AMD Athlon 700 socket: Socket 462

What the Athlon 700 is

The AMD Athlon 700 is a 700 MHz single-core desktop processor from June 2000. It runs one K7 Thunderbird core at 700 MHz with no turbo, so 1 core gives 1 thread. Cache is 256 KB of full-speed on-die L2 with 128 KB of L1 on a 180 nm process. Power is rated at 40 W in a Socket A ceramic PGA package on a 200 MT/s EV6 bus with a 7x multiplier at 1.75 V.

A clean 7x integer ratio on the 100 MHz clock gives the 700 steady timing on first boards, which is why it became a common mainstream pick between the 650 and 750. AMD launched the Socket A 700 on June 5, 2000. The chip supports MMX and Enhanced 3DNow.

Mainstream clocks with a full cache suit Socket A home towers with SDRAM and AGP graphics. The 40 W envelope keeps stock coolers small. That is why the 700 shipped in mainstream desktops.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The 700 fits Socket A mainstream desktops with Thunderbird support. It needs a 462-pin board with a 200 MT/s bus and a BIOS that lists Athlon 700. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Mainstream SDRAM towers are the natural match. Boards listing Athlon 700 accept the chip with a 40 W cooler.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory is SDRAM through the board chipset, matched to the board sockets. The CPU has no memory controller. Mainstream KT133 boards commonly run PC100 and PC133 pairs.

A 200 MT/s EV6 bus ties the CPU to the chipset, while AGP and PCI hang off the chipset. No PCIe lanes originate on the die. Cooling uses the Socket 462 lug clip with a 40 W cooler.

Upgrade paths

On the same socket, a move to an Athlon 750 keeps the board for 50 MHz more at 43 W. An Athlon 650 drops 50 MHz at 38 W. A Duron 700 with 64 KB cache is a cooler budget option.

A move to Athlon XP needs 266 MT/s paths. The Socket 462 page lists the range for planning.