Intel Pentium III-500 Review

Written: July 14, 1999
Written by: Moto®
Price: $450 - $499US ESP
PIII-500 supplied by: AMK Services

A few months back I took a look at the "slowest" of the Intel Pentium III, the PIII-450. Now it's time to take a look at the CPU used for Project 620, the PIII-500. Priced at nearly 2 times as much as the PIII-450 one has to wonder if that 50 extra Mhz is worth it? For the power user who must have the fastest of everything, it was. However the PIII-500 is no longer the fastest Pentium III in Intel family. Power users would go for the PIII-550 and value buyers would take the PIII-450. So where does this leave the PIII-500? The one that gets the least attention of course.

The Intel Pentium III-500 is for all intents and purpose exactly the same as my Pentium III-450. Both units look the same and uses the same 4ns cache ram. However when you buy a PIII-500 you can be 100% sure you'll be getting a CPU with 4ns L2 cache. You can't say that with a PIII-450. I was lucky that my PIII-450 came with 4ns cache. Some are shipped with 4.5ns cache. You would only be concern about this if you plan to overclock your CPU.

The PIII-500 I had for testing is a retail unit, made in Malaysia. It carries the following specs:

• Product Code: BX80525U800512ESL3CD
• FPO/Batch #: 99101075
• MM #: 821843
• Pack Date: 03/29/99

The CPU is packaged using the SECC2 form factor. This has a plastic backplate and an open front face. The thermal plate that is used in SECC cartridges like the old Pentium II is no longer there. This allows the heatsink to make direct contact with the CPU core, making for better cooling.

The heatsink looks just like the heatsinks used in the retail Celerons but it's held in place by 4 one way plastic pins. The stock heatsink has 13 fins and a weak 8CFM fan. I guess this is better than the first shipping Pentium III heatsinks. Those didn't even come with a fan!

The CPU core is no longer capped with a metal slug. The heart of this processor is now clearly visible. It's just 1 centimeter across. The new Organic Land Grid Array on which this processor is based on runs much cooler than the Plastic Land Grid Array that is used by older Pentium II's and Celeron's. The Pentium III-500 is built on the .25 micron process and uses 2 volts of power, the same as the Pentium II's and Celeron's.

The main difference between the Pentium III and PIIs/Celerons is the new SSE instruction set. This is a set of 70 new instructions to enhance your 3D gaming and net surfing experience. So far there are no games and very few applications that takes advantage of SSE. Quake 3 will be among the first game to use the instructions. id software, makers of Quake 3, claims that when SSE is used, it can provide up to 25% performance increase in the game.

The Pentium III-500 also comes with Intel® Processor Serial Number, an electronic number added to every Pentium III processor. Some consider this an invasion of privacy because it can be used to track your net surfing and buying habits. Luckily you have the option of turn off the electronic number.

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