Intel show latest CPUs

Intel are showcasing their latest 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processors at ECTS this week, with all the usual promises of giving PC owners a richer experience with faster games, music, movies and kitchen sinks. Apparently high performance Pentium 4 based systems are also "a valuable investment for a child's education". Rather more interesting for gamers though is the fact that (like NVIDIA) Intel have Unreal Tournament 2003 running on their stand to demonstrate just what all that processing power actually means at the end of the day, taking "graphics, sound and gameplay .. beyond the bleeding edge". The game (and in particular its physics system) has been optimized for Pentium 4 processors, hopefully providing higher framerates. As well as demoing forthcoming games, Intel will also be showing off a pair of highly customised 2.8GHz Pentium 4 based PCs on their stand. Produced by veteran PC modders Mark "Geezer" Weitz and Barry "Cold-Dog" Collins, the computers sport plenty of shiny metal, viewing ports, bright paintwork and twiddly knobs as well as Intel processors, GeForce 4 graphics cards, Audigy soundcards and unfeasibly large fans to cool the whole thing down. But are they, as Intel proclaim, "works of art", or merely the product of people with far too much spare time? Judge for yourself, but we anxiously await a case mods exhibition at Tate Modern...