Intel Celeron 400A (Slot-1)

If you can get your hands on a retail Celeron 300A, then that is most likely your best bet as the retail 300A's can generally make it up to 450MHz with a bit of tweaking (see AnandTech's Celery Report). If you find yourself being beaten to the punch by Intel's efforts to cut off our beloved 300A supply, then the 400A makes for a fine friend. The 400A should be opted for above the Pentium II 400 or 450 processors, as the performance difference between the Celeron and its two older brothers is negligible and definitely not worth the money for most users. The Socket-370 version of the 400A is a waste of time to even bother with right now, if the price drops to at least $20 below the cost of the Slot-1 400A then it may be worth a slight consideration, but for now, you can pick up a SEPP 400A for at least the same price as a PPGA 400A, big mistake Intel. If Intel had waited until production of the PPGA chips was at a higher level, then things might have been different, but they're not, so for now, Slot-1 is the way to go.

What happens if you're a Super7 user? Luckily enough, there is a guaranteed upgrade path for you all, it's called the K6-3. If you're fine with the Super7 platform then the K6-3 will be the answer to your prayers, provided that AMD can release the chip on time. Expect the K6-3 400 to retail for a more than Intel's Celeron 400A, however don't expect it to retail more than the combined cost of a 400A and a motherboard, making a K6-3 upgrade a viable one considering it only requires, at most, a BIOS upgrade for Super7 users to achieve full compatibility.

If you're purchasing a new system, or building one for that fact, the Celeron 400A is essentially a 400MHz Pentium II at a much lower cost, and is definitely a better option than even AMD's K6-2 400. The K6-2 400, at the time of publication, remains around $10 cheaper (all price estimates are courtesy of www.pricewatch.com) than the Celeron 400A, and Super7 motherboards are generally $20 - $30 cheaper than Slot-1 BX motherboards, making the price difference between a brand new K6-2 400 system at most, $40 - $50 cheaper than a Celeron 400A system. Not too great of a price advantage there.

The bottom line is this, for a new system, Intel does have the best bang for your buck currently with the extremely aggressively priced Celeron processors, however the future of the PPGA (Socket-370) Celeron processors is too shady to make a full speed ahead decision on a Socket-370 system just yet. Super7 has a future with the K6-3, but it is one that will come to an end eventually with AMD's migration to Slot-A and the highly anticipated K7, making the K6-3 a good alternative upgrade, but giving the Celeron the thumbs up as the most cost-effective and best overall performing upgrade in its price class for everyone but Super7 users. If only all Intel chips were this affordable…