[vox] OT: Looking for a processor

[Shwaine]

Hi all,

Know of any good places in the area where I might be able to find an older 
P3 processor? I'm looking for something in the 800-1GHz range, 100fsb to 
upgrade my Asus P3B-F machine. That's a slot 1 by default, but if I can 
find the slocket converter, 370 will also work. I know I could try eBay or 
the like, but I just prefer to be able to see the label on the processor 
myself to be sure I'm getting the right thing. I've had "experiences" at 
those weekend computer shows in the past where the vendor tries to pass 
off a weaker processor as what I was looking for, only to be foiled when I 
look at the label and catch them in the act. Makes me a bit leery about 
buying older CPUs second hand sight unseen as would happen with eBay or 
the like online.

This is for my MUD box and for some reason the process is just being a CPU 
hog. I recently upgraded the machine to Slack 10 and the process to the 
latest version of LDMud (in case there was a bug in the older version I 
was using). No bug apparently as even the most recent driver is a CPU hog, 
although at least a bit "snappier" in response time. I'm going to attempt 
recompiling things with optimization flags, but anticipating that won't 
help much, I'm thinking the ultimate solution is to get a faster 
processor. According to Asus's support site, the 100fsb P3 1GHz is the 
fastest officially supported processor for that motherboard. Not looking 
to overclock, so would like to remain within the realm of officially 
supported CPUs.

If my mother hadn't been visiting at the time, I would have tried looking 
at that state surplus sale the other week. Oh well. Such are the 
sacrifices one does for family :)

Any tips (or if someone has a spare CPU they want to sell) would be 
appreciated. Thanks.