For the first time in our budget guide we're making the switch from the now-discontinued Socket A platform to a much more potent Socket 754. The performance difference is a very noticeable one and although we're not building a system for overclocking, the potential of these new 2600+ processors is amazing to say the least (overclocks close to 1GHz have been achieved). These new Semprons (the 2600+ being among them) are based on the Palermo core which is similar to Winchester with the exception of a reduced L2 cache and disabled AMD64 technology. For those wondering, in order to keep performance similar to Socket A counterparts, AMD lowered the clock speeds on the new Sempron CPUs and this is why a 2600+ runs at only 1.6GHz. The L2 cache is also smaller than older Semprons (128K vs. 256K). The Palermo core uses the 90nm manufacturing process and runs at a measly core voltage of only 1.4V. This is a retail processor so you also get a 3 year warranty (keep in mind overclocking voids this) and a stock cooler.