Intel Pentium II Xeon 450 socket: Slot 2

What the Pentium II Xeon 450 is

The Intel Pentium II Xeon 450 is a 450 MHz single-core server processor from October 1998. It runs one P6 Drake core at 450 MHz with no Hyper-Threading, so 1 core gives 1 thread. Cache is 512 KB of L2 at full CPU speed with 32 KB of L1 on a 250 nm process. Power is rated at 34.5 W in a Slot 2 SECC cartridge on a 100 MT/s front side bus with a 4.5x multiplier at 2.0 V.

The base 512 KB cache opens the Drake 450 line at the lowest price, which is why the plain 450 suited entry quad servers. Intel launched the plain 450 on October 6, 1998 at $824. The chip supports MMX and four-way SMP.

Balanced Drake clocks with quad paths suit Slot 2 starter racks. The 4.5x integer ratio is clean for 100 MT/s boards. That is why the plain 450 shipped in entry quad boxes.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The 450 fits Slot 2 entry servers with Drake support. It needs a 330-lead SC330 board with a 100 MT/s bus and a BIOS that lists the Xeon 450. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Entry quad servers are the natural match. Boards listing the plain 450 accept up to four cartridges with 34.5 W heatsinks each.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory is registered EDO DRAM and SDRAM through the server chipset, matched to the board sockets. The cartridge has no memory controller. Entry boards commonly run ECC pairs.

A 100 MT/s front side bus ties each cartridge to the chipset, while PCI hangs off the chipset. No PCIe lanes originate on the cartridge. Cooling uses SECC heatsinks on the retention cage.

Upgrade paths

On the same slot, a move to a Pentium II Xeon 450 1MB such as Intel Pentium II Xeon 450 1MB doubles cache to 1 MB at 42.8 W when databases grow. A 400 MHz Drake on the same list drops clocks at lower power.

A move to Tanner Xeon adds SSE paths. The Slot 2 page lists the Drake to Cascades range. Note: the queue row lists 35 W; this page uses the verified 34.5 W.