The stars aligned or something. I hit two yard sales claiming to have computer parts, and they actually had what us guys would call computer parts, not just a high mileage keyboard and mouse and a few manky cables. They're only borderline modern I guess, but too new for the retro thread for a couple of years maybe. ..
1st sale, picked up Asus M5A99X Evo R 2.0, which seems like a very nice AM3+ board, should run anything and has all the OC options, crossfire or SLI supported with slots spaced 2 apart not just 1 in between. That Athlon II 620 I got last month is still uncommitted so it will probably get that until something tasty turns up for cheap. Then an M4A785-M matx board, still nicer than other boards I've got, that also will take the cheaper 125W chips at least, has some OC options too. Came with an "Athlon II" installed not sure which yet, might only be an X2 since the cooler looks a little on the weak side. Also grabbed the best GPU there which was an EVGA GTX 560TI 2GB, though I didn't quite realise how "watty" those were, still lands somewhere between a 1030 and 1050 in grunt. I'm kinda second guessing not getting others, boxed 9250, HD5770, though I have two underemployed 8400GTs so no regrets about leaving one of those. Mostly I guess it was only the 5770 that I miiight have been glad of sometime, if I needed slot powered modest grunt. Then I can't let cheap terabytes slide so grabbed a 1TB 3.5 SATA WD green too.
2nd sale. Not so much here, got an Antec Truepower New TP-550 (semi) modular PSU, it's the one by Seasonic with Japanese caps, so should be useful. Then 6GB of DDR2 modules, 2x2 2x1 and a pile of 80mm fans thrown in, which I thought I had plenty of until earlier this year when I did some older rig fan replacements, then realised I had a lot of weak and worn out ones.
Was also a little sad to leave some nice big cases behind, mid tower beasts, got no room at the moment, will probably really regret it if I get all my rigs built and organised and have no homes for the rest of the parts. Also been dawning on me that I could have scared up a board for E5 haswell Xeons the first guy had, gah.
Life ain't perfect of course, or the 1055 X6 125W or the FX-6150 that two local guys been trying to sell cheap for months wouldn't have dissappeared the second I brought boards home that could use them. Ah well, I'll just stay on the prowl.
Anyway, that's the money gone I got last Sunday when fam dragged me to the racetrack and I had $5 on a longshot romp home. They were all asking me how I knew, I said if I KNEW it would have had a damn sight more than $5 on 🤣 ... then I'd have spent this weekend buying threadrippers and 3080s etc. 🤣
Edit: Guess confirmed, Athlon II X2 260 65W in there... hmm ATI hybrid graphics, HD4200 ... wonder if that will like a HD4650 or a 4850 buddy.
Edit 2: Damn, all the info got muddied up with APU hybrid crossfire stuff and original pages deleted. Third hand, it seems like the HD4200 only pairs with HD34x0 ... not other 4xx0 ... but whatevs, I've got an otherwise useless HD3450 kicking around. May as well see what it does.
Edit 3: gotta keep this bookmarked, got unlocking capabilities in these chipsets, so unpopular X3s are on the radar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Ms49 … aB8b54/htmlview ... also got Phenom X3 8450s that choke trying to clock on PM6100 boards, maybe try those out.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.