Is my new Barton 2600+ locked? and a couple other ???'s

I had hoped to get into overclocking at this time of the year. I had to see if I had any money left over after my wedding last week.

I had planned to get a Nvidia Ultra 400 motherboard and a XP2500+ Barton to replace my Via KT333 motherboard and XP1600+ Palamino.

Unfortunately the new XP2500+ Bartons are locked. I figure that I better order right away or miss out on the overclocking fun. I also figure that maybe the XP2600+ retail Barton's at Newegg might be less popular thatn the XP2500+ Bartons and I would have a better chance at getting an unlocked one. I ordered the XP2600+ retail from Newegg on Tuesday, Nov. 18th and got it today Friday, Nov. 21st.

If the chip is locked I'll just keep my KT333 motherboard. If it is unlocked I'll either order the Shuttle AN35N-Ultra or the Biostar M7NCD PRO from Newegg.

Since I don't have a Nvidia motherboard, I can't just install the chip and find out. From what I read I think it is unlocked. The codes on the retail AMD XP2600+ Barton I got today are:
AXDA2600 KV4D
AGXDA0325UPMW
The chip is on a green board thingie.

I guess it is saying it was made in week 32... which from what I've read those chips are unlocked. Am I right?

If it is unlocked I also have these questions:
Also, if I install the heatsink and fan that comes with it, how hard will it be to remove all that thermal pad gunk when I decide to replace the heatsink with something better? How would I clean it off?

I have a heatsink and fan made by OCZ that newegg sold a year or two ago. I think it was one of the first Gladiators. It's a decent size, solid copper, and has a 80mm fan. Anyone know what I'm talking about? I wonder if that would work better than the retail, just afraid to fry the chip. It was orginally purchased to cool the 1.33 Thunderbird and I use it for my XP1600+.

Thanks!

Actually it's a week 25: 0325=year 2003, week 25

Also, if the chip were locked, then you would need a better motherboard than the KT333, because you'd want to be able to push the FSB higher.

Thanks. I guess that means it's unlocked, right?

Forget about the cleaning the processor off question. I found the answer in this article: "How to Remove the TIM from a Stock AMD Heatsink and CPU"

AGXDA0325UPMW

This right?

If it's a Barton, shouldn't the 2nd character be Q instead of G?

Sorry, you are right it is:

AQ XDA0325UPMW

Them letters are so little

You don't need a NF2 motherboard to overclock, you can up the multiplier to x12.5 (w/o any wire tricks) and the FSB to around 190 (depending on your RAM), so it should be plenty enough for your chip.

The 2600+ already have a 12.5x default multiplier, don't they?

Edit: oops, no, it's 11.5x, sorry.

Hey cool, you're right The Coolest! Thanks, now I can buy something else with that $60 I planned on spending for the Nvidia MB.

It runs just fine a the "12.5/13.0x" setting in the bios.

I can't get the FSB bus up to 190. I got some cheaper PC2700 Ram from CC. 1 gb for about $80 after rebates, so I'm not complaining if doesn't go much higher than it's designed to. I put it at 178, but system was unstable. I think I can set it to 172 which I think makes the chip about a 3000+.

I haven't played around with the voltage settings. I'll have to do some reading about that first.

Thanks!