K6-2 vs K6-2+ vs K6 III+

[BrianL]

I am trying to upgrade an old socket 7 - 233 Mhz ASUS mobo to run at 500 Mhz and was looking at the K6-2+ and K6 III+ CPU chips because of their low power requirements. I had discounted the K6-2 chip as it drew too much power for the regulator circuit. In looking at the AMD spec sheets, if I am reading it correctly, the K6-2 chips come in different varities, 300 Mhz- 450 Mhz which can draw up to 29 watts and the 500 - 550 Mhz which draw only 20 watts(?) As this is ~ what the old 233 MHZ MMX chip drew (at higher voltage), it would also appear to be suitable to use for upgrade on this board and a lot easier to get.

My question is, why do people only talk of upgrading with the K6-2+ and K6 III+ and never mention the K6-2 500 if the power consumption levels are similar. Is it only because the mobile chips have onboard L2 cache and the K6-2 doesn't and is therefore a better replacement? The 2.2V would be easier to obtain than the 2.0V as well on my old board.

Any opinions would be helpful

 

[Guest]

Yes, the larger L2 cache is very important. Especially if, like me, your socket 7 board is running at 75MHz or lower. The more you don't have to access that slow memory the better. So go for the K6-III+ if you can. Don't worry too much about the voltage. I've been running mine at 2.1V (instead of the recommended 2.0V) with no problems.

I've been trying unsuccessfully for days to try and get my sound card to work at 83Mhz with no luck :-(