1) Well, let me talk about the
best improvement first, the change in the jumper locations. In the
PL-PRO/MMX, the voltages were changed with a series of dip switches
located below the CPU. This location meant that every time you wanted
to change a jumper you needed to take the whole PL-PRO/MMX apart to get
to the dip switches. This was not a big problem, since most users
will never have to take their PL-PRO/MMX apart, however for those of us
who want to try and overclock a CPU it made things difficult. In
fact, I never even tried to overclock my PL-PRO/MMX because of this.
Now the PL-PRO/MMX Plus! is so much nicer, the voltages are controlled
by the JP1 and JP2 jumpers; these are easily accessible without having
to take anything apart. In fact, if you have enough room in your
case you may not even have to remove the PL-PRO/MMX Plus! in order to change
a jumper. I was able to overclock my AMD K6-2 very easily by changing
one jumper, without even having to remove the PL-PRO/MMX Plus! from the
ziff socket.
This is a major improvement over the PL-PRO/MMX, as it was one of the
most common complaints about the PL-PRO/MMX. I thank PowerLeap for
listening to its customers.
So what else does the PL-PRO/MMX Plus! have that is different from the
PL-PRO/MMX?
2) The PL-PRO/MMX Plus! has an automatic overheat
handler. The way it works is, if the CPU temperature goes high enough
(such as would happen if the fan were to stop working), the PL-Pro/MMX
Plus! senses it and slows down the CPU to about half its original
speed. This reduces heat and allows the system to continue running.
When the temperature goes down far enough, the sensor restores the CPU
speed to normal again, and if the temp gets too hot it will alert you.
This new feature is accomplished through the new control panel, which
detects the CPU slow-down (not the heat, actually), that has important
features designed just for the PL-PRO/MMX Plus! This important
feature helps protect your investment, especially if you are overclocking
your CPU. You can set the PL-PRO/MMX Plus! to alert you of
high temperatures in one of the following ways:
-
Play a wave file - This can be any wave file you select; it comes
with one.
-
Display a message - This is simply a window that pops up over
whatever application you are using in order to alert you of high
temperature on your CPU.
-
Make a phone call - Yes, it even lets your computer dial a
number. I have not used or tested this option, but it is interesting.
-
Activate Rain - This is a program that cools the CPU through
a software instructions set in the CPU, basically it allows the CPU to
rest when it is not in use, allowing the CPU to run cool.
-
Run a program - This can be anything, the default is the shutdown.exe
file so your computer will shut off.
3) PowerLeap has also CPU Cooling Software as I mentioned
above; Rain is a neat utility that helps keep your CPU cool. This can be
set to run all the time or it can be set to run only when the CPU gets
hot.
4) Finally, it's optimized for the forthcoming K6-3.
The K6-3 will be coming out in Q498. This chip will be a K6-2 with
a 256k L2 cache right on the CPU, allowing the L2 cache to transfer the
data at the the systems full clock speed.
The K6-3 will also be valuable for those of us who have Packard Bell
systems without L2 cache; this additional L2 cache should be able to deliver
performance increases of 40%. We will have to wait and see if the
AMD K6-3 delivers all that is promised.