Pentium Socket 7 Computer Processor

Pentium Socket 7 Computer Processor

Many original white box machines from the 1990s had Socket 7 motherboards with accommodating processors. The Socket 7 processor socket is the original standard of Intel x86 processors that came out in 1995 and has the benefit of being backward compatible with older Socket 5 processors if desired. Learn more about this piece of equipment to help you choose the right one for you.

The Socket 7 market was diverse and also contained processors from manufacturers that were not affiliated with Intel. The Socket 7 was the only one at the time that supported a range of different CPUs and operating speeds. The P5 line of Pentium processors was the first provider of the socket, but other brands came along to offer the x86 computing chip. Processors that are compatible also include the AMD K5 and K6 series, Cyrix 6x86 and 6x86MX chips, IDT WinChips, Pentium MMX, Rise Technology mP6, some Geode chips, and legacy Socket 5 products.

Over time, the platform produced by Intel became outdated and need replacing, so AMD had developed the Super Socket 7 standard to update the technology of the platform. A Super Socket 7 machine gave users the ability to use AGP video cards. The AMD K6-2 and K6-III were the processors that were used on this platform. This platform was released prior to the launch of their Athlon line of chips.

Although technically possible with some tweaking, these machines will be impacted when paired with operating systems made after Window XP. However, these work well with Windows 95, 98se, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

The ability to overclock a processor depends on if the options are present in the motherboards firmware. In many cases, custom built computers will have motherboards with overclocking abilities. Overclocking may require the need to increase the voltage, FSB (front side bus) speeds, and RAM frequency. It should be noted that overclocking may significantly increase the operating temperature of the chip and decrease its lifespan.

There were some motherboards produced that can run multiple CPU systems, but these boards were in limited quantities and hard to find. Such motherboards were produced to be server and workstation systems rather than gaming or consumer motherboards. Such boards also had limited support for the type of CPU or RAM installed.