The Celeron System
The choice of a motherboard was a little tougher. Intel would dearly love for Celeron users to use motherboards based on the 440EX chipset. The problem is that the 440EX can only run at 66MHz and only supports three PCI slots. Even if you never plan to overclock your system, the 440EX seriously reduces your flexibility. A 440BX-based board will at least let you move to a fast Pentium II someday - and even Katmai. True, you still must remove the motherboard to swap the CPU support bracket, but you don't have to do a full upgrade.
Then, there's the socket 370 vs. slot 1 problem. The very latest Celerons only come in socket 370 format. What I recommend is to get a socket 370 to slot one adapter (a slotket). You can then get a socket 370 Celeron, use it in a slot one motherboard, and upgrade to a PIII at a later date.
Ultimately, I went with the Abit BX6 rev 2.0 motherboard. The BX6/2 has five PCI slots, one AGP slot, a pair of ISA slots (one ISA/PCI pair is shared), and four DIMM slots for memory expansion. The BX6/2 uses the Intel 440BX chipset and has Abit's innovative Softmenu system for setting CPU speed. Note that if you get the BX6/2, you may have to upgrade the BIOS for it to recognize the faster Celeron CPUs.
The Abit system came up like a charm, and with the latest BIOS, recognized the 433MHz Celeron-A. Everything else in the system installed like a charm. Windows 98 installed without a hitch. The Celeron 433 itself cost $135 at the time of purchase.
Overall Cost
Since we were using a 433MHz Celeron, the cost was naturally a bit higher. Even so, the total price came in at $1,177 - less than $100 more than the K6-2 system, but faster in applications that are not K6-2 enhanced. Of course, you must add about $120 for the price of a full version of Windows 98.
Next: The Bottom Line
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