Intel Pentium D Presler CPUs - Great CPU but fading fast from the marketplace.

Pentium D 920 2.8GHz (Presler dual core @ 65nm), 800MHz front side bus, 2x2M L2 cache
- These are commonly found around $80-110 and are strong contenders for that midrange priced gamer or power user PC. You will find these can handle the tasks you throw at it with ease. Watching a DVD while ripping a CD, with a game going on your other monitor is a cinch with enough system RAM.

Pentium D 925 3.0GHz (Presler dual core @ 65nm), 800MHz front side bus, 2x2M L2 cache
- These are priced around the same $80-100 range as the Pentium D 920, but sell out first since they are faster than the Pentium D 920. At 3.0GHz you will start to need a good cooling fan for it. The factory Intel heat sink performs to standard, but the cooler you run your CPU, the longer it will last. If you find one of these, think about a Zalman, Thermaltake, or another after market CPU fan to keep it running nice and cool. It is also recommend to have a case with a side vent directly over the CPU to feed fresh air directly to the cooling fan.

Pentium D 950 3.4GHz (Presler dual core @ 65nm), 800MHz front side bus, 2x2M L2 cache
- These are priced a bit higher around $150-240 and you start to get into the price ranges of the Core 2 Duo and even the lower end Core 2 Quad CPUs. At this point upgrading brand new to one of these means you are limited by either the budget you are working with or are limited in motherboard options. This is not a weak chip by any standards, its merely starting to compete with the latest and greatest Intel CPUs that outperform it.

Multitasking, gaming, professional office work, and the advanced power users will enjoy this CPU. While most graphic designers will want a Core 2 Duo or Xeon processor, paired with a powerful video card, these Pentium D Presler Dual core CPUs get the job done.

Example of a good Pentium D 950 system that can handle gaming and still stay under $1000 would be:
Pentium D 950 w/ 4gb of at least DDR2 667 RAM. (can use up to DDR2-800 RAM)
Motherboard using a chip set that best handles your graphics choice.
Current generation graphics card with 512 mb or more video RAM that matches your motherboard.
Sata 2 Hard Drive @ 3.0b/s
Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Card

Notice how we max out 4gb of ram and focus on a 512mb video card. With those two items the Pentium D 950 will handle the rest. This exact system can be upgraded if the right motherboard is chosen simply by upgrading just the CPU a year later for something more powerful which uses a 1066MHz front side bus.