Tuesday, October 23, 2007

A common part until you want one

Yesterday, I decided to get a PC going that I'd been handed for free. It's an old Gateway server with a dual Pentium 3 motherboard, meaning it has little value, but would do for a second machine running Linux. So I went around looking for a couple of suitable processors.

Calling Gateway was, to put it bluntly, a waste of time. Their tech support has gone from pretty good to dogshit in the last two years, maybe three. But after twenty minutes I finaly was able to get out of the heavily accented immigrant tech what I needed: Socket 370, 667 or 800 MHz PIII processors with a 133 MHz front side bus.

Now, those parts should be dime a dozen. Thousands of those computers should be now in landfills in fact, and the rest should have an ACV of somewhere between plus twenty and minus twenty dollars. But of the ten hole in the wall places I've called locally not one has any, let alone two of them of the same speed.

Looking online has shown a few sources-but they want between $60 and $80 apiece. Per processor.

The computer isn't worth that! That's why it was given to me in the first place!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll check my Socket 370 CPUs in the AM and send you email as to what I've got with a price... Ben Myers
email: ben_myers@charter.net

Anonymous said...

Herb,

I have a matched pair of 800MHz PC133 Socket 370 CPUs. They are yours for $20 including professional packing and first class mail. Contact me directly at ben_myers@charter.net You can pay via PayPal or send money.