Slot A vs. Socket A T-Bird

[KaMiKaZi]

I'm just wondering, what exactly is the difference between the 2? Is one more overclockable? I know a Slot chip can be cooled on both sides, but...

[JZL]

Aside from the fact there aren't as many mobo's that handle Slot A tbirds (which may mean ltd. upgrade ability), they're usually more expensive and most of the ones available now are OEM. Other than the OEM thing maybe affecting clockability I couldn't say there.

[badgers]

this is the content of an email I recieved from AMD regarding a similar question.
I do a lot of CAD work. I had asked for a recommendation regading the best performing processor for CAD programs.
The answer reminds me of the Katmi and coppermine situation.
HTH


Hi sir,

There are two different types of Athlons: Slot A Athlon and Scoket A Athlon (Thunderbird). The only difference between the two Athlons is the L2 cache. The Slot A Athlon has 512k of off-die cache which runs at half the the speed of the CPU while the Socket A Athlon has 256K of on-die cache which runs at the same speed of the CPU. The Socket A Athlon has better performance even though the amount of the L2 cache is less than the other's. Therefore, I would highly recommend the use of the Socket A Athlon (Thunderbird) for CAD work.

Regards,

AMD
TSC

[proze]

go with the socket. the slot a's are a rapidly dying, if not mostly dead line of boards and processors, and it wouldn't be wise to buy one now. as far as i know the slot a athlons are harder to cool properly as well as you have to cool the off-die cache too.

[Murphy]

proze (Feb 18, 2001 12:46 a.m.):
go with the socket. the slot a's are a rapidly dying, if not mostly dead line of boards and processors, and it wouldn't be wise to buy one now. as far as i know the slot a athlons are harder to cool properly as well as you have to cool the off-die cache too.

I agree it's not wise to buy a slot-A anymore these days, but if you have one, you can still have a lot of pleasure from it. See my system specs. at the signature, I like it! So they aren't dying (yet). As for the cooling, just mind the core architecture when you buy a new CPU. Go with the 0.18 micron processed ones, they run cooler and overclock better. I still have an 500 going, maybe I pick up a 700 0.18 if I can make a deal out of it. No new socket mobos for me until palomino's out and settled :D !

Proze, my compliments for your work on the duron, I like it, but I'm just into the slot-A bizz and wait...