I urge those of you contemplating a Pentium 4 purchase to read a
cautionary note about its future written by Thomas Pabst, author of
"Tom's Hardware Guide" at http://www.sysdoc.pair.com
Basically, Pabst has written that if you buy a Pentium 4 before next
summer, you may not be able to upgrade the processor alone to a faster
P4 later on. According to him, Intel plans to change both the P4
chipset and socket in mid-2001; Intel will still produce P4s after
mid-2001, but those won't be motherboard-compatible with the current
version of P4.
Now, if you know you won't ever want to upgrade only your P4 processor
without also upgrading the motherboard, or you don't mind having to buy
a new motherboard in order to use a faster P4, then this is not
relevant. Otherwise, have a look at the part of Pabst's Intel roadmap
article at http://www.sysdoc.pair.com/cpu/00q4/001013/roadmap-02.html
subtitled "Pentium 4 'Willamette' Is Just A Short-Term Filler".
Richard Woods
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