$1000 versus $300 for Pentium4 3.4GHz CPU? Why?

[rkr1958]

Intel® Pentium®4 3.4Ghz / 2MB Cache / 800Mhz FSB / Socket 478 / HyperThreading Extreme Edition / Processor is Priced at $999.97 and
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz / 1MB Cache / 800MHz FSB / Socket 478 / HyperThreading / Processor is Priced at Priced at $299.97.

Both processors are Pentium 4 3.4GHz with 800-MHz FSB. The only difference that I see is that the $1000 one has 2MB Cache and the $300 one has 1MB Cache. It that the only difference? $700 more for that? That seems insane to me. Am I missing any other differences that would account for the price difference?

[budz]

get a NORTHWOOD chip instead of a PRESCOTT which is what you're looking at. the PRESCOTT chips have heat temperature problems.

[rkr1958]

I'm not looking to upgrade. I'm currently running a P4 2.6-GHz w/800-MHz FSB. I was just browing the CPUs listed at tigerdirect.com and came across the above. I was just curious about the $700 price difference between two P4 3.4-GHz processors. That's all.

[rallynavvie]

Oh yeah, those 2MB cache versions are hella-more expensive to make. They aren't too much quicker than their 1MB cache counterparts though. They do make up for it with 3D design engines though, apparently they're the bees knees for that type of work. Why they wouldn't do it on an Opteron system that cost almost the same is beyond me though.

[ViRaL1]

Some of that money probably goes for the ® on the first chip.
(You wouldn't BELIEVE the legal fees).

As to the Opteron question. Most of the larger businesses / firms that can actually make use of those types of machines are hard pressed to make the switch from Intel to AMD. As much as I hate to say it, there is no such thing as 'incompatibilities' when it comes to Intel chips. They may have FLAWS but that's a different issue. If it doesn't run on Intel then, de facto it doesn't work, unless it was specifically designed to run only on another type of processor. To the victor go the spoils. I've put out a lot of AMD systems and people seem to be happy with them. I've never had one myself. Maybe when WXP64AMD goes gold I'll buy in.

[handyguy]

Going from 2.6 to 3.4 isn't much of a change.

I usually insist the processor is 2x as fast as the old one. Intel dropped their 4ghz chip.

I been using 2.4ghz for 2 years, I was hoping for 20ghz by now.