Im building a car PC useing a BookPC, and currently have a K6-2 450MHZ in it i believe, i know it goes up to 550MHZ, and then theres the K6-3 and the K6-2+, so basically its for regular computers apps, running windows XP, winamp, some kind of GPS software, and possibly voice recognition.
What is the Best Socket 7 CPU?
- Thread starter DarkManX
- Start date
My K6-2 500 with 192MB ram and 4MB AGP video card does all those things (except GPS and voice recognition, but I know for voice recognition its ok). I had a K6-2 450 but it was all f'ed up so I bought the 500 lol. Here is the one I bought at NewEgg NewEgg. I paid $23, but now they sell for $16.50. Keep us posted with your car PC because I am going to be doing this soon (prolly with my AMD K6-2 box lol).
The K6-3 is the fastest socket 7 CPU period. They were most common at 400 and450MHz speed but i can remember something about a 500MHz version, but I've never seen one. These CPUs had 256K L2 Cache on die running at full speed.
The K6-2+ is basically a cut down K6-3 with a smaller on die L2 cache, and it was notebook optimised. It is still faster than a K6-2 but slower than a K6-3. These came in speeds between 475MHz and 550MHz.
The K6-2 is the slowest of the series with no onboard L2 Cache meaning the motherboards L2 Cache is utilised running at the FSB speed (66 to 100MHz) These CPUs went from 300 to 500MHz
K6-3 > K6-2+ >K6-2
The K6-2+ is basically a cut down K6-3 with a smaller on die L2 cache, and it was notebook optimised. It is still faster than a K6-2 but slower than a K6-3. These came in speeds between 475MHz and 550MHz.
The K6-2 is the slowest of the series with no onboard L2 Cache meaning the motherboards L2 Cache is utilised running at the FSB speed (66 to 100MHz) These CPUs went from 300 to 500MHz
K6-3 > K6-2+ >K6-2
You may find your board may not boot a K6-2+ or a K6-3 without a BIOS upgrade, which may not be available.
From what I heard all the K6-3 chips were the same....they were just marked differently. I'm running a K6-3 333 at 450 without any problems. The K6-2+450 is very little slower than a K6-3 at the same speed. I'm running both chips on two identical machines.....not much difference. I had to upgrade the BIOS to get the + chip to boot.
From what I heard all the K6-3 chips were the same....they were just marked differently. I'm running a K6-3 333 at 450 without any problems. The K6-2+450 is very little slower than a K6-3 at the same speed. I'm running both chips on two identical machines.....not much difference. I had to upgrade the BIOS to get the + chip to boot.
I don't know about power ratings, but if heat output is an indication, I think the K6-3 @450 runs slightly hotter than the + chip at 450. Really not much difference though.
There was a k6-3+ cpu line I think I know definately there was a k6-2+. The + were designed on .18 and not the .25 process
Bluefront there was no 333 for the k6-3 since there is no timing to make the 33 in it.... I never oced my k6-3 400 although I never found out how to do so since I would have to adjust the jumpers manually and didn't think it was worth to try it higher than 100mhz FSB. I remember reading back in teh day you had to pop the cover off the k6-3 so that heat would escape faster etc.. My k6-3 400 is running with 458Mb of PC100 ram which is nice heh winxp loads in a decent amount of time.
Bluefront there was no 333 for the k6-3 since there is no timing to make the 33 in it.... I never oced my k6-3 400 although I never found out how to do so since I would have to adjust the jumpers manually and didn't think it was worth to try it higher than 100mhz FSB. I remember reading back in teh day you had to pop the cover off the k6-3 so that heat would escape faster etc.. My k6-3 400 is running with 458Mb of PC100 ram which is nice heh winxp loads in a decent amount of time.
After my 450MHz chip went on the fritz (i couldnt run it at 450 anymore! it would only run at 400), I looked around on a couple AMD-specific forums, and I found that the K6-2+ and the K6-3 are harder to find, making them more expensive. From what I read, I concluded (and so did a lot of people on the forums) that nowadays it really isn't worth the extra $$$ for the K6-2+ and K6-3, because it gets to the point were for a little extra $$$ you could have a Duron or early Athlon, unless you can find one for cheap. About it being detected with the mobo, I have a Asus P5A Rev 1.04 (said to be the best revision haha its the only thing I own that is the *best* like that lol), and I had BIOS 1007.A, and it said K6-2 497MHz, but when I upgraded to 1011 (which was sort of hard to find for some reason), it said K6-2 500MHz.
JC
Diamond Member
- Feb 1, 2000
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Likely, a K6-2/550 is the best you'll be able to run. The K6-IIIs weren't good overclockers, lucky if you could get a 450 up to 500. The K6-3+ was the best, but few SS7 mobos would support them, I think the + series was intended for mobile use, and as mentioned, they're harder to find and more expensive. I'd get that K6-2/500 from Newegg for $16.50 and clock it up to 550 or 600 if it would do it (they have the 2x=6x multiplier remap 
).
JC
).JC
The '+' CPU's were meant for laptops so a mobo with BIOS support as well being able to run at 2.0volts is required.
The '+' CPU's were also made on a newer (at the time) 0.18micron process so OC is a little better but I wouldn't really recommend OC'ing any K6 CPU as headroom was really low and youcan easily damage the CPU.
The '+' CPU's were also made on a newer (at the time) 0.18micron process so OC is a little better but I wouldn't really recommend OC'ing any K6 CPU as headroom was really low and youcan easily damage the CPU.
Will second Randum's no OC advice. I fried my k6-2 350@380 after about a year of operation. A hot summer day did it in.
Well, gnumantsc, there is/was a K63-333. I've got one....it's marked as such on the chip. Apparently rare, I've got one working in my I-Opener computer.
Did you think I'm pulling numbers out of the air? Heh....
Did you think I'm pulling numbers out of the air? Heh....
Au contraire, a picture is worth a thousand words. That specimen was donated by AMD itself. IIRC, Fry's Electronics came into a quantity of K6-III 333MHz a couple years ago and made a combo deal out of some surplus Super 7 boards.
There was also a K6-III 350, 366 and - of all things - a 380. Many of them were released to the mobile market (notebook/laptop), like the K6-II+ and III+.
The K6-II+ was not significantly slower than a K6-III at the same speed. The numbers I've seen were well under 10%. The major improvement from on-die L2 came between 0KB ~ 128KB of L2 cache, adding another 128KB of L2 didn't yield the same improvement.
The most comprehensive list of motherboards supporting the K6-II+ and K6-III+ processors that I'm aware of is Jan Steunebrink's Unofficial AMD K6-2+ / K6-III+ page.
Jan went out of his way and actually patched the latest BIOS for a ton of motherboards to add support for these processors when the company was unresponsive or unsympathetic. Where possible, Jan also patched the BIOS to remove the 32GB HDD limitation, and in some cases, improved even more things. An unbelievable effort which Jan shares with others at no charge.
Tiger Direct was for more than two years a reliable source for the K6-II+ 450MHz. I've purchased about a dozen of them from Tiger, more than half overclocked to 550MHz @ 2.1v with no problem. Unfortunately, Tiger Direct no longer carries any versions of the K6. There are probably some on Ebay or other auction sites, but I haven't looked.
yep...that's where my 333 came from. I also bought quite a few K62+450 from Tiger Direct. I still have a few left unused...good deal at the time.
My board does support 2.0V, as i said its going into a car, so theres no way i can upgrade it to a duron or anything else, I will keep this computer for now and upgrade to the new via Epia platform later on.
I got my K6-III+ 450 from Tiger Direct. I also use a modified BIOS from Jan on the ASUS P/I-P55T2P4 mobo. This is an Intel HX chipset mobo and is the Granddaddy of overclockable mobos. It started out life with a P133. I use the 2x -> 6x remap and a 75 MHz FSB to get to 450 MHz.
The best Socket 7 CPU is a Coppermine. Sort of....
There is/was an adapter to use a Slot 1 CPU in a Socket 7 board, mainly as a proof of concept to show that Intel was full of crap when they said the reason for Slot 1 was Socket 7 was limiting them. Using this plus a Slot 1 <-> Socket 370 slotket maybe you could get a 1.4GHz PIII in there. Probably not though, Socket 7 boards are generally expecting CPU power consumption of < 25W.
There is/was an adapter to use a Slot 1 CPU in a Socket 7 board, mainly as a proof of concept to show that Intel was full of crap when they said the reason for Slot 1 was Socket 7 was limiting them. Using this plus a Slot 1 <-> Socket 370 slotket maybe you could get a 1.4GHz PIII in there. Probably not though, Socket 7 boards are generally expecting CPU power consumption of < 25W.
That's a good price on the 550+. Tiger Direct carried the 450+ at $34.95 (IIRC) for a long time. Software and Stuff (Surplus Computers) has been a 'sporadic' source of these mobile K6's for a couple years. So...get one before they're gone, if anyone is interested.
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