Who would have imagined this three years ago: Intel says good-bye to Socket 7 and declares Slot 1 to be the next best thing since sliced bread. The Pentium MMX 233 was Intel's last Socket 7 processor. Nevertheless, Socket 7 survived as a processor basis up to now, and with a little bit of overclocking, currently the fastest CPU even reaches 600 MHz. In view of this comparatively old technology it is a sensational result.

The old Socket 7 platform receives a last performance boost now. The K6-2+ is the processor in AMD's portfolio that is capable of increasing the performance in numerous older PC systems. The highlight of this new CPU: It has an integrated L2 cache, and is available with a clock frequency of 550 MHz.

We thoroughly tested the 500 MHz version, and are positively surprised by the performance it offers. A system that was upgraded with this processor achieves the performance of a modern PC, and it is definitely ready for current applications as well as 3D games.