[geeks] PCI-X motherboard

[nate at portents.com]

> I do have older parts lying around.  Everything but the motherboard.

Hope you have the CPU, because socket 939 supplies have seriously dried
up, and pricing is all over the place.  I've been involved with a 3-month
saga to obtain reasonable quantity (80) of dual-core 939 CPUs for upgrades
for work that was only recently resolved when a large number of OEM parts
came into stock at Tiger Direct:

<http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1649954&CatId=2040>

They disappeared from Newegg and everywhere else months ago.  Right now
the only 939 CPU that Newegg even sells is a single-core Athlon 64 3800+:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103571>

Word is that the backlash of AMD customers who've been burned by the rapid
transition to AM2 and drying up of 939 CPUs on the market have made AMD
reconsider their socket compatibility and they will be making AM3 CPUs
backward-compatible with AM2+ sockets (basically putting both a DDR2 and a
DDR3 memory controller on the AM3 CPU die, each active depending on what
socket the CPU goes into).

> Anyway, if I use the motherboard that Dan suggested in another message,
> my entire machine will come in well under the cost of just one of those
> Supermicro motherboards.

If you had to buy the CPU and RAM, the SuperMicro would be more affordable
than trying to get a dual-core 939 CPU and any decent amount of DDR1
memory these days, but yeah, if you can get the ASUS K8N-LR for $89, and
if you have the parts lying around, then it is a good way to go...

Notice the ASUS K8N-LR is not in stock, and that price is well below MSRP.
 When supply dries up for an item, Newegg first drops the price, then
leaves it in their online inventory as out of stock with no ETA for a
while, and eventually it just disappears.  When the socket 939 Opteron 180
was last stocked by Newegg, it was $129, sold out, was listed as out of
stock for a while, then *poof*, it was gone.  I wouldn't be surprised if
the same happens with that motherboard.

Good luck.

- Nate