The Pentium 4 saw the introduction of Intel’s NetBurst architecture, with its focus on high clock speeds and a deep pipeline that makes it ideal for linear tasks like encoding. But, arguably more importantly, it saw the birth of Hyper-Threading technology. This effectively gives you two virtual cores and as far as the operating system is concerned there are two physical CPUs.

The wide-ranging family starts at the 3GHz Pentium 4 630 and finishes with the 3.8GHz 670, which is becoming increasingly endangered and hard to track down. Every model has a decent 2MB of Level 2 cache for its single core and communicates via an 800MHz FSB. It also supports EM64T instructions, XD-bit security and Intel’s power-saving SpeedStep technology.

There are also newer 6x1 versions of all models, which are made using a 65nm process and reduce the TDP noticeably in the higher-end models. Finally, 662 and 672 models were the last models to be announced – adding virtualisation support – but aren’t widely available to buy.

Are there any bargains to be found, though? The 640 is the pick of the bunch, scoring 0.84 at a price of $99. This sits right between the $95 Celeron D 360 which scored 0.80 and the, more-powerful, $95, dual-core Pentium D 915 which scored 0.89. Add AMD's aggressive pricing to the mix - an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ scores 1.05 and costs just $95 - and we see that the Pentium 4 simply doesn’t offer good value any more.

In the past, it could be argued that its strength at encoding made it a good choice for video editing, but the arrival of first the Pentium D and then the even faster Core 2 Duo all but eliminated that argument. Then there’s the efficiency issue. The Pentium 4 led the way in the marketing race for higher and higher numbers, but it inevitably ran hotter than any other mainstream CPU. The newer and cooler Core 2 Duo range shows just how power efficient an extremely fast CPU can be and leaves the poor Pentium 4 looking positively roasting by comparison.

The only way the Pentium 4 could continue to be a good choice would be if the prices dropped further to compensate. Right now, the Pentium 4 just doesn’t make economic sense.