Intel launches Pentium 4 for gaming PCs

Intel Corp.’s new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition chip will be used in gaming PCs from Dell Inc., Gateway Inc., and a number of other PC vendors, the companies announced Monday.

As expected, Intel released the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Monday as a high-end desktop processor that improves the performance of the Pentium 4 product line until Prescott, the 90-nanometer version of the Pentium 4, is released later this year. 

The chip’s clock speed is 3.2GHz, and it comes with 2M bytes of Level 3 cache and Intel’s hyperthreading technology. According to chip analysts, the processor is essentially a desktop version of Intel’s Xeon MP chip, which is used in servers. 

Intel first announced the chip at the Fall Intel Developer Forum, one week before Advanced Micro Devices Inc. launched its 64-bit Athlon FX processor for gaming PCs. The new chip will cost US$925 in quantities of 1,000 units.

Gamers are viewed as influential PC buyers by chip makers and PC vendors. They are willing to pay top dollar for the best performance available on the market, and push chip vendors to release new products and develop new technologies.

Gateway will make the processor available in a new high-end gaming PC, the 700GX. It will cost $3,299.99 with the new processor, 512M bytes of PC3200 (400MHz) DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 160G-byte hard drive, a GeForce FX 5900G graphics card from Nvidia Corp. with 256M bytes of video memory, a DVD-RAM/-R/CD-RW drive, and a 19-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor.

A configuration of Alienware Corp.’s Area-51 Extreme gaming PC comes with the new chip, 1G byte of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, a 120G-byte hard drive, Nvidia’s GeForce FX5950 graphics card with 256M bytes of video memory, dual DVD-ROM and CD-RW optical drives, and no display for $3,030.

Dell’s Dimension XPS desktop and Precision 360 workstation will now be available with the chip, Dell said. Falcon Northwest Computer Systems Inc. is also allowing customers to select the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition when configuring PCs, according to its Web page.