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CPU comparisons

K

kevinthenerd

Platinum Member
I thought about setting up an old system I have for BOINC. Does anyone have any information on older CPUs (like the P2) and how they perform with BOINC? I'm wondering if it's worth my trouble to get a tiny bit of extra BOINC processing out of one I just picked up for free. There's more than processing speed alone playing a role here.
 
Why not? I've had a P3 1 GHz coppermine running BOINC for about 2 years now and its been cranking out results fairly quickly. Its not by any means the fastest processor, but it gives me about 400 cred a week (depending on the project) running 24/7. So I'm happy.
 
Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
Is there any real data, like in a table, for this stuff? Comparing the chips would be interesting.
Click to expand...

I don't have anything in a table but if you look at my BOINC SIMAP computers page you'll see that I have a Pentium III ("x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 10 930 MHz") running SIMAP. Benchmark measurements are 815 floating point mips and 1445 integer mips.

Compare to my top producer, an overclocked Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (@ 2.4 GHz) which benches at 2285 and 4269 (per core), respectively, and you can see that the PIII is approximately one sixth the output of my X2 box.

Not half bad for a computer that's 6 years old! Now remember SIMAP is very forgiving to older CPUs, it doesn't use any SSE code like other DC projects, but this is just to show you that a PIII can still be a functional cruncher.

Hope this helps,
 
Wow, that seems promising. If I can get a bunch of old rigs for free, I have an idea for a ghetto rackmount setup that'll allow me to have quite a bit of computing power in a small space:

I want to take four threaded rods and put them in four holes on a standard-sized (ATX?) motherboard, with nuts and flexible washers at each board, so they're spaced from eachother so that the power supplies can be about an inch apart. It's hard to explain quickly without a picture, but if and when I get it up, I'll take one. (I have to run to class before long, and this isn't my computer.)
 
I've got a P1 75, a P2, and two P3's I'm setting up in the garage. People are donating their machines to me for my crack rack. hehehehehe. I'll let you know when I get it setup, and results start coming in.
 
When the power goes out, it must take forever to get all those machines up and running again. I hate it when I have to get my 5 going.
 
Originally posted by: Zensal
When the power goes out, it must take forever to get all those machines up and running again. I hate it when I have to get my 5 going.
Click to expand...

Can't you disable keyboard and monitor detection in the BIOS and just power it up with a default username in the OS? How are your five set up?
 
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