Final Words
Another Pentium III reviewed, another clock speed benchmarked. The release of the 1.13GHz Pentium III won't change things too incredibly in the CPU industry, it will most definitely guarantee the release of AMD's 1.1GHz Thunderbird very soon but other than that, it probably won't even effect prices too much considering that it won't be available in mass quantities until later this year.
If you're set on getting a Pentium III, the big question is what platform to pursue. We've pretty much already established that the i820 + RDRAM platform is entirely too expensive right now to justify anyone pursuing it, so let's see what options you're left with:
For now the fact remains that if you happen to have a BX motherboard that supports Coppermine CPUs, you're probably better off sticking with your current platform and possibly overclocking it to make use of the 133MHz FSB.
The VIA Apollo Pro 133A platform is finally at the point where it can be considered to be quite mature, there are obviously some quirks about the platform (chipset patches, GART drivers, etc...) that you have to deal with but it's nothing that your average hardware enthusiast can't tackle. For a comparison of the best 133A boards out there, visit our most recent Apollo Pro 133A motherboard roundup.
For those of you that want to stick to an Intel chipset but still get PC133/133MHz FSB support, the i815 is a great option and pairs up with the Pentium III quite well, the only downside is that because of its integrated video the boards that are currently available are carrying pretty hefty price tags, most of which are currently retailing for above $150.
In terms of most bang for your buck, you're probably going to get the best deal going with a Socket-A processor, unless of course you fall into one of the above three categories where you currently have a Slot-1/Socket-370 motherboard. More specifically the AMD Duron makes for the perfect all-around gaming, business and professional application CPU at a very reasonable cost. The only question that remains is what motherboard to get, and we'll address that very issue early next week...
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