Price Guides November 2004: CPU and Motherboards

Intel Processors - Socket 478

Much like the AMD camp who has plenty of users not interested in buying a new motherboard, and various other components, but rather the latest and greatest processors offered, the 478-based P4 still has enough life left in it to be a viable option for upgrading or even building a new system. Unless you wish to fork over money for a new motherboard, and quite possibly a new video card and new RAM, then socket 478 is still the way to go.

Just short of the $200-mark is the Intel Pentium 4 (478) 3.0GHz 800FSB 512KB. $200 may be a somewhat high price point for a processor, which is going to have its socket decommissioned in a short period of time, but that price is still very much lower than the potential cost to adopt socket 775 in one fell swoop. There's also no difference in the processor architecture itself that really warrants moving to 775 right now and this makes 478 want to stick around a little longer while it still can.