Taken from -> http://www.hardware.fr/news/lire/27-11-2003/#6194





As you can see from the ID Plate, the numbers/letters have been done by hand.

Here are the modifications done to the chip.

1. Two L2 bridges modified to change the 64K of L2 into 256k.
2. Two L3 bridges modified to change multiplier from 10.5 to 12.5.
3. One L11 bridge modified to change VCore from 1.5 to 1.6.
4. One L12 bridge modified to change FSB from 133(266) to 166(333).

In other words, keep away from bargains on 2600+ TBreds CPUs. Stick to Barton CPUs if possible. BTW, these rebadged CPUs have been spotted in Europe so far.

nvr realised how much trouble ppl go through to make a few extra bucks, sorry about you being gypped and thanks for the link, it helped me touch up on my french

Damn man.. so esentially is that Duron being OCed?

Let the buyer beware.....especially on the 'net'. It won't be the first scam like this and it certainly won't be the last.

Yup, it's being overclocked, almost to its limits. These Durons are very popular as they can reach 2.3GHZ, run very cool & cost almost less then a large fry at McDonald's.

Gotta give them a little credit. I love the Hand written ID plate.

How classy is that. The things people will do for money.

Very interesting thread. I enjoyed it!

Is it as good as good as a 2600+ Tbred?

If it really has been modded with 256k cache and a 12.5 multiplier....

how can they mod it to have that extra cache?

They have 256kB cache on die. It's just cheaper to disable it by cutting a couple of bridges than removing it completely.

So uh.. they take a duron and slap a die on there that contains 256kb worth of cache

Yeah you'd think AMD wouldnt produce it with that on there... http://www.dvhardware.net/article1861.html Talks about modding the duron to have the extra 256kb cache..its toward the end..

It's a leftover stock of Tbreds CPUs with 3/4 of the cache disabled. A bit like CuMine Celerons which were CuMine P3s with half the cache disabled.

also kinda like celerons that are 400mhz pentium4 that have 3/4 cache cut

It is common and makes economic sense. A lot of the chips that come out of fab may not function properly with 256kb cache because some of it is defective, but by disabling a lot of it they could get a chip that works just fine. That is why enabling the l2 cache not always works.

It's the same way that you have different clock speeds with the same process... some are stable at, say, 2200mhz, but some might fail that speed, but at 2000mhz are just fine... so they are sold at 2000mhz instead, rather than being thrown out.