AMD Athlon SFF 1500+ socket: Socket 462

What the Athlon SFF 1500+ is

The AMD Athlon SFF 1500+ is a 1300 MHz single-core small form factor desktop processor from 2001. It runs one K7 Palomino core at 1300 MHz with no turbo, so 1 core gives 1 thread. Cache is 256 KB of L2 on a 180 nm process. Power is rated at 35 W in a Socket 462 package with a 200 MT/s front side bus and a 13x multiplier at reduced voltage.

SFF 1500+ mirrors the SFF 1600+ naming pattern with a plus rating above megahertz, running at 1300 MHz like standard Athlon 1300 Thunderbird parts yet at 35 W against 68 W. AMD aimed the bin at compact towers with small power supplies. The chip supports MMX, SSE and Enhanced 3DNow.

Plus ratings on SFF bins need the same care as Athlon XP ratings. The 1500+ at 1300 MHz shares clocks with Thunderbird 1300 parts, yet low voltage and small form factor validation separate the bins. That is why the SFF prefix stays in the model with its own slug.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The Athlon SFF 1500+ fits Socket 462 small form factor desktops with Palomino SFF support. It needs a compact board with low-voltage paths. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Compact towers are the natural match. Boards listing SFF 1500+ accept the chip with a 35 W cooler. Standard 1300 parts need larger cooling.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory is DDR or SDRAM through the board chipset. The board sets speed and capacity.

A 200 MT/s bus ties the CPU to the chipset, while graphics hangs off the chipset. No PCIe lanes originate on the die. Cooling uses the socket lug clip with a 35 W heatsink.

Upgrade paths

On Socket 462 SFF steps are limited to SFF listings. Standard Athlon 1300 parts offer the same clocks with higher power. Beyond Socket 462 a move to Socket 754 needs a new board. The chip lifts with the lever, so swaps need no solder work.