text: what is the highest computer speed available to the public?   that depends on which processor you are talking about.  the pentium 4 tops out at 3.8ghz, the pentium d tops out at 3.46ghz but the pentium d is dual core and 64-bit.  the fastest amd processor on the market is the athlon fx-60 64-bit dual core processor which tops out at 2.8ghz but unlike the intel pentium d the athlon fx-60 has two full 64-bit cores operating at 2.8ghz.  the intel pentium d on the other hand is composed of two 32-bit cores with a bridge to act as a 64-bit processor.  the amd chip in a word crushes intel.  so to answer your question the fastest consumer processor at this moment is the athlon 64 fx-60.  check out the benchmarks at tomshardware, http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/page24.html