Price: $170 - $190 esp

Ship Date: Now

Much like the expansion a bag of microwave popcorn endures from the pressure of the kernels cooking within it, the market for new CPUs is literally bursting at the seams this fall with new models offering higher frequency levels.

Consumers have seen a deluge of new chips coming from both Intel and their rivals at AMD this summer and as the months continue to pass, bringing us closer to the all important year end buying season, the glut of new offerings will only continue.

Today Sharky Extreme is taking a look at the latest variety of Intel's successful Celeron CPU line, the Celeron 500.

Clocked at 500MHz (7.5 x 66MHz), this new Celeron signals the beginning of the end of a line that began almost a year ago with the introduction of the exceptional Celeron 300 A CPU.

Soon the Celeron CPU line will evolve yet again, and change into a new 3rd generation chip complete with a 100MHz front side bus speed and Intel's currently Pentium III-exclusive SSE instruction set.

For now, however, buyers can look to today's Celeron 500 as the new pinnacle of low cost power within the CPU market, offering speed and performance only dreamed about when the Celeron 300 A debuted.