Double Feature
The fastest Pentium II chip ever made! Again? Yes, Intel has created a new speed leader, the Pentium II-450. And it flies. The fastest of the four PII-450 machines tested for this article ran 9 percent faster than the average PII-400 on our PC WorldBench 98 tests. Still, that's not a huge change. The big surprise is Intel's other new arrival, the Celeron-333 chip: It runs like a Pentium II-333 but shows up in systems starting at just $999.
Why aren't we more excited about the PII-450 processor? If you buy a PII-450 system now instead of a PII-400, you'll spend $140 to $300 more for a PC that's not much faster on business apps. True, if you regularly do CPU-intensive work like image editing or desktop publishing and want every bit of speed you can get, the PII-450 prices aren't outrageous; the four systems we tested start at $2629. But for most power desktop shoppers, the PII-400s--at an average cost of $2414--make more sense. And PII-350 systems, averaging $2199, are good buys if you're looking for a midrange PC.
Speaking of good buys, Intel has improved on its first generation of low-cost Celeron chips. The earlier 266- and 300-MHz Celeron systems were slow and overpriced. But the new Celeron-333 is a price/performance winner, thanks to its built-in secondary cache, a crucial feature that the original Celerons lacked. Consider this: As recently as last May, before the PII-350 was introduced, the PII-333 was the fastest PC chip ever made; and the new Celeron-333 performs just as well as a PII-333.
Inside the PII-450
Unlike the PII-400, the PII-450 processor isn't a great leap forward. As you may recall, PII-400 and PII-350 systems wowed us when they debuted in May. Armed with the new BX chip set, these PII systems combined a swift processor with a fast 100-MHz system bus (compared to the previous 66-MHz bus) and speedy memory. The PII-450 uses that same 100-MHz bus and memory, and offers only a slight uptick in clock speed.
All four PII-450 systems we tested had 64MB of system RAM and 8MB of graphics memory. The $2675 Compaq Deskpro EP Model 6450 and $2890 HP Vectra VL Series 8 HE target corporate buyers. Dell's $2629 Dimension XPS R450 is designed for homes and small businesses, whereas the $2849 Gateway G6-450 is configured as a high-end home PC. (The Compaq and Gateway systems we looked at were shipping units; the HP and Dell PCs were preproduction units.)
Are these PCs worth the money? Based on our testing, today's business applications don't cry out for a PII-450. On average, the PII-450s performed only 8 percent faster than comparable PII-400s on our PC WorldBench 98 tests. The fastest PII-450, HP's Vectra VL Series 8 HE, ran 9 percent faster than the average PII-400--an unnoticeable tempo change in an application like Word or Excel. Among the four PII-450 system scores, we saw an insignificant 3 percent variation, from the HP's 216 to the Dell's 210.
Of course, if you spend a lot of time working with demanding, graphics-intensive programs, a PII-450 desktop with a top-notch graphics card may be the right choice. Almost no difference existed between PII-450 and PII-400 machines in our PowerPoint 97 test, which involves building a presentation. But on tougher graphics tasks, the HP and Compaq PII-450 PCs stood out.
In the Macromedia Director 6 test, where we play an AVI movie clip while running an animation in the foreground, the HP and Compaq systems achieved a rate of 99 frames per second--9 percent faster than the average PII-400 score of 91 fps. An improvement of this magnitude is observable in the playback: The faster the frame rate is, the smoother the animation looks.
One technical note: Due to certain conflicts between the Matrox Millennium G200 card, Microsoft DirectX, and Caligari TrueSpace3, we were unable to complete our TrueSpace3 test for the HP and Compaq machines. But these systems are quite capable of running the application.
Finally, the Compaq and HP PCs performed well with games. In our Redline Racer game test, for instance, the HP PII-450 outstripped our fastest PII-400 PC's score by 26 percent. But these results were due in large part to the impressive Millennium G200 graphics card that these machines use.
In contrast, the Gateway and the Dell PII-450s performed more on par with PII-400 machines on our graphics tests: Both are equipped with the STB Velocity 128zx graphics card, which couldn't equal the Millennium G200.
So if you want a PII-450 system, the Compaq and HP PCs offer the most graphics power. The Compaq costs $215 less than the HP and carries a larger hard drive, but the HP includes a LAN adapter card. The home-oriented Dell and Gateway units both include a DVD-ROM drive. The Dell costs $220 less than the Gateway, but it comes with a 17-inch monitor, compared to the Gateway's 19-incher. (For details, see the features comparison chart.)
Big Bargains
But maybe you don't need an expensive computer at all. With Intel's new, improved Celeron chip, bargain computers look better than they have in some time, particularly for people whose needs revolve around applications such as Word or Excel and a browser. And with prices dropping sharply, dumping your PC when it becomes outdated--as it inevitably will--won't hurt as much.
The original 266- and 300-MHz Celeron processors lacked a key feature of the Pentium II chip: a built-in secondary cache. As Dataquest analyst Nathan Brookwood puts it, Intel "saved $10 in cost of product and threw away 30 percent of the performance" when it made the original chips.
The new Celeron chips, code-named Mendocino, have a built-in 128KB secondary cache--and that's made a huge difference. In our tests, the Celeron-333 systems performed as well as PII-333 machines, despite the PII-333 chip's substantially larger 512KB cache.
How is that possible? The PII-333's cache comes in the CPU package, but it isn't part of the chip and it operates at half the processor's speed. In contrast, the Celeron's cache is built into the chip and functions at full throttle.
Intel is making Mendocino chips in 300- and 333-MHz flavors. The 300-MHz chips are labeled Celeron-300A to differentiate them from the original, cacheless Celeron-300.
In our review, we concentrated on the Celeron-333s, testing shipping versions of Compaq's $1925 Deskpro EP Model C333, Dell's $1539 Dimension V333c, and Unicent's amazing bargain, the $999 Avanta E333. All of these come with a generous 64MB of RAM.
In our PC WorldBench 98 tests, the three systems posted an average performance score of 172, identical to the average score for PII-333 machines. By way of comparison, PII-400s earned a score of 198, on average. How much speed do you really need when you're working with business applications? Well, PII-333-level velocity seems awfully fast if you're accustomed to working with a Pentium-75. But you'll also notice the difference between a PII-450 or PII-400 and a Celeron-333, especially in tasks such as spell-checking large documents or recalculating huge spreadsheets. One big reason: Like everything before the PII-350, the Celeron still chugs along on a 66-MHz system bus.
Still, the Celerons performed fairly well on our graphics tests. They do basic graphics chores like PowerPoint presentations without breaking a sweat. Of the three Celeron systems, the Dell has the most graphics horsepower; it aced our Caligari TrueSpace3 test thanks to its integrated ATI Rage Pro Turbo chip with 8MB of SDRAM. This chip handles AGP texturing, as does Unicent's ATI 3D Rage Pro, which has 4MB of SGRAM. That allows better visual quality in some apps, compared to the Matrox Millennium G100 card with 4MB of SGRAM.
Which Celeron-333 is best? The $999 Unicent (with a 15-inch monitor) is the sweetest deal. Even if you upgrade its monitor and hard drive to match the Dell's specs, this PC costs $540 less. But you can't upgrade its 4MB of SGRAM. Given its graphics advantage and 17-inch monitor, the Dell is a tempting deal from a big-league vendor. The Compaq, meanwhile, seems overpriced.
Goodbye PII-333?
Without a doubt, the Celeron-333 chip will shake up the budget PC market. Will it make the PII-333 redundant? Intel will continue to make the PII-333 chip, but most people won't want the machines powered by it. Some corporations, on the other hand, buy only Pentium II systems and will continue to do so for simplicity's sake, notes Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron.
Intel charges system makers $124 more for a PII-333 chip than for a Celeron-333, and this differential will show up in PC prices. Many PC lines, such as the Dell Dimension series, won't include a PII-333 model this fall; vendors will skip from the PII-350 processor to the Celeron-333. Dell may add a PII-333 later, however.
Not all bargain PCs have Intel inside, of course. AMD and Cyrix make their own low-cost CPUs--the K6-2-333 and the M II-333, respectively. And in the past, these have powered systems priced $250 less than comparable Pentium IIs. Because the Celeron-333 threatens AMD's and Cyrix's market shares, these vendors will have to cut their CPU prices; system prices may fall to just below Celeron-333 PC prices.
Best Deals Now
Today, the PII-450 chip runs the fastest mainstream business PCs you can buy. If you want every bit of performance currently obtainable, a PII-450 with an excellent graphics card may be worth the expense. Otherwise, save yourself several hundred bucks by picking a PII-400 that's almost as fast. PII-400 machines average $2414; the least expensive of these sell for less than $2000.
If you opt for a Celeron-333 machine, you'll get a budget PC that is no wimp. The $999 Unicent and $1539 Dell Celeron-333 systems make sensible choices for productivity apps and routine graphics programs at work or at home. These systems strike a smart balance between a low price and fast performance.
It hasn't escaped our attention that any one of these Celeron-333 PCs would have been dubbed lightning fast just five months ago. Fame is fleeting in the fastest-CPU contest. A good PC value is much more satisfying.
Features Comparison Chart
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Business Apps: Test Report
Price/Performance Comparison Chart
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