Mwave.com has the AMD Opteron 144 socket 939 64bit processor @ $163.00 + shipping. From what I’ve been reading this is not the infamous chip that can push 3.0GHZ so just beware of that before buying. However, I did read that this chip can push a heavy overclock. I’ve heard you can at least get a one extra GHZ out of this chip. It’s clocked at 1.8, so I would not be suprised if you got at least 2.7-2.8 with air cooling. If you buy the chip, report back in the comments section with the stepping and what type of overclock you got so other readers will know. Thank you.
I think you are thinking of the CABNE, which is the stepping that overclocks the best. Most Opterons now are the CAB2Es, which still can get around 2.5GHz. I have a CAB2E 144 and i got it to 2.7 on stock cooling, and then windows couldn’t handle it, but the processor and the ram were still fine. This was also on stock cooling. The CAB2E stepping is fairly hit and miss, though, so you shouldn’t expect too much.
Yeah, CABNE is thee most sought after Opteron around. I’m saddened to hear that the CAB2Es are not as good as the NEs. Hopefully future batches will be good if not better.