The fourth anniversary of the first Pentium 4 is quickly approaching - back when it was launched, the chipset still featured a Willamette core on the now practically defunct Socket 423. It's true that these systems were also based on the (in)famous Rambus memory that despite its heftier price tag was really no faster than the SDRAMs then available. The Socket 423 systems nonetheless sold well, meaning that today their users generally search in vain for ways to conjure up a faster computer.

Often the only sensible thing to do at the end of the day is to purchase a completely new system, as constant upgrading - a processor here, a graphics card there, followed by a new hard drive - not only costs money, but is also extremely time-consuming. Yet in many cases, the only thing that's really not quite up to speed is the CPU performance. Or, the user may already be in possession of the requisite high-end graphics card.

PowerLeap specializes on all technically feasible adapter solutions for running new processors on old systems. About 18 months ago we received an adapter board to operate Socket 370 processors like the then-new Pentium III Tualatin on outdated Slot-1 machines.

Today's situation is similar: Intel offers P4 models for Socket 478 with up to 2.6 GHz and FSB400 that it is technically possible to run on the old Socket 423, too. Luckily for PowerLeap, however, there are also some even faster CPUs that don't appear in Intel's specs: we received 2.8 GHz for the test; according to PowerLeap, 3.0 GHz models with FSB400 are available as well. While not exactly a steal for $349/€319, the 2.8 GHz version we tested can be had for $249/€219 and is not significantly slower.