Intel"s flagship desktop processor, the 3.6GHz Pentium 4 560, is in very short supply, an Intel spokesman confirmed. The chip came out in June, along with the company"s latest desktop chipsets, the 915 Express and 925 Express.
Dell removed the chip as an option on its Dimension 8400 desktop last week, a Dell representative said, leaving the 3.4GHz Pentium 4 550 as the highest-performance processor available on the system. Dell continues to offer the 3.6GHz 560 chip on its Dimension XPS gaming desktop. However, lead times for a system configured with the chip have stretched to around 45 days, the representative said. Meanwhile, a version of the desktop with a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 550 or a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor has a lead time of five days.