A Solution for Computers without L2 cache

You are viewing a page from Ray's Packard Bell Web Site
Almost Everything You Need to Know About Your Packard Bell Computer

The AMD K6-III A Solution

for Computers Without L2 cache

Many computers have been sold without cache on the motherboard and Pakard Bell systems are one of the major brands that have sold systems this way. Unfortunatly most these systems do not allow L2 cache to be added. This has left these systems running at less than their full potential, some have claimed upto a 40% performance increase can be achieved by simply adding L2 cache to your system.

I discovered the importance of L2 cache when I was benchmarking my new Platinum I back in 1995. I was getting lower than expected results and could not figure out why. The benchmarks I ran on my computer continually told me that my Pentium 133 was performing at the same level as a Pentium 90. I even called Packard Bell to find out why my system had such low performance. The PB technicians could not answer my question either because they were uninformed or they could not admit the fact the no L2 cache makes a big performance loss.

Well in my case I had a simple solution; I was fortunate enough to have one of the few Packard Bell systems with a COAST Socket which allowed the addition of L2 cache into my PB 640 motherboard. My Norton Utilities benchmarks went from a 19 to a 30.8; this was a dramatic increase. Since that time I have recommended that anyone with a PB 640 motherboard add L2 cache in their next upgrade.

Others were not as lucky; I was constantly getting questions like "Can I add L2 cache to my motherboard?" or "Can I solder cache chips to my motherboard?". I even received one email from a daring individual giving instruction on how to solder L2 cache to a PB 680 motherboard, but unfortunately this type of upgrade was strictly for those with some type electrical engineering experience.

Well now I have great news! Any PB owner with a socket 7 or socket 5 may be able to add that extra L2 cache you always wanted to your motherboard. Even better than that, because of the way the L2 cache is added, it will perform much faster than L2 cache found on the motherboard.

For those of you with L2 cache on your motherboard you can use the same method to add a L3 cache to your system.

Ok, so what is it? How do we do it?
The answer is to upgrade your system with a AMD K6-III. The L2 cache is in the CPU (sytems that have L2 cache, your L2 becomes the L3 cache). The AMD K6-3 processor has the L2 cache running at 400 MHz and the performance looks amazing. I was very happy to see how well a system without L2 cache performed.

Having cache on the motherboard is always preferred since it does add an extra boost of power, but for those of you that are cache less I think you will be happy with speed increase this this upgrade will give you.

There is a downside, some systems have a BIOS that does not support AMD processors. In these cases you will need to purchase a BIOS upgrade. Please see my Mr. BIOS review for information on third party BIOS upgrades.

Also, some motherboards will not support the 6.0x mulitplier or the CPU voltages required by the 400 MHz AMD K6-III. This problem is easily solved with the addition of a PowerLeap adapter. Please read my reviews of this amazing product.

Please read more about Powerleap PL-ProMMX AMD K6-III/400 adapter:

Read my "400 MHz AMD K6-2 Vs. AMD K6-III" review to see how well the K6-3 performs.
What is a Powerleap Adapter Click here to find out.
"Powerleap PL-ProMMX AMD K6-III/400 Adapter"
Back to my Upgrades and Reviews Section