Our Verdict

When writing this mammoth review, at one juncture we thought we would never get to this stage, now that we have, finally it is the most important section of all, and one which we have not been looking forward too, on the basis of the responsibility we have to our readers, many of whom rely on our accurate judgement, and most of all our integrity on reporting matters as they are. One2Surf, going by the tons of emails we have received in the past build somewhat of a reputation for publishing straight talking no-nonsense reviews. For those readers out there that have sent us these emails we can only say; Thank You, and be rest assured this is not about to change.

We can hear you out there, what about the Intel Pentium P4 then! alright here goes, as far as the processor is concerned firstly, we need to discuss the processor as is today, secondly, we shall discuss its future based around the NetBurst micro-architecture, thirdly, we shall discuss the platform it is supposed to work on, and lastly, our final word.

This review was carried out using Intel's supplied Engineering Sample Pentium 4 Processor based system (see picture above). The Pentium 4 Core once the heatsink was removed confirmed this to be the case. Oh! The Heatsink what a beast, although the processor does not overheat as you might have expected, Intel were not taking any hostages, we have also provided a picture of the Heatsink for you to have a look at.

In its incarnation the P4 does not have a lot going for it, it still retains the 0.18-micron process manufactured using Aluminium interconnects, it requires a new case, new power supply, new Motherboard, with a new chipset, and possibly new memory unless you have RDRAM, and what do you get for all this? a glorified Intel Pentium PIII, the only difference being the NetBurst micro-architecture which comes as a bonus, we feel a steep price to pay right now, unless of course you have money to throw away. However, if you predominantly use the Internet as your main task, then the Pentium 4 is worth a look at, but before you make this decision see what we have to say about the future. The future is bright the future seems to be Intel.... Within the next 6-9 months Intel will change the look and feel of the Pentium 4, reduced die size, manufactured around the 0.13-micron, possibly also at the same time Copper interconnects, a new chipset codenamed "Brookdale" which will provide support for SDRAM-DDR memory, wouldn't be wonderful if Intel could integrate support for both DDR and RDRAM within one chipset? Not impossible, Intel are you reading this? please take note, all the arguments regarding which memory platform would disappear and Intel would have the best of both worlds, at this juncture we can also see the 2GHz clock frequency, and then we need to review again as the NetBurst micro-architecture we predict will kick some a... ... (An old IBM saying - not ours). Our next discussion is the platform that the current Pentium 4 is to support; Intel i850 does this offer more than its competitors? the short answer is NO, next is a new case, and power supply, well the case is changed to allow for new mounting brackets, the power supply is to cater for higher clock frequency processors to be launched later on next year, and support for RDRAM, we have also had the pleasure to work with DDR and we have to say in terms of cost and performance it has to be DDR. No great shakes here then.

Our thoughts on the matter are very simple, currently not worth screaming about, in the future however, this could be the launch Intel has been working on to regain its crown, but it will have to move fast, as its arch rival AMD is snapping at its heels. Our last word on the Intel Pentium 4 "The GOOD is the enemy of the best".

CREDITS: We would like to thank the Marketing and PR Departments at Intel for working with us, and indeed turning around the sample engineering system to us within a short notice period, not just that the information supplied to us was of the highest quality and seemed effortless with us requesting for even more information at different stages. Thank you for working with us at One2Surf.

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