Dell to stop selling Pentium PCs

Dell Computer is dropping the venerable Pentium chip from its Dimension PC line and shifting to Pentium II processors while lowering prices.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

April 21, 1998 2:30 p.m. PT

Dell Computer is shifting its entire Dimension line to Pentium II processors and lowering prices, the company said today.

Beginning in May, Dell will offer only Intel?s Pentium II processors in its Dimension desktop PCs worldwide.

This mirrors a recent announcement from Intel which said that the chip giant has ceased "wafer starts" on the Pentium processor. In other words, Intel has stopped devoting production lines to building Pentium processors for desktop computers and shifted capacity to the Pentium II.

Intel continues to make Pentium processors for notebook PCs.

"Today's announcement signals the removal of Intel's older Pentium processors from Dell's Dimension offerings," according to a prepared statement. "The Dell Dimension transition to Pentium II processors is already complete in Europe and Japan."

Market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that 73 percent of desktop and notebook PCs will be sold with the Pentium II by the fourth quarter of this year, Dell said.

Dell also announced lower prices on Pentium II systems. A Dell Dimension XPS PC with a Pentium II processor now starts at $1,499. Systems at this price level include a 233-MHz Intel Pentium II processor, 32MB of memory, a 4.3GB hard drive, a 15-inch monitor, and a CD-ROM drive.