I acquired a PC for dirt cheap at an auction of assets of a failed company. I dont think they really knew what it was. I paid like $200 for it. Looking for commentary regarding some of the hardware, I'm not particularly sure if its all that great, or has any overclocking potential.

Generic Case
400 watt antec psu
AMD Athlon64 FX-51 cpu according to cpu-z (1mb of cache) (is this multiplier unlocked?)
Asus SK8V mobo maybe SK8N. I dont have the PC here, but it was one of the two.
2gb of DDR333 (2x1gb chips) (this board and cpu can support ddr400 right?)
200gb wdjb 8mb cache ata100 drive.
Nvidia Quadro FX 1100 128mb videocard with dual dvi.

Not bad for $200 bones if you ask me. I know the video card is decent, and the fx-51 was all the rage when it came out in 2003. Anyone know if that mobo is junk or not? Bios seemed somewhat limited. Anyone know if this might have any overclocking potential?

Thanks.

Lots of potential with this setup. FX line is still fast compared to most of the newer procs. As for the board, it does take ddr400 (PC3200) ram as well. It can take up to 8 gigs of ddr ram (either register or non-registered). You can check out the manual for the board at http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...e1473_sk8v.pdf. Aside from that it sounds like a great investment for 200 bucks. I just wish some deals like that would fall into my lap.

I have 2x512mb DDR400 chips laying around...... Though I think I'd rather have 2gb of 333 vs. 1gb of 400.

This is a socket 940 type system and requires REGISTERED ram, not the typical stuff used in desktops.

If you have to go out and buy some it's expensive, so hopefully the ram you listed above came with the system. There is very little "Performance" DDR 400 ram available of this type.. and it's UBER expensive!

You can still get a decent OC out of this CPU by just raising the Multiplier, it should be capable of 2.4GHZ or so with decnt cooling.

I wonder what AMD was thinking when they put the FX-51 on Socket 940...it's not exactly a performance chipset with registered RAM and all. Nice find, though! I would upgrade the PSU and OC it to your hearts content!

I would first try to get that DDR333 RAM stable at DDR400, if possible. Loosen up the timings, give it more voltage...whatever you need to do. It should be possible if it's some decent RAM.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ator I wonder what AMD was thinking when they put the FX-51 on Socket 940...it's not exactly a performance chipset with registered RAM and all. Nice find, though! I would upgrade the PSU and OC it to your hearts content! I would first try to get that DDR333 RAM stable at DDR400, if possible. Loosen up the timings, give it more voltage...whatever you need to do. It should be possible if it's some decent RAM.

They were thinking "Hmm all I have to do is take my server CPU and sell it as a high end desktop chip, then I can beat up on Intel for a change"

It was cost, or should I say no cost!

They were in a hurry to get AMD 64 to market, it was delayed several years in fact. Everyone new when it came out the 940 platform would be extremely short lived, and no one but the rich and extreme benchmarkers ever bothered with it.
(Only 2 CPU's were ever made for this platform, FX-51 and FX-53)

In fact, I would say this borders on being a collectors item someday, like the hard to find 5800Ultra's!

Good Point, I never even thought to look at the socket pin count. I just assumed it was 939 like all the other a64's out there. And yea, it came with 2x1gb chips of registered ddr333. Having registered would explain why its only ddr333, since ddr400 registered in that size is outrageously expensive. I'm going to play with it tonight and see what I can come up with for OC results. It has a stock amd retail heatsink, so I'm not expecting a whole lot.

Quote: Originally Posted by boosted-fc3s Good Point, I never even thought to look at the socket pin count. I just assumed it was 939 like all the other a64's out there. And yea, it came with 2x1gb chips of registered ddr333. Having registered would explain why its only ddr333, since ddr400 registered in that size is outrageously expensive. I'm going to play with it tonight and see what I can come up with for OC results. It has a stock amd retail heatsink, so I'm not expecting a whole lot.

If you keep the RAM at sane speeds (at or around DDR333), and crank up the FSB by using RAM dividers, you should be able to get it OC'ed pretty high.