The unbroken upgrade paths maintained from the days of the Pentium II are finally gone. No longer can bits and pieces of our old computer systems be cannibalized for the leap next level of computing. This is especially true with the finicky Pentium 4 processor - it demands nothing less than its own very special set of components.

Faced with growing interest in the move to the Pentium 4 platform, what do you need to be aware of if you are considering building your own system? To answer that question, lets take a look at the relatively new components the P4 requires and how they differ from what you probably have in you computer right now.

While it is expected that the Pentium 4 processor will gain majority in the latter half of this year, the future is never so easy to comply. Regardless, many of you may already be considering the switch from an older PIII or Athlon system to the latest Intel has to offer. In the past this kind of system level transition could be as simple as replacing the processor, or maybe the processor and the motherboard. Components were basically interchangeable between most recent generations of processors, and between AMD and Intel requirements for the most part. A power supply used in a Celeron 300 system is still perfectly fine for PIII 800MHz machine today. A heatsink capable of cooling a FC-PGA Pentium III processor is easily interchangeable with that of a socket A Athlon heatsink, and the list goes on.

However things have begun to change, and the introduction of the socket 423 architecture has ushered in many new component requirements. There are now several system components you'll absolutely have to figure in to the cost of building a new P4-based system. Of course if you decide to remain on an AMD platform, you can still enjoy a relatively inexpensive upgrade path to future AMD processors - thus far anyway.