What to keep from this combo

[by]

I got too trigger-happy and bought this combo on eBay:
1x Opteron 142
1x MSI K8T ATX dual Opteron motherboard -- only one CPU has RAM slots
4x ECC Registered PC2100 512MB DIMMs -- total of 2GB

I only need to make one PC out of this. Would folks recommend selling
the CPU and buying a pair of 242's, or selling the motherboard and get
a SK8N or SK8V or tomcat K8WS? Which is more bang for the buck? This
will be the core of a testbed or small workstation. Expect to be
using Linux and VMWare under the host system. Or, if this is overkill
for my purposes, would people suggest selling the CPU and motherboard
and just use the RAM.

 

[nobody]

I got too trigger-happy and bought this combo on eBay:
1x Opteron 142
1x MSI K8T ATX dual Opteron motherboard -- only one CPU has RAM slots
4x ECC Registered PC2100 512MB DIMMs -- total of 2GB

I only need to make one PC out of this. Would folks recommend selling
the CPU and buying a pair of 242's, or selling the motherboard and get
a SK8N or SK8V or tomcat K8WS? Which is more bang for the buck? This
will be the core of a testbed or small workstation. Expect to be
using Linux and VMWare under the host system. Or, if this is overkill
for my purposes, would people suggest selling the CPU and motherboard
and just use the RAM.

I am typing this on a system comprised of exactly the setup you
described - K8T + 2xOpteron242. Keep the board, sell the chip. Get a
couple of 242s, they are at $203 at PriceWatch, or even cheaper on
ebay. In some 2 years, you'll be able to replace the CPUs with dual
core K9s, effectively making it a quad SPU system. If you take what
Mr. Ruiz said at face value, the K9 Opterons will be socket compatible
with today's K8.
Keeping just the RAM makes the least sence of all - ECC Reg is
required on s940, but it will slow down everything else.