Seti Cruncher Question

[danpatdav]

Does anyone know the crunching potential of some of the older PIII XEONs (500 or 550s)? I keep seeing old 2-way and 4-way xeon severs poping up on auctions for cheap.....but I am not sure how they stack up to newer faster processors?

I suppose my broader question is this:

Has anyone done an analysis of the WU to dollar ratio of different SETI crunchers?

(please say yes. And then say, "here is the info you seek, complete with charts and footnotes, and in color.")

Daniel

 

[networkman]

Sorry, no pretty graphs for you - at least from me anyway. IMHO, the money spent to purchase the older Xeon rigs would be better spent on a single AMD XP configuration. For example, I have a dual p2-400 Xeon(2meg cache each) setup at home and each proc will do a WU in about 7 to 8 hours each. Comparatively, my XP2000 rigs consistently do WUs in about 3.25 hours each(assuming a 133fsb - no overclocking).

Additionally, if you're wanting to use a dual or greater cpu rig, you'll need an OS to support it, ie. you're not going to be using cheapo Win95/98 licenses with dual cpu rigs.

 

[Assimilator1]

Think that answers that😉

Anyone else? (disguised bump😉)

 

[danpatdav]

Someone has to have answered this question in greater detail.......right?

Daniel

 

[lobadobadingdong]

if those cheap servers are coming with a microsoft server OS, it would likely be worth it to buy them, install (insert favorite disto of) linux on the server and sell the microsoft server OS's, you might even be able to get by for free or less than free depending on what you can get for the microsoft server software. A p3 core xeon @500Mhz w/2mb cache, should do WU's in the 6.5-7.5 range per cpu, depending on the chipset and seti client. (linux, windows, whatever) where a kt400a board and an OC'd xp 2100+ w/256MB or pc2700, should do WU's in the 2.5-3 hr range for around $160-$170 +cost of vid card, hdd, cd-rom, pc case(if you don't like crack racks or milk crates😉), step up to a 2500+ for about $20 more, and it will OC even better on an nforce2 board (another ~$20 more for the nforce2 board)

 

[Smoke]

Originally posted by: danpatdav
Does anyone know the crunching potential of some of the older PIII XEONs (500 or 550s)? I keep seeing old 2-way and 4-way xeon severs poping up on auctions for cheap.....but I am not sure how they stack up to newer faster processors?

I suppose my broader question is this:

Has anyone done an analysis of the WU to dollar ratio of different SETI crunchers?

(please say yes. And then say, "here is the info you seek, complete with charts and footnotes, and in color.")

Daniel

The difficult portion of your request is the WU to dollar ratio. Prices change all the time and deals come and go.

About the best you are going to find are "CPU to WU Production" charts and most of the ones I've ever seen are not up to date.

Here's a link to one site that has some stats that might help you out. 😉 🙂

 

[Assimilator1]

Here's another WU benchmark chart🙂

 

[danpatdav]

Now thats a start! Thanks Assimilator1

Daniel