Good article in the San Jose Mercury News this morning about the Pentium III. The first point the author makes is that the 500 MHz version is a good buy at launch compared to the PII 450 that came out six months ago. Both launched at $699 in quantities of 1,000 to PC manufacturers. So, PCs can be built comparably priced, in quantity, around PIII, vis a vis PII six months ago. Of course, memory, hard drives, CD ROMs etc. have also moved up so you can get a much better PIII PC today than a PII PC before for the same price. I think everyone expected PIII PCs to be much more than they're coming out at.
He also said (obviously, I couldn't find the article on the Murky News web site) that there may not be compelling software until next year to take advantage of the PIII, but kept coming back to more bang for your buck if you bought a PIII today vs. a PII before. Obviously, the higher clock speed and promise of higher still, 550 MHz end March, 600 3Q or so, 1 GHz next year are what he sees as the big differentiator vs. any other vendor.
Author said he's not concerned with the CPU ID privacy thing. Much ado about not much.
Saw PIII Pcs at Circuit City, CompUSA yesterday, none at Fry's yet, but "expected any day". Circuit City has one for $1,599 (CTX?). No K-6III's for some reason.
Tony |
