More on the CPU Soap Opera

Yesterday afternoon we discovered that technology site Australian IT had benchmarked and reviewed a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 system, labelling it as an over-priced, under-performing paperweight which would prove unreachable for most and only as impressive comparatively as an Athlon of about 1.2GHz or thereabouts. The review, which is fairly sizeable, includes a demonstration pic of the processor itself, showing its size to be somewhat larger than current flip-chip and Socket A processors. Ultimately though, the reviewer, the reputable Dan Rutter of DansData.com fame, couldn't get past the fact that you would need nearly 4,000 Australian dollars to pay for the CPU, motherboard and memory alone, whereas an Athlon machine of similar power could be had for nearly a third of that. Elsewhere, ZDNet has a story about the Pentium 4's imminent launch on Monday and how it thinks the processor will grow in its market share towards the end of next year. It seems however that they are reluctant to use Intel executive VP Paul Otellini's comment about "aggressive pricing" outside of quote marks.