Did you build for boinc only?
Message boards : Number crunching : Did you build for boinc only?
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Speedy Send message Joined: 25 Sep 05 Posts: 163 Credit: 808,337 RAC: 3 |
Out of interest people that are running Intel I7 Pc's especially the 965 @ 3.2 & the 975 @ 3.33, when you built your rigs did you build them for the main purpose of crunching Boinc projects eg Rosetta? Or did you build them with another purpose in mind? Roughly how much did it cost you to build? Have a crunching good day!! |
nick n Send message Joined: 26 Aug 07 Posts: 49 Credit: 219,102 RAC: 0 |
Well I don't have a core i7 yet but I can tell you they are pretty expensive still. Just the i7 920 CPU and motherboard cost $529 from tigerdirect and then you would need everything else too so from my estimates a well equipped machine would cost around $1000. Also I wouldn't recommend the 965 since just the CPU alone costs $999 and all of the I7's have an unlocked multiplier anyways. |
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Speedy Send message Joined: 25 Sep 05 Posts: 163 Credit: 808,337 RAC: 3 |
They do indeed cost alot of money I'm slowly saving up. I got a rough price and for 3.2 quad, 2 X 295gtx cards, 6 gig ddr3 2000mhz ram including GST in NZ dollars it's going to cost me over $7000. By the time I save there will be something better on the market. Have a crunching good day!! |
mikey Send message Joined: 5 Jan 06 Posts: 1895 Credit: 9,208,737 RAC: 3,249 
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They do indeed cost alot of money I'm slowly saving up. I got a rough price and for 3.2 quad, 2 X 295gtx cards, 6 gig ddr3 2000mhz ram including GST in NZ dollars it's going to cost me over $7000. By the time I save there will be something better on the market. If you are going to build a Boinc only machine stick with the AMD quad cores, they are cheap, the mb's are cheap too and ram can be gotten for $10.00US a stick. You could get a dozen or more for $7,000.00!!! Cases are about $40.00 with power supply http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2549294&sku=TC3J-4040%20P Mb's and cpu's are about $150.00 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4567760&CatId=3586 Memory is $10.00 a stick http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2967711&CatId=2261 Hardrives are $40.00 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1089592&CatId=139 DVD is about $20.00 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4415334&CatId=88 Video cards are about $20.00 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2174312&CatId=319 That is a total of about $250.00, before shipping but after any rebates, for a quad core cruncher!! Now that is NOT your super duper, single box, be all, end all cruncher with dual 295 video cards and all that. But it is a nice cruncher that if you buy 3 or 4 of will set you back about $1000.00 or so and will kick butt!!! You can even load Ubuntu Linux on it for free and be crunching in no time!! This is also not a machine for every day use, it is a cruncher, nothing more. To make it more of an every day machine you would need a fancier video card, a bigger harddrive, larger power supply, a dvd burner and probably more memory too. 
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 Chilean Send message Joined: 16 Oct 05 Posts: 711 Credit: 26,694,507 RAC: 0 |
They do indeed cost alot of money I'm slowly saving up. I got a rough price and for 3.2 quad, 2 X 295gtx cards, 6 gig ddr3 2000mhz ram including GST in NZ dollars it's going to cost me over $7000. By the time I save there will be something better on the market. If you are building for boinc then this should be your core: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4685733&CatId=4297 
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Speedy Send message Joined: 25 Sep 05 Posts: 163 Credit: 808,337 RAC: 3 |
Mikey and Chilean thanks for the information. At the most I only have room for two PCs most of the time I only have one running like at present I'm using my Q6700 quad @ stock speed 2.66. I believe speed wise Intel is faster than amd. Once I get enough money together I plan to build a Intel i7 3.2 system. Reason why I want to build a 3.2ghz system is because I don't believe in over clocking as it puts extra strain on hardware, I'll overclock a system if it's older and has good cooling. Because I don't have much room for computers that's why I want to build a big computer, my build will be a while away yet. Have a crunching good day!! |
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nick n Send message Joined: 26 Aug 07 Posts: 49 Credit: 219,102 RAC: 0 |
Mikey and Chilean thanks for the information. Just wait a few months until the i5 chips come out then you will have a real speed demon! |
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mikey Send message Joined: 5 Jan 06 Posts: 1895 Credit: 9,208,737 RAC: 3,249
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[quoteIf you are building for boinc then this should be your core: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4685733&CatId=4297[/quote] I know several people that swear by MSI boards but I blew one up a few months ago! Actually a capacitor popped, you can actually see where it did it on the top of the board. The board worked just fine for several months then I smelled electrical smoke and POP it blew! I still have it but replaced it with an Asus board, and the machine is back up and running just fine. I have used Asus boards for a long time and have never, knocking on wood here, had a problem with one. Your choice is as always, your choice.
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mikey Send message Joined: 5 Jan 06 Posts: 1895 Credit: 9,208,737 RAC: 3,249
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Mikey and Chilean thanks for the information. Awwww there is always room for more pc's, shelves let you go up instead of out! I have a 3 floor house and pc's on each floor. The basement has the most with 13 running down there. With a small program like VNC you don't even need a monitor, keyboard or mouse hooked up to each one all the time. Here's just an example http://www.flickr.com/photos/12424716@N04/3367914308/ of some of my basement stuff.
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Betting Slip Send message Joined: 26 Sep 05 Posts: 71 Credit: 5,702,246 RAC: 0 |
Mikey and Chilean thanks for the information. A man after my own heart and they could save money on manufacturing the case by leaving out the pesky OFF button, I mean, what's that about, why do you need an OFF button? You're not getting the biggest bang for your buck if your computer not running 23.999/7 at full load.  
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Gen_X_Accord Send message Joined: 5 Jun 06 Posts: 154 Credit: 279,018 RAC: 0 |
They do indeed cost alot of money I'm slowly saving up. I got a rough price and for 3.2 quad, 2 X 295gtx cards, 6 gig ddr3 2000mhz ram including GST in NZ dollars it's going to cost me over $7000. By the time I save there will be something better on the market. I'd love to get that processor,AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor, but with a different motherboard. My next p.c. build will prabably be this processor. For the perfomance you are getting, the price cannot be beat. |
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Chilean Send message Joined: 16 Oct 05 Posts: 711 Credit: 26,694,507 RAC: 0 |
Mikey and Chilean thanks for the information. I'm worried about the power consumption...
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Jochen Send message Joined: 6 Jun 06 Posts: 133 Credit: 3,847,433 RAC: 0 |
I have an i7 920@3600MHz on a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 with 6 GB OCZ Reaper DDR3 1600@1440. Air-cooled with a Noctua NHU12P. This is actually my gaming rig, but I can recommend it for crunching! ;) Joe |
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mikey Send message Joined: 5 Jan 06 Posts: 1895 Credit: 9,208,737 RAC: 3,249
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Mikey and Chilean thanks for the information. I have it all on its own circuit, a 30 amp one that I ran specially for it. It costs me about $500.00US a month for my electric bill, but my whole house is electric so that includes the heat, a/c, stove, water heater, everything! It is about $200 to $250 more than my neighbors that have everything I do but not all the computers.
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Paul Send message Joined: 29 Oct 05 Posts: 193 Credit: 66,501,314 RAC: 9,302 
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I am glad someone else has a $500 / month electric bill. I only have about 11 computers running R@H and had to turn several of them off for the summer. Even with Geothermal HVAC, my all electric house is costing too much. Most recently all of my systems are going to intel multi-core systems. The older P4 systems just require too much power for too little gain. When winter hits we will get those power hogs running again. Free Heat! Thx! Paul 
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mikey Send message Joined: 5 Jan 06 Posts: 1895 Credit: 9,208,737 RAC: 3,249
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I am glad someone else has a $500 / month electric bill. I only have about 11 computers running R@H and had to turn several of them off for the summer. Even with Geothermal HVAC, my all electric house is costing too much. I am also glad to hear of someone else with a big electric bill!!! I too shut down some machines in the summer, it is 80F in my basement with the machines running and that makes the family room right above it too warm. My basement is not a really good layout for the way we ended up using it for both Boinc and the kids having a place to hang out. There are no windows down where the pc's are so no exhausting of the heat and only one a/c vent. I currently only have 6 or 7 pc's down there running right now but altogether I have 12 or 13 running, all crunching of course. There are 5 or 6 more I will bring back on line come winter, I tend to hover around the 20 pc level when at full load. I am leaning more towards the AMD quad core systems than Intel based systems. AMD is just cheaper and since I build my own I have a few parts laying around. In fact I could build 3 new systems just from the cpu's laying around waiting to be used. I do not have mother boards for them right now, most are the older cpu's that were replaced with a newer faster cpu. One though is a system that after 4 years just quit on me. It is an Intel 3.2ghz dual core extreme edition cpu. The extreme edition part means it has hyper threading on each core making it think it is a quad core cpu. I think the mother board went bad so I took the whole thing apart yesterday and will probably get a new board within the next couple of weeks. I put 5 hours two days ago into working on it and that is all that is left to be wrong, unless it is the cpu that is dieing! And I hope it is not that.
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Paul Send message Joined: 29 Oct 05 Posts: 193 Credit: 66,501,314 RAC: 9,302
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Nice RAC! We might want to start a thread to discuss crunching farms. I only have 12 systems (limited to 8 for the summer). With these mini data centers, all of us will have similar issues with heat, power, space, management, ... I only have 1 linux system and was shocked by the performance of R&H. I expected it would be very fast. I also have a Mac PowerBook and that system will burn you because it runs so hot. It looks like we can build a quad with 4GB of RAM and a reasonable HD for less than $400 with a case and an OS. If we could find a way to bypass the case (use a piece of plywood or something) it would save us a little on each machine. A PSU with connectors for 2, 3 or 4 systems would also be nice. Any having any luck moving to laptops? With all of the broken screens in the world I would expect a ready supply. I never win auctions for broken systems so I guess someone else is using them for something. thx for crunching. Thx! Paul
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Mod.Sense Volunteer moderator Send message Joined: 22 Aug 06 Posts: 4018 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
I've been curious about heat rates. Obviously it varies by type of CPU. But it also varies by the % of CPU BOINC is using. Given like CPUs, has anyone studied the heat output of two machines running at 50% each, as compared to one machine running 100%? And I'm thinking power consumption of the machine would be roughly porportional to the heat output. Obviously you don't want to materially increase power consumption with a second machine like that, but you have to consider power used to cool the room (or room above it with thermostate) as well. My thought is that 2 machines running at 50% will run significantly cooler, which lowers resistence etc. and is healthier for harddrive and other components. Just a question of total BTUs at the lower temp. And whether you can more then break even for powering two systems when factoring in the A/C usage of power. Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense |
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Paul Send message Joined: 29 Oct 05 Posts: 193 Credit: 66,501,314 RAC: 9,302
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I have a couple identical systems so I could do this study if/when I get a couple of 110V AC Power meters. Maybe I can find a couple on ebay. I would think 1 system at 100% utilization would use less power than 2 at 50% utilization because with 2 systems, you have 2 power supplies, 2 system boards, 2 video adapters (even if they are integrated to the system board they require power), 2 HDs, etc. Obviously the CPU requires the most power. It is an interesting idea. Thx! Paul
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Mod.Sense Volunteer moderator Send message Joined: 22 Aug 06 Posts: 4018 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
Yes, the harder trick is to measure BTU output. But, as I say, probably proportional to power consumed. But there is also the reduced resistence, slower fan speed, less hard drive activity (checkpoints reached half as often), etc. Ideally, with a farm, you'd find a way to use diskless systems either with network shares of a single drive, or flash. Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense |
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Did you build for boinc only?
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