If you were to build a crackrack ...

[RC]

What components would you use? Motherboard, processor, NIC, graphics card, and power supply? For sake of discussion let's assume you are intending to build it now.

 

[DanC]

First thing I'd do is e-mail Russ... His is Rockin' - and rack #2 will even be COOLER!

 

[RC]

DanC - Russ built his in the past. The current price/performance point is always changing. New motherboards are being introduced, etc....... I think you get the idea.

 

[MTP]

I would get a few of those $29 motherboards with built in vidoe and sound, and get Celeron 566@850 on each of em

*drool*

 

[DanC]

Ahhh.... I wouldn't be too quick to assign Russ to the "old fogey" department.

 

[Wulf]

I got 2 of em just for that purpose MTP

 

[Dale]

RC are you talking buying new??

Tekram s381ML $29
C3 566 $85
ne2000 <$10 or any cheap NIC that has Linux drivers
cheapest ATX power suplly you can find

forget video cards or use cheapest you can find (tekram has video)

MTP mentioned this above while I was typing

it is hard to beat the cost per key
CPU is the expense, if you can find others that can compare then forget the above CPU

..Dale

 

[Russ]

If you're talking about new parts, rather than scrounged parts:

Tekram motherboard, as mentioned, $29.95.
Some form of PC-PGA Celery, probably the 566.
Cheapest, junkiest vid card you can get (if not using above motherboard).
Realtek 8139B PCI NIC at about $8.
Any cheap ATX power supply is fine.
10/100 auto sensing ethernet switch.
KVM stiches:
-Analog, daisy-chained, if only a few nodes.
-Digital if more than 10 nodes (too much keyboard signal degradation with analog).

Russ, NCNE

 

[RC]

1. How easy is it to OC the Celery 566 to 850?
2. What's the keyrate for a C566@850?
3. Any AMD solutions?
4. The prices quoted for the various items are available from what online store?
5. Tell me more about the KVM stiches

 

[vss1980]

&quot;I would get a few of those $29 motherboards with built in vidoe and sound, and get Celeron 566@850 on each of em&quot;

That's a struggle for some good motherboards - I dont hold out much hope of a $29 mobo delivering that.

 

[Engineer]

You guys forgot any mention (at least that I saw) of RAM?

 

[Kilowatt]

You'll never see a CII running @850 on one of those $29 LX Tekram boards.

 

[Russ]

Kilowatt,

The 29.95 ones are i810. The $24.95 ones are the LX.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Wulf]

you could also use older 366's @550. Ive seen them go for about $50 or less a piece in the FS/T forum. then get the 566's when they drop in value more.

Edit: Ive purchased 16mb dimms for $10 in the same forum. Just have to keep an eye out for the cheap stuff guys .

 

[vss1980]

And how much overclocking does $30 get you Russ?

 

[Kilowatt]

H Yeah

 

[Wulf]

those tekram i810 boards have 100mhz bus, thus a 566 should do 850(chip dependant of course).

 

[Russ]

vss1980,

Well, now it would get none. I just checked and they no longer have them. But, even if the CPU wouldn't go the full 850, they all do 706Mhz on any board, including the $25 LX's.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Wulf]

RC- I get 2.47 mkeys on my 566@875

 

[Mandrill]

Bang for buck probably c2 566@850 or higher with msi slocket on the cheapest bx board I could find. 32 megs of generic pc-100, gorb cpu cooler, cheapest video card I could find if the mobo didn't have integrated, and a generic, linux compatable 10 bt nic.

Edit: After seeing more responses while typing this post: A note about ocing 566's to 850. Mine is taking 1.95v to be stable in win 98se. But when I was setting it up, it ran ccalverts linux client 18 hours @850 @1.75v. Makes me think that otherwise duds that the guarenteed 850 sellers have might do the 850 with the linux client when they can't do it in windows. So could it be that you are more likely to get stable at 850 under linux than windows?

 

[Wulf]

Depends on the cooler youre using too. It probably wont do 850 with the stock heatsink/fan. The golden orb coolers are the best coolers for the price at about $11-$15 depending on where you look.

 

[Dale]

man the replies

RC

1. one of mine has been going like 6 weeks?? fine at default voltage
the other wanted voltage , the tekram MB has no voltage adj so I 'painted' the chip to 1.65 volts and it is happy

2. 2.3 - 2.4 something like that, can tell you when I get access
to computer

3. cant answer

4. http://store.tekramusa.com/shop/dept.asp?dept_id=2
they are not selling them right now but they run that special often

http://www.pricewatch.com/1/3/2264-1.htm
i used econo-pc 888-326-6660 but you may find happiness with another vendor

other stuff I had but you can get $10 NICs most anywhere

ram is a given no matter the platform you use

there are several posts above that reflect no actual experience


one of mine has been running 24/7 for over a month (since the day it came)

the other I have only had 3 weeks and it took a couple of days
before I could get the voltage up

there have been several rather heated discussions over what the
tekram will/wont do (search function)

Office Boy is a good one to ask

[self edit]

didnt mean to post so much, just trying to help

..Dale

 

[Ken g6]

Well, I don't know much about overclocking (never had a computer I could overclock! ) but I do know distributed computing speeds.

I also know ViRGE has a better page that includes OGR...

BTW, what's that link to the $29 mobos? May be time to talk to Mom about upgrading again...

Edit2: Got it! Thanks, Dale.

 

[RC]

Excellent responses from all. Hopefully this thread will not only help me, but anyone else that might be interested in setting up a few machines to be used as a crackrack. I still would like to hear a little more from Russ on his KVM digital solution for more than 10 nodes. I admit I'm partial to AMD solutions, so I may investigate overclocking a Duron or Tbird. From what I hear AMD will cut prices again in Oct, but I hate to wait much longer. The best approach is to slowly build up a crackrack. I think currently the Duron probably provides a better price/performance ratio compared to a Celery, but finding cheap AMD motherboards is not so easy. Anyone tried the PC Chips motherboards - the 805LR?

Dale your reply was not too lengthy, I appreciate you putting some thought into your reply. All the responses have been great.

I'm sure I will have more questions.

Anyone else that's currently thinking of building such a system may want to add some additional questions.

 

[Wulf]

Amd's durons,t-birds and athlons rock on Rc5 but the boards for those chips are to spendy for crackracks IMHO.