It's amazing how fast your computer changes from brand-new speed demon to sloth. As a journalist, buying a new PC every few months (or years in my case) is not a very probable option. Enter the Spectra 400. The Spectra is basically an AMD-K62 400MHz Processor, fitted to a 'compatability adapter' which allows you to adapt to older voltage and pin designs. It fits into any Socket 5, 7 or Super 7 Socket. The performance of the Spectra depends on your bus speed, with 66MHz being the ideal, though it also supports 100MHz. The Kit comes with 2 Floppies containing the Install Program and a CD packed with BIOS updates. This product is not aimed at hardcore hardware geeks, but more at people who need a simple drop-in speed boost.

Installation
Installation sometimes requires a BIOS upgrade, which is handled by the install program and is painless, all you have to do is click yes a few times and you're away. This BIOS upgrade allows older motherboards to initialise and issue instructions to the Spectra, and is provided by Evergreen. Sliding the Spectra Unit into the ZIF (Zero-Insertion FOrce) Socket is simple, as is plugging in the fan. The unit itself needs it's own power supply, so the unit is equipped with 2 power plugs, so if you do not have any sockets free, you can split one for use with the Spectra. So with great gleeI opened up the case of my tired old P100 and replaced the processor with the Spectra Unit, then attached the Heatsink and Fan, which are held by a retaining clip. I turned on my PC, and nothing happened.

Now I had been through the install procedure, twice. I sat there staring at my now black screen, at the flashing monitor light signalling no video signal. I was confused. A look through the manual found my exact problem 'Blank Screen on Power-Up'. But the solutions in the book didn't work. I plugged in my old P100 and booted up.

I emailed Tech Support, begging for help. To my suprise I recevied a response only hours later. Together, we figured out my BIOS did not want to be flashed. A brief scan of my motherboard revealed that the pins controlling the BIOS flashability were missing. But Evergreen Tech Support were kind enough to send me a freshly flashed BIOS, for nothing.

Performance
The Spectra booted up perfectly with the new BIOS chip. It was amazing to see my PC fly through startup and start windows in a flash. I started a game of quake, now my old p100 gave me roughly 15fps with a voodoo2, I was now averaging 45 with the lowest being 30. Shifting up to 800x600, I achieved similar numbers, showing it was my Voodoo2 and not the Spectra which was limiting the performance. Quake2 ran excellently, Unreal Tournament and Quake3 however, are still too jerky to play, but this is due to my 32Meg of Ram and slow Hard Drive. When looking to buy a Spectra Unit, try and buy some extra RAM while you're at it. It's frustrating having a powerful processor and not enough RAM to back it up.

The improvement is tangible, windows and programs snap open, instead of slowly oozing, games run fast, so fast in fact, I had to download a program to slow the processor! Because it is a K6-2, the Spectra also supports 3DNow! and MMX and has 64k of L1 Cache. 3DNow! are a set of instructions which work alongside a 3d accelerator to improve performance.

As for official Benchmarks, The Spectra scores an average of 10.2 on ZDNet CPUMark '99, compared to 2.2 on my P100. Intel's Media Benchmarks give the Spectra a score of 352.3, compared to 78.8 on a P100. The Spectra scored 70422 Dhrystones compared to 31111, and 845070 Mediastones, over 10 times as much as the old P100's 77021. Very good indeed then. All tests conducted on ECS SI54P AIO M/B with 32Meg 72 Pin EDO RAM, 1GB 5400RPM HDD and Windows 95 Rev B and Voodoo 2 12Meg.

Conclusions
The problems I had with my BIOS are rare, and an installation on an old office P75 was simple and trouble-free. If you are unsure of your knowledge, or are terrified of the innards of your PC, any local PC Shop will install it for you. Overall this is a great product that delivers a significant speed boost, especially when coupled with a RAM upgrade. While it may be slightly more expensice than a Motherboard/CPU upgrade, it is much less problematic, and you don't have to throw away your old RAM.

The Spectra 400 retails at US$199, with a US$50 mail-in rebate. It can purchased directly from EverGreen Technologies or at many Online US Retailers. Evergreen also makes several other CPU Upgrades, check out their websites below: