There are more varieties of Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core CPU still on sale than we've listed below, but the older Conroe and Allendale parts are on their last legs. If you're buying today, we'd suggest focusing on these newer models.
The three families are based on the 45nm Wolfdale die, as found in Core 2 Duo E8000-series CPUs. All three use the LGA 775 socket and have a TDP of 65W; two support virtualisation.
But where the Core 2 Duo enjoys a generous 6MB of L2 cache, Pentium E5000 and E6000-series parts feature only 2MB, and the Celeron E3000 has just 1MB. FSB speeds vary, too: the Celeron E3000 and Pentium E5000 models use 800MHz, while the E6000 goes up to 1066MHz.
Put bluntly, these low-end chips make sense only if you have an old LGA 775 motherboard. In that case, the Pentium Dual-Core E6300 is the best of a poor bunch, scoring 1.32 for $74. It's no Core i3, but at $130 and upwards they're hardly a comparable option.
If, on the other hand, you're starting from scratch and buying a motherboard as well, avoid these parts like the plague. The top-end Pentium E6600 achieved 1.43 in our benchmarks and costs $135; the slowest Athlon II X2 performed identically for a mere $65. Down the price scale, the gap worsens.
For a new budget PC, Intel's cheapest CPUs are simply a false economy. Core i3 has arrived and the LGA 775 platform is yesterday's news. A cheap AMD combo or, better yet, a step up to LGA 1156 make vastly more long-term sense.
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