For most of its life, AMD?s mobile AthlonXP has languished in near-obscurity.  With Intel continuing to dominate the laptop market, mobile XP reviews have been few and far between?until recently.  When news broke that the laptop-version of the AthlonXP was a fabulous overclocker, coverage of the part exploded.  Its now been tested and confirmed a half-dozen times or more as a great enthusiast part?which is why we?re doing something different.

Rather than focusing on overclocking (though we?ll let you know what we see), we chose to focus on underclocking the CPU.  With an eye towards building as quiet a system as possible, we tested the chip in multiple configurations from completely passive heatsinks to high-powered fans.  There aren?t any benchmarks here?those will come later with a comparison against the P4 and EPIA at similar volume levels?but what you will find is the most impressive AthlonXP thermal profile we?ve ever seen.

The Basics:

First thing to know?  Mobile AthlonXP is identical to AthlonXP except for three differences.  XP-M uses a 266 MHz FSB where AthlonXP (standard) uses a 333 MHz FSB, and runs at a slightly higher frequency (1866 MHz vs. 1833 for desktop AthlonXP 2500+.  Voltage is the last difference; whereas AthlonXP runs at 1.65 Vcore standard, the AthlonXP-M uses only 1.45v to pull the same trick.  That?s a 13% voltage drop, which isn?t too shabby.  Other than the above, the two parts are identical.

There?s a bit of a price premium, since an OEM Barton 2500+ costs $75 and an OEM XP-M (also 2500+) is $97, but that?s not a bad price, period.  The XP-M 2400+ is available for just $75, if you want something price-comparable.  This chip operates at 1.8 GHz.

The Mobile AthlonXP does support PowerNow!, but since most motherboards (at least desktop boards) don?t, its not much of a feature.)  Both AthlonXP-M?s we received from NewEgg are built on AMD?s latest T-bred stepping (green coloring, visible circuitry), but contrary to early reports that this new stepping disabled multiplier unlocks, our CPU?s were fully adjustable.

 

next >

---

• Underclocking: Theory and Practice (1 of 3)
• The Coolers, Passive Cooling Tests (2 of 3)
• Active Cooling Tests, Conclusion (3 of 3)