A benefit of the Celeron that makes up for the lower bus speeds is cost. Celeron processors are cheaper and so are there motherboards and that can really add up to big savings for a very small performance losses. Celeron’s are also packaged in PPGA(Plastic Pin Grid Array) and SEPP(Single Edge Processor Package). The PPGA packaging allows OEM’s to design cheaper and more flexible motherboards .That is another thing that reduces cost. Intel stopped manufacturing SEPP Celeron’s to reduce cost of the processor and allow for cheaper motherboard designs.

The PPGA are compatible with Socket 370 and right now are the only kind of Celeron’s that are being manufactured. Intel has plan to slowly move all of their processors over from Slot 1 to Socket 370. But, you can still use a Celeron Processor that is manufactured with PPGA packaging(all the new ones) with a Slot 1 motherboard via a Slotket. These are pretty popular allowing people to save money not having to buy a new motherboard and make future upgrading for P3’s still a viable option.

Many Celeron motherboards also feature integrated video and/or sound. While this degrades video performance and may not provide the best sound it cuts down cost. In the end the system is cheaper for everyone, manufacturer pays less for it, and the consumer see the savings. That is why many people think that the future is in integrated hardware. I don’t think that’s is true but you never know. Back to the article! Cost is the major reason to go Celeron. It is much cheaper than any other processor that can offer its performance. So if you want to save money and get decent performance go Celeron!

Key Factors - reasons why to go Celeron
Lower Cost
Performance as good as P2/3’s
Cheaper Motherboards
Works in Slot one with Slotket Kit Decent
Overclockability
32kb of level one cache 128kb of full speed level2 cache
Supports EX, LX, and ZX motherboard chipset designs.
Pipelined FPU (Floating Point Unit)
66-mhz bus speed

by Kevin Perko

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