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Though the market for dual-core processors has seen some rapid development this year with regard to price drops and VFM status, this trend has not reflected in budget dual-core processors. Since the last time we featured this roundup, prices have not dropped much – the only things to change were the processor and a couple of accessories. Keeping this in mind, we shall unveil the latest avatar of our sub-Rs 25,000 machine. As usual, wherever prices/specs have remained unchanged, we have simply carried the products forward.

CPU:Intel E2180

The E2180 is similar to the E2140 that we used in our earlier roundup. The only difference is the clock speed – it runs at 2GHz. Other specifications are similar to the previous model: it’s based on a 65nm process, offers 1MB L2 cache and runs at a FSB of 800MHz. Like all its previous predecessors, this processor is also 64-bit capable, and at its cost is the perfect base of our budget system.

Motherboard: Zotac NF610i

Our first choice had been to retain the board we had used previously – the Biostar. However, on checking up, we found that most retailers were no longer stocking the board. Hence began the search for a replacement. Luckily we didn’t need to look far. The answer lay in Zotac’s NF610i board. For those who have not heard the name, Zotac is a long-time PC-based OEM company that has recently entered India. Since their entry they have introduced a bunch of Nvidia-based products, in both GPUs and motherboards.

We at Tech2 have been using their products and found them to be top-notch, easily rivaling products from other manufacturers – and at competitive price points. The NF610i is based on Nvidia’s GeForce 7050 / nForce 610i chipset, offers full support for Intel’s C2D processors, and comes with a single PCIe 16x slot, 1 PCIe x1 slot, 8 USB slots, 2 PCI slots, and 4 SATA 2 (3.0 GB) slots along with a single IDE connector.

RAM: Kingston DDR2 (2x1GB)

Kingston is a well-known brand, offering significant value for money products. We have chosen one of their budget RAM sticks in a 2GB package. This way if your budget permits, its possible to upgrade to 4 GB of system memory at a later date and extend the life of your PC.

In an effort to regain market share that its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices has aggressively taken in the past year, Intel Corp.'s chief technology officer said Friday that the chip giant will start shipping microprocessors with four cores inside late this year.

To show the product is well on its way, Intel CTO Justin Rattner demonstrated a working server computer with a pair of the new microprocessors, code-named Clovertown.

The new chip will join Intel's line of server chips called Xeon, which has generated billions of dollars' worth of revenue for the Santa Clara company. That business, though, has been under pressure since Sunnyvale's AMD entered the segment with its microprocessor called the Opteron.

Chips with two cores have been the latest rage, with both Intel and AMD selling those microprocessors as their high-end offering. Apple Computer Inc.'s new iMac, which started selling last month, uses the dual-core chip.

Having multiple cores inside a chip is like having more than one engine under the hood of a car. The design allows chipmakers to keep improving performance of the microprocessor while holding in check the amount of electricity required to power it.

Not to be outdone, Randy Allen, AMD's corporate vice president of server and workstation division, said Friday that his firm is working its own quad-core processor for release next year.

Rattner said Intel's new chip will be faster than the Xeon server chips but use less electricity. He didn't elaborate on the new chip, saying those specifics will be made available at the chipmaker's developer forum in San Francisco next month.

Intel still commands the lion's share of the lower-end server computer market. AMD, it only major competitor, has been making strides with its Opteron microprocessors since they came out in April 2003.

According to data from Mercury Research, AMD's Opteron had 16.4 percent of the market in the most recent quarter. Intel's Xeon product line still leads by a wide margin.

AMD's gains are significant, considering its market share was virtually none only a year ago, said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Gartner, a market research firm.

"Intel doesn't normally talk about this stuff, much less show it, this early," Reynolds said. "But with AMD's (rise) in the market, they want to make sure they don't leave any gaps for AMD to exploit. It's important from a credibility standpoint."

Apjit Walia, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, agreed, noting that AMD is enjoying at least the perception that its products are better than Intel's chips.