Crackrack dreams

[Kris]

I was bored today, so I made a massive spread sheet to determine how crackrack investment scales with output. Of course it also shows which processor/mobo to get as well.

The necessary assumptions include:
Best current processor price.
Most economic motherboard capable of desired o/c
(ie. it is not cost effective to use k7v to get 3% extra fsb)
The builder is willing to hard mod the AMD lineup
(ie. goldfingers not included)
Stock cooling.
(this resulted in assumptions such as c366@83, not 100)
Stock voltage.
(heavy hitter o/c boards have too large a price premium)
**for example you get more work units/$spent with a 366@83 on an lx than a 366@100 on a be6-2**
Does not take into account 'ultra-sweet' deals which may not be here tomorrow. ($49 P3B-F @ Just Deals comes to mind.)
Extraneous node components (PS/NIC/RAM) lump valued @ $100 for lack of a better number.

There are others...I forgot them at the moment.

Anyway, everybody can predict the winner, I am sure.
Duron 600. That's with a Biostar @ $105.

The top 5:
#1 Duron 600 @ 850 on the Biostar
#2 Duron 650 @ 850 on the Biostar
#3 Celeron 600 @ 900 on via (Celeron/P3 mobo valued at $60)
#4 Duron 700 @ 850 on the Biostar
#5 Celeron 566 @ 850

Two things about that list,
first, mobo's for celerons can be had cheaper
second, I am not comfortable saying they will achieve 100fsb stock on a cheap mobo with stock cooling...I never said this would be accurate!

This is in Mkeys/s
$spent-->$500 $1000 $1500 $2000
#1. 5.743 11.486 17.230 22.973 (#1 = duron above)
#2. 5.370 10.740 16.110 21.480 (etc)
#3. 5.216 10.432 15.648 20.864
#4. 5.025 10.051 15.076 20.101
#5. 5.003 10.005 15.008 20.010

Oh, one flaw, to get that 22.973 you must buy 7.722 units.

I did this on about 50 processors.
Here are some data at the $1000 investment point.
Athlon 550@700(SD11) 8.957
Athlon 650@800(SD11) 9.929
Tbird 800@900(Biostar) 8.355
466a@529(lx) 7.163
500e@750(via) 7.473
700e@868(via) 7.212

And so on...tired of typing.

So, in short, what we already knew, more crack from Durons.

I said I was bored today.

 

[Dale]

Kris - well done .. thanks for the info, this is something I have been looking for lately trying to come up with an extra 20Mk or so.

one question, how many CPU/MBs are your talking about to get this out put

I am guessing from the 5.003Mk for the C3-566 that you mean two(2) CPU/MBs for $500??

also you may want to look at dual CPUs, the older DUAL boards with 2 CPUs can match some of the new stuff in $/Mz

..Dale
thanks again

 

[Kris]

Dale:
What I did was find cheapest mobo that would give the o/c I thought should be attainable for the given processor without buying extra cooling, fancy motherboards, or goldfingers. Add the value of the processor in question, and $100 for nic and stuff. Divide your target expenditure (say $1000) by the sum per node to get units per target expenditure. Then multiply ...


Well, like this.
Celeron 566
566/66=8.5*100(reasonable o/c, I know arguable)=850
80$processor+60$mobo+100extra=240$
850*.0028=2.401Mkeys/s
$500(target dollar expenditure)/240=2.083 units
2.401Mkeys/s*2.083 units = 5.003Mkeys/s/$500target expenditure.

yeah, I definately want to see how duals shake out, just didn't fit it in here, and don't really know about o/c on them...or their value, or which are good...many things kept me from adding that, but I will do it

 

[Kris]

Hey Dale, just checked pricewatch, and right now Just Deals has an asus dual lx for $60!
So with that particular deal, if it has 75 fsb, two 466 would equal 1040 mhz, or 2.912 Mkeys/s.
So 79*2=158+60+100=318
1.57 units/$500
4.58 Mkeys/$500 compared to the 566's 5.003.
Since dualies normally cost 120 or so, dual lx/celeronA is not a cost effective alternative if my math is right.

edit
Not to mention the dual capable slocket required

 

[Wulf]

you can get a bp6(dualie) 2 366@550 and 2 gorbs for $200 now. Add a $20 PS, $15 nic and $35 for 32mb of ram and say $10 for a cheap vid card. thats 1100mhz, 30mkeys/990 blocks a day for about $280 total.

 

[Kris]

Ok, plugging the bp6 combo into the above formula:
1100*.0028=3.08 Mkeys/s
500/200=2.5 nodes/$500spent
2.5*3.08=7.625Mkeys/s/500$ spent.

That absolutely rocks.


Wulf!

Where are these available???
I think I need a few!

 

[Wulf]

In the fs/t forums, here and atAGN.
I have a deal for one in the works right now .

Edit: Dualies are what magicmans rack and warpcore were made up of.

 

[Kris]

If I used forum pricing as opposed to pricewatch pricing, all these numbers would be different, but it wouldn't suprise me that the bp6 combo would come out near the top!

For example: I have seen say a 600e@840 go for 160. Plus gorb, $172? You might find a 6309 or bh6 to run it on for $60 or so? So that's $232+100=332.
500/332=1.5
840*.0028=2.35Mk/s
1.5*2.35=3.5Mk/s/500$spent

Nowhere close.
Hmm...
To equal the 7.6 of the bp6 combo you would need to get 600e/mobo/cooling for about $50.

Buy all the $200 BP6 @1100 you can!

 

[jatwell]

OK, fill me in on this one. Do the Biostar motherboards allow for mutliplier adjustment if you connect the L1 bridges? I thought the only two MB's that did this were the Abit KT7 & the Asus K7V. Also, does the Biostar board you talk of have voltage adjustment?

 

[Wulf]

the fic adz-11 or whatecer it is can overclock too but you have to do something to it. Look on the Anandtech front page for it.

 

[Kris]

Jatwell, I have an A7V, because I did not want to mess with severing golden bridges.
But as I understand it, if you had a kt7 or a7v, and could use the board to manipulate voltage and multiplier until you found a stable combination, then you could hardmod each duron by connecting/disconnecting the appropriate golden bridges so that speed/voltage would be transfered to a motherboard such as the biostar without these features.

This is a cool page that let's you pick your vcore and multiplier, showing you which bridges must be connected, and therefore which you must cut.


Wulf, I think what everybody did to the Fic was add a bank of dips to allow multiplier adjustment like some A7V come with, and the Abit KT7 has in the bios.