[ale] OT computer vanity - wanting (needing) more cores

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

I was sitting at my very capable desktop observing the monitor.  On it, I had the task manager running.  It has nice little individual graphs showing the usage of each of its 3 CPU cores.  Although I'm pushing the GPU's hard for crytpcurrency calculations, I rarely ever push the CPU hard at all.  I'm not gaming, yet.  I'm  not doing weather simulations, cad, or video conversions, yet.  The computer CPU usually idles at less than 10%.  The exception would be when I'm doing a backup or something.  Otherwise, it's basically web browsing and email most of the time.

But, I was looking at the graphs, being hypnotized, and thinking ... Wow, that graph would look much cooler if it had 4 CPU cores or even 6.  I should have banished the thought right then and there, perhaps.  But, it eventually got the better of me, and I went out and bought a 6 core chip, which I haven't installed yet.  It WILL be very cool to see 6 little CPU charts on that screen.

But, perhaps, it was just vanity on my part, with no real NEED for a new CPU.

Actually, there is more to the story.  As I mentioned in another thread not long ago, I got hold of the last MSI AMD 890FX motherboard that Fry's had.  It's being discontinued in favor of newer parts but is still a great board.  It has an AM3 CPU socket.  The newer boards have different sockets, and the CPU's that are compatible with my board are being phased out.

So, the problem was, if I didn't buy the upgrade CPU soon, I would never be able to get it on the retail market.  So, I decided to go ahead and upgrade while I could.  I got the AMD Phenom II x6 chip for my upgrade.

So, whether it was vanity or not, I will soon have the older chip, still a fine part, available for sale, once I deinstall it.  It's an AMD Athlon II x3 460 triple core chip which runs at 3.4 GHz.  I'll sell it for $ 60 along with the heat sink / fan.  This chip is currently in use in my system, and is running fine.  It is literally less than a month old, as I just recently bought the Athlon, since Fry's didn't have the Phenom's when I was building the system.  To late to return it there though.  I paid $ 85 for it.

This would make a fine CPU for a home theater PC or general purpose computer.

If anyone has an interest in the Athlon chip, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Ron



--

Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com
Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU