The Intel Celeron processors have always had a special place in the hearts of overclockers everywhere. Ever since they came out, they have been known to be able to run on the 100MHz bus for a 50% overclock from the 66MHz bus, as their Multiplier Ration is locked. Even the little 266MHz Celeron could whip it up to 400MHz on its big brother, the Pentium II’s Front Side Bus.

That was about two years ago. Now, the Pentium !!! has taken over for the Pentium II, and the Pentium 4 is now just starting to take it’s foot hold in high level workstations. The P4 is running with a set of Four Independent 100MHz Front side buses to give it four times the bandwidth as the Pentium II, which had 50% more than the Celeron. 66MHz to 4*100MHz is a big jump when talking about data…a huge jump. Many speculate that Intel did this in order to keep the performance gap between the Celeron and Pentium!!! large enough so there was a justification in the price difference, as well as speed difference, between the two. Others say this is just Intel being Intel by offering a slower chip with high capabilities at a low cost just to make a profit. I, of course, feel that whatever the reason, it’s crap. If you want to sell a value chip, sell a Cyrix, which has horrible performance to go with its super low price.

Maybe I had some influence, and maybe I didn’t, but Intel has recently launched a Celeron 850MHz chip, which uses the 100MHz bus, and an 8.5 clock ratio multiplier. This, paired with a killer i815 chipset, will bring Intel’s “Value” Systems a little closer to that of the upcoming Duron Systems, which will use a VIA chipset with integrated S3 Video. If trends keep going as they are, clock seeds will keep going up as prices fall in the value sector, leaving me happy, as I don’t need a 3D chip, just one to pump out text and triangles. The “Free” PC just might be making a come-back.