Intel drops Pentium II prices again

Another month, another round of price cuts from microprocessor heavyweightIntel. The company announced sweeping price cuts on Monday that affect itsPentium II chips. Or, as the company said in a statement, "Continued strong acceptance of Pentium II processors enables Intel to aggressively ramp these products into higher volume price points." If its seems like Intel is cutting prices every month, not every quarter like they used to,that's because they are: Intel has divided its chips into market segmentsand one segment will cut a price cut every month.

And this month, it's the Pentium II. The high-end Pentium II 400 dropped 18%, from $589 to $482. The biggest drop, however, was the 350 MHz PentiumII, which dropped 29% to $299. Intel says the new pricing, which affectsall Pentium II chips, goes into effect today so system prices from majorvendors such as Dell and Compaq should be changed immediately.

By the way, mobile Pentium prices were also affected, with price cutsranging from 20-34%. The 266 MHz mobile Pentium dropped the most, from $241to $159. Celeron prices, except for the soon-to-be discontinued 300 MHzversion with no cache, stayed the same