http://www.anandtech.com/html/review_display.cfm?document=883
The overclocking population was taken by surprise when the cacheless Celeron
266, albeit clock-locked, could be taken up to 400MHz and beyond depending
on the specific case. This was quickly denounced as a fluke related to the
fact that the cacheless Celeron didn't have any clock speed limiting L2
cache on-board to prevent it from being overclocked, and for the time, this
justification stuck; until Intel dropped another bombshell on the market,
the, now famous, Celeron 300A. As mentioned before, outfitted with a full
128KB of L2 cache running at clock speed, the Celeron 300A shocked the
community once again with its ability to hit 450MHz (in most cases) and
definitely achievable without being limited by the L2 cache.
http://www.anandtech.com/html/review_display.cfm?document=887
The joyride is indeed coming to an end.
Well, there is no longer any doubt that the Slot One Celeron 300A is out of
production. *It is*. Besides Intel's Product Change notification that I
shared with you last week, we find that this version of the processor is not
even included on the list of price cuts announced for February 7th.
The original retail version, sSPEC SL32A, has become scarcer than a sober
head at a Dentists convention. Of course, Intel is now packaging the former
OEM version, SL2WM for retail sale to fill the void. More on that later...
I have never seen the supply of a discontinued CPU dry up so fast! Usually,
when a processor is canceled, we can count on 6 months supply or so. Not so
in this case. The SL32A's disappeared in a matter of 2 weeks. It is a
feeding frenzy! There are still pockets of chips available, but supply is
very spotty and quantities are very small.
http://www.anandtech.com/html/review_display.cfm?document=892
Beyond all that, I have this pathological need to *know*, rather than just
*hear*. Several large vendors, as well as a good size number of individuals
contacted me and told me that these new retails were doing the 450 Tango
just fine. This is all well and good, but without actually touching,
testing, feeling, stroking... HeHe.
On the other hand, I heard from a very trustworthy smaller vendor that these
chips were not doing well on his bench. This is a guy that I *absolutely*
believe, so hopefully he just got his hands on a bad batch. He did, however,
tell me that he's two for two with the 366A at 550Mhz, *default voltage*.
HMM...