Overall Conclusion

Without sounding like an AMD advert, this CPU is pretty special. The changes made to the core have made all the difference and the CPU now scales well at 0.13u. I'm the staunchest of Intel fans and I love my 2.26B, but I have a soft spot for AMD again after this. They aren't helping by wanting it back fairly soon so AMD, please don't be surprised if I suddenly forget where I put it.

I think Intel will counter with something to match it performance wise but Intel's price premium on their newest offerings make the XP2600+ look cheap. You'll be able to buy two XP2600+'s and have change for a McDonalds for the price of Intel's newest baby.

If you're an AMD fan, seek this CPU out. If you're an Intel fan, you've either got a cracking 2.26B under the hood or deep pockets to buy the new CPU that's about to debut.

Top marks to AMD for the engineering on the core to make it scale like it should have from day one.

Marks off for not moving to 166Mhz front side bus. That will happen soon, I guarantee it. But it's moot. You're an enthusiast if you are reading Hexus, unlock it and have a new 166Mhz bus Athlon XP faster than AMD can push it out of Fab 30 in Dresden.

Finally, a picture of the CPU I took this afternoon (a novelty if you follow my reviews). Packaging wise, it's the same as XP2200, no changes. Still the same 84mm² die size, still the same pin count and Socket A interface, still the same old turd brown colour we seem to get from AMD at Hexus (where's the green ones?).

Pro's

The speed
The overclocking (2.4Ghz on air, don't you usually need a miracle to go this high with AMD CPU's?)
Cheap compared to something this fast from Intel

Con's

Might take its time appearing in retail channels
Needs unlocking, AMD don't do it for you

Thanks

AMD for the CPU
Andy @ EPoX for the new board and the BIOS to correctly identify the CPU so the BIOS and Windows didn't think it was an "Unknow processor", spelling mistake included.

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I dont know if all the Bartons are now locked. from week 40 chips onwards. There has been lots of talk that the 2500 is, mainly becuase that is the best overclocker.

i *think* i have seen a xp2600 overclock just as well as a 2500. To about xp3200 standards (2.1-2.3ish)

remember overclocking is unique to the chip. Codes tend not to matter too much on Bartons as muhc as they did with tbreds/pally's.

If you can get an earlier that week 40 chip, then both the xp2600, and xp2500 should go about the same distance. But if they are locked then you wil have to up the fsb lots :)

Will

I thought overclocking the CPU was turing the FSB up? Can somone explian how i overclock and what it means please i am confluzzeled.

i dont really know much, but its about increasing voltages and fsb.

With my motherboard, i can overclock using the bios feature. It automatically changes the voltages etc in ratio when i specify the clock speed i want it at.

About the 2500 vs 2600, there not much in it, so i would go for the 2500 and save a little money

well overclocking is where you increase the speed from the stock level.

This can be done by increasing the multipler, which increases the overall raw speed of the processer. E.g.
12 (muitplier) x 166 (fsb) = 1992mhz.
12.5 (mult) x 166 (fsb) = 2075mhz

OR
by increasing the front side bus. The front side bus (fsb) increase the *bandwidth* so everything runs faster; CPU, RAM (as long as it is synced with the fsb…) GFX, and MOBO.

12 x 166 = 1992mhz
12 x 200 = 2400mhz (an overclock)

When increasing voltage BE CAREFULL! only do it by little bits if the temperature is not too high, it adds uber amounts of heat and stress to the processer. Only increase a little, it increasing it from 1.5 to 1.7 gives you 500mhz then it is prolly worth it, but if it gives you 10mhz its not. With modern processers it is prolly best not to go above 1.8 unless you are confident in your cooling i.e. water, vapo chill……etc (some people will prolly disagree.)

Make sure that you test your processer/RAM at everystage for stability.

have fun

watch those temps
Will

You should know clock speed = fsb x multi.

Intel have multi locked their processors for a long long time in an attempt to sell their more expensive cpu's. So the only way to overclock Intel cpu's is to up the fsb until you hit the max of either the motherboard, ram or cpu. As you have more things that can restrict your overclock, it means you usually cannot reach the max of the cpu.

AMD have not locked the tbred and barton AthlonXP's up until now. This means that, even if your motherboard can't handle high fsb's, you can obtain big overclocks by adjusting the multiplier.

Now which manufacturer do you think is getting higher percentage sales of their top-end processors?? Intel, of course, as it is almost forcing people to go for the higher cpus than the lower ones as overclocking the lower ones would need more expensive other components.

So AMD is trying to maximise sales of their higher end processors by locking the multiplier of the latest XP2500's. It is not clear whether or not all bartons are now locked, or just the xp2500+ so you may want to wait for a few days until the story is out in the open.

I think that covers it all :)

Except I got beat to it :(

Review: AMD Athlon XP2600

Overall Conclusion

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