. At a price below £80, the Celeron 433 is not bad at all.

No. 10

Intel Pentium III 550 MHz. This has now dropped below the £300 barrier. The Pentium III 550 still stacks up well against AMD's Athlon, especially as most BX based boards are much cheaper than their Slot A counterparts.

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