Intel Socket-370 Celeron 366

The Socket-370 Celeron is an interesting offering from Intel, while the original Celeron 300A received a flat out recommendation from AnandTech, the Celeron 366 is a bit different.

If you are an older user, without a direct upgrade path (an upgrade path requiring no more than a BIOS update to pursue) to any of the upcoming chips, the Socket-370 Celeron will quickly become an incredibly cost effective solution

If you are currently a Socket-7 user, without a direct upgrade path to any of AMD's processors (i.e. K6, K6-2, K6-3), the Socket-370 shouldn't be considered an "upgrade" since Socket-370 and Socket-7 (as well as the Pentium Pro, Socket-8) are pin-incompatible, meaning you can't plug a Socket-7 CPU into a Socket-370 and vise versa. Provided that you happen to be a user that does have a direct upgrade path to an AMD processor, waiting for the K6-3 is pretty much your best bet in that case.

Current BX Slot-1 motherboard owners wanting to overclock their processors even more will want to opt for the Slot versions of the newer Celerons, and especially not the 400MHz sample, since getting a 400MHz chip to run at 100MHz x 6.0 isn't the world's easiest task. If you have a BX motherboard, there is absolutely no point to going with a Socket-370 CPU.

Owners of older LX Slot-1 motherboards will find that the new Celerons are quite appetizing, however if possible, you definitely want to stick to a Slot-1 Celeron in this case since there are no planned upgrades for Socket-370 outside of the eventual migration to the 100MHz FSB.

As a low cost system, that can compete with the best of them, the Intel Socket-370 Celeron is a wonderful buy. Even those that aren't overclocking can get Pentium II 400 levels of performance for less than half the cost of a Pentium II 400. Especially considering the fact that a good Socket-370 LX board, with on-board sound, will retail for well under $100, it looks like Intel is taking a bigger bite out of the low-cost market than we all thought possible.

Intel did something great with their Celeron 300A, however since that release we've been trying to live up to a dream we can't forget. A few years from now, we'll be asking ourselves: "How many remember the time your 300A first booted up at 450MHz?"