New Crack Rack Thread: Post your dirt cheap crack rack finds here.

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T

Train

Lifer
Jun 22, 2000
13,592
87
91
www.bing.com
Ram Prices are falling like theres no tomarow.

AMD Price cut rumors? can anyone confirm these and when/how much?

Mobos: probably socket A Durons will remain best bet for cheap crack racks, any recomendations for a good socket A mobo that can overclock reasonably well?

I'll be browsing around the list of sites i collected last time, and try to make an updated spec for the best bang for buck crak rack. hopefully we can get them below $150 this time, possibly lower.

Basic Crack rack:
- MOBO - Socket A Mobo
- CPU - Duron 650, 700, whatever is easy to get and cheap, etc.
- Floppy - cheap and very easy to find, good ones are about $14 or less
- PS - 250 Watts or maybe even a 200 should do
- RAM - 32MB PC100 or we might need PC133 for the overclocking
- Vid Card - ive heard on a mobo that has the "Halt on No Errors" feature, a vid card wont even be needed for bootup after Klinux is configured. Could save a few bucks here if this works.
- OS - no contest, Klinux, free, easy, and damn good (props to kilowatt)

prices coming soon...... feel free to post any good deals you find on line here.

 
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networkman

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
10,436
1
0
Socket A solutions may be the current most popular solution, but dual P2/P3 boards are a definite possibility too. I've picked up some good dual p2 combos from various liquidation places, so that's always a possibility too, since you then have 2 cpus but still just one of each of the other components(or zero if possible) - also saves on power needing just 1 P/S instead of 2. ;)
 
S

Sukhoi

Elite Member
Dec 5, 1999
15,350
106
106
As for the mobo, assuming these are just going to be used for RC5 only crack racks, an original KT133 with PC100 RAM should be ok, since you'd be doing multiplier overclocking. However, if you plan to run SETI eventually on any of these racks, I'd suggest getting KT133A boards and PC133 RAM since SETI likes higher FSB speeds.

As for a Klinux equivalent for SETI, I'm pretty sure it's possible using the Linux client, but I have no idea how to do it. The Windows client itself is small enough to fit on a floppy with plenty of room for the work unit, but it still requires Windows to run. :(
 
N

networkman

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
10,436
1
0
For those of you with reseller licenses(this is something worth getting even if you're just an individual):

Evertek

WSA

You MUST have a reseller license to purchase things from either of the above sites, but there are some GREAT deals to be had when you do - WARNING: It's very very easy to spend money at these places! :D


 
G

GL

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,547
0
0
You don't need a video card to boot Linux as somebody mentioned. I can vouch for this, using the "Halt on No Errors". I was running a linux firewall in this way. To this day, I don't know why people would put videocards on these crack racks unless they were built onto the mobo!

-GL
 
JonB

JonB

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
2,126
13
81
www.granburychristmaslights.com
OK, GL, I must know. Do you just type blindly to configureKlinux as it boots up? Are you using a hard drive or Klinux on a floppy? I just can't see typing in so many keystrokes blind when Klinux starts up.
 
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Harrald

Senior member
Dec 6, 2000
732
0
71
This might be of help also. I saw in "hot deals" this thread about 8port hubs. I went to CompUSA and they have them.

$10 for an 8port isn't bad at all. I don't think it matters that it's only 10BaseT. Just my 2 cents worth and kudos to the fellow that found it in HD's.
 
RaySun2Be

RaySun2Be

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
16,565
6
71
DOH. JonB beat me to it. :Q GL, same answer as JonB. For the crack rack nodes running Klinux, I use a vid card only to get it set up. I use 1 monitor, and switch between nodes as I set them up. I use cheap/free isa & pci vid cards.

Now if Klinux saved the DNET INI information back to a floppy, and then could boot and start DNET using that saved INI, I wouldn't need a vid card for the Klinux nodes. :)

Sure I could load Linux or Windows on the nodes, and use VNC to manage, but then I would need a hard drive for each node (sort of a trade off between the vid card), and my keyrate wouldn't be as fast as using Klinux. 1 or 2 meg vid cards can be found cheap. Especially if they are ISA. :)
 
T

Train

Lifer
Jun 22, 2000
13,592
87
91
www.bing.com
whoa Ray, didnt recognize you with the Penguin icon!

cant linux be installed as a boot disok on a hard drive? would probably help boost the keyrate a bit, not sure, but ive got a few old 1.2 gig hard drives lyin around, these things are huge, wont fit in my case anymore, would be great for a crack rack if anyone wants them!
 
mechBgon

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
1
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Furthermore, osmo is selling old HDD's for $5 plus shipping. Does Klinux work from a HDD? $5 is less than a used floppy drive, and most of us have more IDE cables than floppy cables, I suspect.
 
G

GL

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,547
0
0
Well I haven't done it with klinux. I was using Slackware. I just SSH'd (secure telnet) into the box to work on it. Why, does this klinux distro require you to manually intervene or something each time you boot it? As long as you have some form of telnet or SSH server running as a service, then you don't need a videocard as you can remotely administer the system.

About Klinux
I'm gonna check this out and see if I can modify it to help you guys out a bit. I can't believe it doesn't save the .ini (perhaps there's no space on the floppy). Anyhow, I'll see what I can do. You guys should really be booting the OS off your NICs anyways...that's another thing I couldn't understand. I believe Linux lets you boot an OS off the NIC, so you don't need floppies!

edit
Hmm..seems network booting isn't so trivial as you need an EPROM burner to make your own bootable EPROMs. Guess this is out of the question...but I'll definitely look at the klinux thing so you guys don't need videocards.

-GL
 
ElFenix

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,405
8,582
126
is it just me or are those AMD &quot;price cuts&quot; simply a statement of the current prices on their chips, since you've been able to get a 1.2 GHz for $300 a while now
 
RaySun2Be

RaySun2Be

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
16,565
6
71
GL,
Talk to Kilowatt, the creator of Klinux. i believe his next version will allow the writing of the INI file to floppy.

Klinux is a very good thing, it allows many nodes to be up and running by people who don't know Linux, don't care to know Linux, but want a cheap crack rack and fast WU processing with network and proxy support.

I got a bunch of video cards (ISA &amp; PCI) for free or very cheap. I don't need a KVM, or remote access via telnet, VNC, or other means. IT WORKS FOR ME. :)

Now the great thing about technology these days is there is more than one way to approach a problem. Some can get floppies cheap, Some can get HDs cheap, Some can get vid cards cheap. And some don't give a hoot which is better. There are at least 4 operating systems I can chose, diferent types of CPUs, MBs, etc. My point being that If I am happy with the nodes I've put together, based on my $$ and other resources, and it's a Klinux solution then don't put it down because I chose to use video cards instead of Linux and hard drives. It's up and cracking for TA, and that's the important thing. :)

What we should do in this thread is give everyone the different options, and let them choose for themselves which route to take. What would work as a great solution for one person may not be the best for someone else. :)

 
BGod

BGod

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,375
39
91
If anyone is looking for a cheap upgrade for a slot 1 motherboard - Pentium III 800E Slot 1 $175 - Retail Box (limit 5).

If I could find someone to take my two Katami core Pentium III 500's off my hands for around $100 each including shipping, I'd like to pick up few of these. One of my 500's has a dual fan Globewin &amp; the other's got a dual fan Vantec on it. E-mail me if you're interested. I'd sell the Tyan Tiger 100 (S1832DL) with both CPU's for $300.
 
G

GL

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,547
0
0
Yeah guys I have to check out this klinux thing. As I said, the videocard-less/monitor-less linux box I was using wasn't primarily for distributed.net. I was using it for some other server functions. So I haven't had any experience with klinux just yet. But I could probably help out in the startup scripts so that there's no need for user-intervention upon startup. But first things first...school assignments beckon;) I'll get in touch with you kilowatt probably by the weekend (I want to play around with klinux to see what it's all about first).

I'm looking into setting up my own crack rack, but being the poor student that I am, I'd want as little hardware as possible. It would be amazing if we could get klinux working as a diskless distro as well, but from the looks of it, we'd need somebody with an EPROM burner (other than that it's doable).

-GL
 
W

Windogg

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
10,241
0
0
My post from the last crack rack thread:

Alright, I hate losing. Here is may next shot at a cheap crack rack system. The system is from ComputerGate. I;ve ordered from them for years and theyhave great prices and a good selection of obscure (IE. Cheap) parts. Theire prices get cheap as you order more per item. How about the following:

AMD Duron 700 OEM: $54.95
MSI KT7-Pro2A Retail: $104.95
32MB PC100 SDRAM: $15.99
10 BaseT ARCPC (RealTek) NIC: $8.95
250W ATX Power Supply: $24.95
3.5&quot; Samsung Floppy: $9.95
4MB Trident AGP Video: $21.95
Coolmaster DP5-6H11 HS/Fan (Got OK reviews): $14.95
Shipping: $10.90

$266.58 Shipped UPS Ground.

The MSI is a proven to be rockstable when OCed and the Coolmaster should be able to take 900Mhz with no problems.

$.2973/per Mhz @ 900Mhz

windogg
 
P

phatstyl

Golden Member
Feb 9, 2001
1,530
0
0
man windogg the motherboard is killing us! i am sure that we can find another motherboard with similar stability/overclockability for cheaper!
 
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