Buying Intel desktop CPUs is now a numbers game

YOU EITHER HAVE HAD to have filled in the football pools for your dad to understand the permutations of Intel desktop processors these days, or have one of those minds that loves tables, classifications, numbers and abbreviations.

Therefore, we offer you the latest INQ crib sheet on Intel single core desktop processors knowing full well that in 2006 it will be more complicated still. And if you were to attempt to perm the AMD "PR" numbers against the Intel numbers, then you'd probably only end up going plumb crazy and earning the nickname "Mad".

The "J" in the table below refers to a stepping which supports the anti virus NX bit. EIST represents "enhanced speedstep", VT is Vanderpool, Prescott is a 90 nanometre process.

Armed with this, we suggest you approach your typical computer superstore agent and try and narrow down which CPU you'll be getting in your machine.

You might also want to ask him or her what benefits Vanderpool (VT) and HT (Hyperthreading) bring to the party while you're at it. But it's obvious from the below you can't rely on chip speeds as a measure any more - there's parallelism on a grand scale in these processors.

Once we've laid down for a while, we'll see if we can have a bash at tabulating the Celeron D processors. Currently, the dual cores are a doddle and don't really need a table. But that's yet... Note. Not all of these processors numbered below are available yet. µ

Desktop Single Core Crib Sheet

No.	Speed	Cache	VT	HT	EIST	EM64T	XD	Socket	µ
672	3.80GHz	2MB	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
670	3.80GHz	2MB	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
663	3.60GHz	2MB	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Cedar Mill
662	3.60GHz	2MB	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
660	3.60GHz	2MB	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
653	3.40GHz	2MB	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Cedar Mill
650	3.40GHz	2MB	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
643	3.20GHz	2MB	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Cedar Mill
640	3.20GHz	2MB	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
633	3.00GHz	2MB	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Cedar Mill
631	3.00GHz	2MB	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Cedar Mill
630	3.00GHz	2MB	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	775	Prescott
571	3.80GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	Y	Y	775	Prescott
570	3.80GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	N	Y	775	Prescott
561	3.60GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	Y	Y	775	Prescott
560	3.60GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	N	Y(J)	775	Prescott
551	3.40GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	Y	Y	775	Prescott
550	3.40GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	N	Y(J)	775	Prescott
540	3.20GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	N	Y(J)	775	Prescott
541	3.20GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	Y	Y	775	Prescott
531	3.00GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	Y	Y	775	Prescott
530	3.00GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	N	Y(J)	775	Prescott
521	2.80GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	Y	Y	775	Prescott
520	2.80GHz	1MB	N	Y	N	N	Y(J)	775	Prescott