Labs

AMD's budget chip range, the Duron, seems to have stuck at 1.3GHz. That's not a problem, though: older Athlon XP chips such as the 1800+ are now available at knock-down prices. The 1800+ has 256K of Level 2 cache (super-fast memory that's fitted on the processor itself), and a 266MHz front-side bus. That's a much lower spec than the latest Athlons, but unless you want to play the latest games, the Athlon XP 1800+ is more than enough for your needs. Better still, this processor isn't just cheaper than Intel's budget Celeron chip - it's faster, too.