Got a cheap Athlon 64 3000+, so should I keep it or sell it as planned?

Well, this past weekend, my 9800 Pro was killed by some mysterious force and it took $185 to replace it. So, in order to make amends, I snagged an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ from a private seller for $109 shipped with the idea that I'd sell it on Ebay and make $75 - $100 and offset the price of the new card. Well, of course, it arrives today and now I don't want to sell the damn thing. LOL. Further aggravating the situation is the fact that my almost certainly DEAD (and labeled and advertised as such) 9800 Pro sold for $130 shipped on Ebay, which reduced my losses considerably. Anyway, since I really didn't lose too much with the video card mishap, should I keep the CPU or make the $75 - $100 and break even?

Here's the stepping:

CAAOC 0401MPM

Now, here are some pros and cons I came up with:

KEEP IT:

1.) I have a Cascade, A64 mounting kit, a dual-shrouded Procore and an almost working Mag 3. The CPU will be COOL.

2.) I love speed and I think this is a fast stepping with great potential.

3.) My dead video card brought in almost enough money to buy my replacement card, so I don't need the money. I don't really need the money anyway.


SELL IT:

1.) Socket 754 is DOA.

2.) I have a gig of Buffalo CH5. With a 10x multiplier, I won't be able to push this CPU on FSB without relaxing timings. Even then, I won't be pushing much speed.

3.) Socket 754 mobos are expensive IMO. nForce3 250 boards will probably be pricey too and they're not even out yet.

4.) My Shuttle AN35N Ultra is only 5 months old. My XP-M 2400 is only a month old and has yet to taste the Cascade/Mag3 combo.

Whatcha think?

2511 MHz is so awsome I'd play with that until Socket 939s become affordable along with Socket 939 nForce3s instead of Socket 754 nForce3s.

Well if you are like me....the fun of tweeking something new far offsets the minimum amount of money you might get from selling the A64. I have a XP 2100+ that I've run at 2460mhz (205x12) @1.75v and I can honestly say that my A64 3000+ (CAAOC 0402) and Shuttle AN50R combo at 2450mhz tears it up in just about everything, especially games. With a little more voltage I am sure it would be good for 2600, I can already post in windows and do some benchmarks at 2530mhz @1.68v.

I am using Mushkin level 1 PC3500 which is CH5 and the 5:6 memory divider. I've done tons of testing and the penalty of running the memory divider in trade for a higher HTT speed is very small. Maybe 1-2%. So as long as your memory can hit 200-220 there is plenty of fun to be had.

c627627 said:

2511 MHz is so awsome I'd play with that until Socket 939s become affordable along with Socket 939 nForce3s instead of Socket 754 nForce3s.

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Definitely. I think that with the amount of hype surrounding 939's and the nForce3 250, people are going to be disappointed when they hit the shelves. You probably wouldn't notice any performance difference if you sold and waited, and you probably wouldn't cross 2.5GHz either. 2.5GHz at 1.68 volts is even more amazing; that's enough to humble plenty of mobile Bartons. It doesn't seem like many do vcore mods, which is rather disappointing. It looks like 2.7GHz on air shouldn't be too hard to reach with 1.9v or so from what some 3000+'s (like yours) can do. You've got some amazing potential there. If anything, you may want to consider selling your memory for some A-Data 4ns/ Hynix BT-D43 based memory(AFAIK, they're one in the same) to give you speeds past 280 1:1. Past that, there's no way you could really improve for several months to come.

But he's got SERIOUS cooling, why waste it on what can be obtained on a $50 air setup? Build a second rig.

Jhatfie said:

I am using Mushkin level 1 PC3500 which is CH5 and the 5:6 memory divider. I've done tons of testing and the penalty of running the memory divider in trade for a higher HTT speed is very small. Maybe 1-2%. So as long as your memory can hit 200-220 there is plenty of fun to be had.

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Are you sure about that? There's a lot of extreme paranoia and prejudice surrounding memory dividers.

whenever i get something new, its almost impossible for me to sell it. I like tweaking it and using it for myself (maybe thats why im always broke)

I've got an AthlonXP @ 2.5ghz which I may sell and grab a A64 @2ghz. Hell, I've also got a copy of the Beta WindowsXP 64bit to install just in case. Sometimes you have to sacrifice MHz for real performance.

Are you sure about that? There's a lot of extreme paranoia and prejudice surrounding memory dividers.

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I have heard this story as well and in my XP system, the 1:1 theory holds pretty true, but in all the testing (hours and hours) I have done with games and benchmarks trying to tweek my system, the performance difference between running 1:1 and 5:6 or LDT at 3x, 2.5x or 2x for that matter was almost nothing with my new A64 system. For example, runing 235x10 1:1 and 261x9 5:6 was 55 points in 3dmark03 and again almost no difference in PCmark 02, PCMark 04, Aquamark, Sandra CPU scores or superPi times. Bandwitdh benchmarks of course favor the higher 1:1 memory speeds.

Well, although it's tempting, it's really looking like I'm going to sell it. I have excellent water cooling, but no soldering skills, so the 1.7 VCOREs on the two best 150 boards (Chaintech and Shuttle) just don't do it for me. At one time, I had a volt-mod kit for my Epox 8KHA+ that clipped on with SMD grabbers and allowed adjustments via a pot. It's too bad these kinds of kits aren't widely available to the soldering challenged.

You can use an SMD grabber for the vcore mod on the shuttle.

Yeah, I know, but isn't soldering required to construct the adjustable SMD grabber kit?

The financially responsible thing to do is to sell it, it will completely offset the cost of a new video card and you probably won't sacrifice any performance... so why bother running a chip on an interim socket design?

Indeed. You'd think I would have learned my lesson after the KX133 fiasco. Off to Ebay it goes.

This has to depend on what you really want. Currently, CPU speed is not that important. I am pretty sure your current overclocked barton can last you at least another 18 months before you really have to get a brand new computer to keep up with the software.

If you have an obsession with speed, then spend the additional money and stick with your A64.