We managed to get some news about the upcoming price drops, which should touch upon Intel Pentium 4 processors. According the latest data the next price reduction is expected to take place on February 23. The table below will give you a better idea of what you could expect:

CPU model	Current Price	Price after Feb. 23	Price Reduction
Pentium 4 3.06GHz	$637	$589	7.4%
Pentium 4 2.8GHz	$401	$375	6.5%
Pentium 4 2.6GHz/2.66GHz	$305	$241	21%
Pentium 4 2.5GHz/2.53GHz	$243	$193	21%
Pentium 4 2.4GHz	$193	$163	15.5%
Pentium 4 2.26GHz/2.2GHz	$193	$163	15.5%

As you see from this table, the price reduction will not be very tangible and only the 2.5-2.6GHz models will get considerably cheaper. There is nothing to be surprised with, actually. The matter is that this price reduction will not be stimulated by the new processor announcements.

The new Intel CPUs will be out only in early April. But there will be a lot of them launched at a time: five new models with 800MHz bus and HyperThreading technology support. At launch Intel will carry out another price reduction, which will lead to the following changes in the company CPU price-list:

CPU model	800MHz QPB HyperThreading Support	533MHz QPB No HyperThreading Support
Pentium 4 3.2GHz	$637
Pentium 4 3GHz/3.06GHz	$417	$401
Pentium 4 2.8GHz	$278	$262
Pentium 4 2.6GHz/2.66GHz	$218	$193
Pentium 4 2.4GHz	$178	$163

This way, you will have to pay around $16-$25 extra for the opportunity to get a CPU supporting HyperThreading technology and 800MHz bus. Moreover, Intel made sure that the customers buying new i865 and i875 based mainboards could take use all the new advantages of the boards without necessarily buying super-expensive Intel processors. The slowest Pentium 4 with 800MHz bus and HyperThreading support will sell at less than $200.