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Subject: Re: CPU speed vs. L2 Cache Speed
Name:
 ludicrous
Date: 1/15/2004 9:32:53 AM (GMT-7)
IP Address: 24.8.214.142
In Reply to: CPU speed vs. L2 Cache Speed posted by
Jeff
Message:
The L2 cache serves as a small temporary data repository between the CPU and the main system memory. Generally speaking, more L2 cache is better than less, and full-speed/on-die L2 cache is better than off-die. And less on-die is usually better than more off-die (e.g. a Coppermine PIII with 256kB on-die cache will generally outperform a 512kB off-die cache Katmai PIII at the same clock speed).
But where did you find that your PIII-450's L2 cache is running at full-clock? AFAIK the SL35D is a Katmai just like the 550 you're looking at, so it should be 450/2=225MHz. Full-speed L2 cache chips prior to the Coppermines were only present on the PIII-Xeon CPUs.
With hardware that old, you're not going to see a huge performance difference for gaining 100MHz, but if you can get the 550 part for cheap...
The only other option you may have -- unlikely given your mainboard's limitations but I'll bring it up just in case -- is to overclock the 450 using 133MHz bus (=600MHz CPU speed). Many of the SL35D parts would run a stable 600 using a core voltage in the range of 2.0-2.2V. Of course, you need good CPU cooling to do this.
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