Intel Recalls Some Initial Chipsets
Let’s get this one out of the way first. It’s really no big in-and-of-itself; it seems to be a minor manufacturing defect already corrected.
But there’s a much bigger reason why this isn’t a big deal.
Why get upset about defaults for a product you shouldn’t be buying in the first place, anyway?
This is like getting wound up about some of the doors not locking on a car with an engine that overheats on the slightest provocation and falls out if you touch it too much.
You shouldn’t even get as far as worrying about the doors. Before you even dream about buying the car, see what they can do about the engine.
Celeron-D: A One-Two Punch?
Intel has introduced Prescott Celerons.
The best way to look upon these chips is not that they’re a lot better than Northwood Celerons and maybe you should buy one, but rather that they suck less than Northwood Celerons.
If you’re concerned about performance, you’re still rather better off with a Northwood PIV, and if you think this is great bang-for-the-buck, perhaps you’re overemphasizing the buck over the bang.
Then again, this chips aren’t meant for the performance user. They’re meant for the cheapo mass-market OEM machines, and there, they do get close to levelling the playing field against their XP competition.
Intel isn’t finished here, though. The next Celeron step will be to include x86-64 circuitry to these chips (end of the year, early next, perhaps?). Do that, and the Celerons will do better than the XP/Sempron chips, and maybe even edge out a socket 754 Sempron.
Then AMD’s decision to keep x86-64 away from Semprons will look stupid, and Intel will remind all those Best Buy and CompUSA computer buyers of that again and again and again. Instead of this castration making Athlon 64s worth more; it will just make Semprons be worth less.
Unless, of course, they change their minds.
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