The Right CPU

alt="intel-2.jpg (9770 bytes)" align="right">Socket 7,
Slot 1, Slot 1I, Socket 370, Pin Grid Array, Plastic Pin Grid Array…the choice
sometimes does get bewildering.

One way of classifying CPUs is
according to their physical shape and the way they plug on to the motherboard. We have two
types of CPUs for the desktop–Socket 7 and Slot 1. Socket 7 came into existence with
the Pentium processors, and Slot 1 is used by PIIs and Celerons. Even though Intel stopped
supporting Socket 7, other manufacturers like AMD, Cyrix and IDT have continued to release
chips on Socket 7. They have also advanced the Socket 7 motherboard specifications to
Super 7 by adding AGP and USB, and by supporting higher clock speeds for the system bus.

alt="chip.gif (7068 bytes)" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">Pin
Grid Array describes the way the pins are arranged on a Socket 7 or similar processor.

If you are looking at pure
performance, go for the latest PIIs (or the PIII), but be ready to pay its price.

If you don’t have the moolah now,
but dream of doing it pretty soon (within a year positively), go for a 100 MHz Slot 1
motherboard and a Slot 1 Celeron. That will save you at least Rs 6,000 now. And don’t
buy the 300. The lowest you should go to is the 300A

If you want performance, but on a
budget, go for a Super 7 motherboard and a Cyrix MII. The MII 333 PR is more than a
thousand rupees less than the 333 MHz Celeron.

What about the AMD K6-2? We could not find a single
vendor selling them. What we could find was the older generation K6. We asked AMD for the
price list and they responded with dollar prices in lots of a thousand!