Deciphering the numbers

If you are planning on building a new Intel based machine or upgrading your current Pentium processor, you (including us geeks) can’t be expected to know how Intel number their processors. Luckily, the guys over at CoolTechZone have simplified Intel’s naming convention for us:

Intel: The Art of Naming Processors

From the article:

Gone are the days when processor names were something as simple as their clock speeds. If you wanted a nice and powerful 3GHz processor, you simply asked for a P4 3.0GHz and that was it. Ever since Intel has decided to revamp its naming conventions, the confusion makes you wonder if the whole idea of renaming was a smart move.

We can’t change Intel’s nomenclature (although we do hope they make it better soon), but we can analyze and make them simpler for you to understand, so you don’t get confused the next time you are out buying an Intel processor.

To make things simple, if you want to learn Intel’s processor families, think of BMW. Just like BMW has a series 3, 5, 6, and 7, each being substantially better, and hence more expensive than the one before, Intel has the 3xx series for the Celerons (not covered here), the 5xx series for the low-end desktop systems, the 6xx series for the midrange/high-end desktops, the 7xx series for notebooks, the 8xx series for serious desktop performance and the 9xx series, which is yet to debut.