[conspire] & now ive gone nuts + 64x2

[Edmund J. Biow]

>> Bought the 64x2 3800+ amd cpu w m/board combo at Fry's for $90 and the
>> x-y = $99 for 2g of 667 ddr2 ram. 
>>     
That's a fantastic deal good through Tuesday.  I bought the board with 
the X2 5000 in February and have been quite happy with it.  The onboard 
graphics has no trouble with Beryl.  BTW, this weekend Fry's has got 2 
GB of PC5300 DDR2 for $100 after $100 MIR, a 400 GB Seagate SATAII hard 
drive with a five year warranty for $100, and a 750 GB ATA/SATA drives 
for the hairy palm set for only $229, no MIR. 
http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/
>
> Coolio.  Here's something that you're well advised to try on new-ish
> CPUs, preferably before buying:
>
> Boot a Linux live CD, then check the CPU flags line in /proc/cpuinfo.
> We're checking for two things:  (1) x86_64 support.  (2) virtualisation 
> support. 
>
>   
That might be hard to do at Fry's, since the CPUs are all behind a cage 
at the front counter.

All X2 CPUs have X86_64 support and AMD-V hardware virtualization 
support has been including since the "F" steppings of May, 2006.  The 
rule of thumb apparently is that all non-Sempron AM2 Socket (DDR2) CPUs 
have hardware virtualization support.
http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=32664&adid=4356250&subid=15700324&type=
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_64
http://www.virtualiron.com/fusetalk/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=14&threadid=322&enterthread=y
> Will the funny interface material on the included heat sink /fan
> really work out ok now that i mounted it, it was easy ?
>   
The retail ooze works like a charm on my X2 5000.  I read a few years 
ago that if you removed the factory goo and replaced it with high 
quality Arctic Silver or some such the CPU makers argued that your 
warranty was  voided.  I don't know if that is still the case. 

-Ed Biow