Upgrading SETI 'herd' - any advice appreciated

[Yo Ma Ma]

This will be for 2-3 systems, looking for "most bang for the buck" motherboards and video cards. Linux compatibilty a big plus even though we will be running it under windows.

Also need a good backup system (media + s/w), needs to work on a network.

Thanks for any advice/suggestions you might have!

 

[Fardringle]

If these computers are only going to be cracking SETI, then you can use any cheap video card you can find (I think I have 3 or 4 old PCI cards in a box somewhere..)

Durons on one of the less expensive Socket A motherboards, like the MSI K7TPro2 or the EPOX 8KTA+, will give you excellent results for the cost, and will still give you overclocking ability (to get even more results for the price) at less of a premium price than the ABIT or ASUS boards...and MUCH less than a comparable Intel system would cost.

 

[ElFenix]

interesting question... athlons/durons need about 1.1x to 1.2x more mhz to match a p3, celerons are crap... and p3s you can go dual, but then you'll have slightly lower times per wu. assume that case, ram, hdd, nic, etc, are the same price for each combination. i815s and i810s don't need video of course.

ooo... new pricewatch...

dual p3s - msi 694d mobo $120 + (2) 700e ($145) $290 = $410. 2 work units in 5 hours = 9.6 per day. $42/wu standard oc is to 933 and does a v3 wu in 3.5 hours each $410/13 wu/day = $32/wu

duron 650 $45 + msi kt7pro2 $115 = $160 4 per day or $40/wu. oc to 950 and get 6.4/day for $25/wu

that duron is looking pretty cheap, either way. non overclocked it only have a $2 lead over the p3, though. since you're building 3 rigs, may be best to go durons. if you can thrash it higher than my estimated oc of 950 (overclockers had a low average due to lots of people reporting locked multipliers) it gets even better.

of course, these results are based on the v3 client, not 3.03, which takes much longer. tack on $100 for hdd, $150 for ram and case.

dual p3 700s $69/wu
oc'd to 933 $48/wu
duron 650 $102/wu
oc'd to 950 $64/wu

then the dual p3s look good at the sure-fire 700, and look much better at 933.

heh, just looked at what an athlon thrashed up to about 1200 can do... 8.25 wus per day, $175 for the processor, $115 for the mobo

$65.5/wu

so it doesn't seem to touch the mighty dual 933, either.

disclaimer: my numbers could be wrong, they're mostly guestimates based on reasonable pricewatch pricing, overclockers.com oc'ing averages, and TLC's benchmarking. and, as always, your mileage may vary.

EDIT: $75 for a celeron 633, overclock to 950+ pretty easily, i think. msi 815 pro $95 so $60/wu not too shabby.

 

[Robor]

Great info ElFenix! ^^BUMP^^

Rob

 

[ElFenix]

heheh, this stuff is as much for myself as for anyone else. maybe in a month we'll have some benchmarks from TLC (tuffguy! get that athlon in there stat!), and perhaps even some dual athlon action later this spring. i'd really like a dual palomino

but i might not be able to resist the urge... couple of cc0 700es is looking tempting... all i really need is some ram, mobo and the p3s.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Great information Fardringle and ElFenix (nice detailed summary/breakdown there ) I appreciate it a lot.

Video will not be for SETI only, others apps used especially on one system for board layout etc., as well as the usual photo, spreadsheet, word proc, games etc.

Is anyone using a nice backup system they can recommend for a network? The easier and faster to use the better, more likely to get done that way

 

[Diffusion]

If you are not playing games, the best cards to get would be Matrox G200-G450s, great 2D, relatively inexpensive.

 

[Sukhoi]

Can you setup a 4th system on the network with a big HDD to store image files on?

AFAIK Drive Image 4.0 will work over a LAN as long as you make a DOS boot floppy with network support. You need to map the drive on the destination computer before you can image to it over the LAN though. If you want more info on DOS boot floppies with network support, gimme a PM.

 

[ElFenix]

system board layout... that sounds like something that likes smp... yet more reason to get some dual pentiums.