With overclocking blood flowing through my veins, it's only natural for me to look for "value" first when purchasing a new upgrade. Years ago when overclocking first became popular, it was value, not performance that drove us to purchase certain CPUs. It was our way of boycotting Intel and their outrageously priced CPUs. The same still holds true today, except many of us have abandoned Intel all together and have looked to AMD for giving us the most bang for our buck.

     As of this date, AMD's top three are the Athlon XP 2400+, 2600+, and 2700+. The 2800+ is available, but only in very limited quantities and is still extremely hard to find. Looking at the prices of these CPUs, the 2400+ is the least expensive. In fact, nearly $100 cheaper than the next step up, the 2600+. Also, the 2400+ was the first AMD CPU to break the 2GHz mark and is the first in a new series of "reworked" Thoroughbred cores that run cooler, thus run more stable under extreme conditions. As an Overclocker, I also look for the first CPU in a new series. The reason for this is normally all CPUs in a new series are essentially the same cores. Therefore, the first CPU in a series will almost always overclock to match or even beat the flagship CPU. Again, it's all about getting the most for your hard earned dollar and the Athlon XP 2400+ looks to be the best choice right now. Let's take a look at AMD's 2400+ and see what is has to offer, not only as a "value" CPU, but also what it has to offer those of you who are looking for the "next big thing" in the world of overclocking.

Basic Specs

CPU: 2.0 GHz
Cache: 256K
BUS: 266MHz DDR (133MHz FSB)
Socket: Socket-A
Core: Thoroughbred Rev B