It's only a few weeks ago that Intel released the renewed Celeron at 1.7 GHz, performing the transition from socket 370 to socket 478. Doing that, Intel has now switched its whole processor product line to the Pentium 4 architecture. So how does the newcomer compare to established budget processors?

Intel is embarking on a strategy that focuses all efforts onto one product line: that is obviously the Pentium 4. Thanks to Celeron with Willamette core, Pentium 4 with Willamette and Northwood cores and Pentium 4 Xeon for socket 603, Intel offers a wide product range, both in terms of price and performance.

On the first view, the new Celeron 1.8 GHz does not seem to be necessary, as the fastest Duron only runs at 1.3 GHz. However, reality is quite different, as you could see in our review of the Celeron 1.7 . In some benchmarks, the Willamette core comes out as a loser when comparing performance with the clock ratio. However, 1.7 and 1.8 GHz, respectively, are still enough to outperform both Duron and the 'old' Celeron with the Tualatin core in several benchmarks. Yes - only in some of them. That's why there is a call for action and why the next versions at 1.9 and 2.0 GHz should still be released this summer. So far, the 1.8 GHz version comes at an attractive $103 per 1,000, leaving the price for the 1.7 GHz version untouched.