Those of you that are either ardent fans of overclocking or will be in the market for $600-$1100 PCs may well be happy to know that the Celeron(tm) 433MHz has been pulled forward from Q2 and instead will be launched in March 1999. So in less than a month's time you'll start to see the slightly faster 433MHz hit the market. But it won't stop there as Intel(r) has also promised to push the Celeron(tm) to even greater speeds in excess of 466MHz and has pushed forward the release of the 466MHz to late Q2. Although unspecified in the road map, a late Q3 date should see 466+MHz Celeron(tm)s being released. Along with 466+MHz may be the inclusion of a 100MHz Front Side Bus. This is all true for Socket 370 PPGA based Celeron(tm)s and the distinct absence of any SEPP Celeron(tm)s on Intel(r)'s radar can only mean one thing. Good bye at 433Mhz and possibly even at 400MHz. We'll all be sorry to see them and their use with BX motherboards go… According to Intel(r), the Value PC sector will also have integrated 3D graphics with Intel(r) Dynamic Video Memory in the second half of the year.

Clearly the Celeron(tm) 400 looks like being the value CPU of 1999, much like the Celeron(tm) 300A was in 1998. It is the starting point for the high-end ValuePC and the sub $600 PC's year end note so it will have a full year's production run even though the packaging will change. Being able to safely overclock the 400Mhz version of the Celeron(tm) up to and in excess of 500MHz is a no brainer with current BX based boards and hence gamers or end users interested in a second machine will still consider the Celeron(tm) 400Mhz as a viable option we think. The whole shift from SEPP to PPGA will mean overclockers will have to move a notch down from a BX based motherboard to (shock horror) the EX and later on the Intel(r) 810. And if that doesn't tickle your fancy (the EX that is), then feel rest assured that Celeron(tm) 466Mhz-500MHz CPUs will still be around till the first half of 2000. Clearly there's a LOT of life in the Celeron(tm) yet (with 128K of integrated Level2 cache). Just how this will affect AMDs K6-3 CPU is certainly an issue in itself. We've already seen how far they are willing to ramp up their speeds but whether or not AMD can actually deliver these forecasted products is still in serious question. At least with its overclocking capabilities, the Celeron(tm) is still going to be an EXTREMELY good choice for the gamer of 1999. That's the way we see it anyway.