Hi. I just purchased a new cpu. I was running a 2000XP Athlon, 266bus and this new one is a 2500+ with 333 bus and 512k cache. I noticed there is an Athlon 2500+ with 128+256 cache also. My motherboard is the a7v8x-x ASUS and supports up to 400mhz bus. I have 333mhz pc2700 ram. So, should I notice a large performance increase with this new cpu? As it runs at same bus speed as ram? Thanks. Francis.

Yes you should see a major speed increase due to the Bartons 512k L2 cache. And since it operates at 333mhz, it should speed things up alot.

Well you'll notice something just because you just bought it. We're all like that to some degree. I got a new shirt last night and am now 15% better looking. That is, until I get used to it and realize its a lost cause. lol. The 2500+ is about equal to a 2400+, and that's on a good day. The difference between a 2000xp and a 2500xp is 1.67ghz vs 1.83ghz, which is very hard to notice. Then there is the fsb difference of 266mhz vs 333mhz, and the cache difference of 256kb vs 512kb. Put them all together and you have a fast-cpu vs a tad-faster-cpu. You'll notice the most difference if you already had a $200+ video card and the 2000+ was holding it back, so now with the 2500+ it can run full-out. Other than that, there is not much to notice.

Johnoh is the man! :-)

Well. Hoping it will be a good percentage quicker on the video recompression for video capture. Need to get myself a $200 card next. Christmas is coming!