Wanting to get into F@H for TeAm Anandtech

[Raduque]

I've been wanting to get into this for a while, but space constraints have kept me from building a significant folding farm. However, now I have some room to build a rack to stack some headless towers on.

But, I've been wonder what might be the best route to go about building my farm. Should I source cheap parts and assemble my own PCs (Which would each need either a XPHome license or I'd need to learn linux), or could I simply buy hordes of cheap ($300-500) computers from B&Ms like BB, CC or WM?

I'm thinking the latter is the easiest and most cost-effective way to go about it; all I'd have to do is clean out the crap, setup my clients, stack 'em in the rack, and off they go, as opposed to building, installing, setup and so on.

What are ya'lls opinions on this, and how do ya'll add more machines and so on?

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Some of us use crack racks: a wooden shelf with mobos, HDs, PSUs and sometimes CD-Drives, alle networked, just one monitor, no cases, all remote access, so also only one keyboard and mouse. If you are low on space and are good with networks, that's the way to go.

I myself just have 5 different PCs standing around the apartment, all use KVM switches, so I only have two monitors, all networked, shared internet and such.

It basically all comes down to your own taste, space, money and of course, the wife-acceptance-factor!

 

[JeffCos]

Just as a point to consider, check out your cost of electricity before you do anything. I have seen many people come here with a small batallion of rigs and run them until they saw their first electric bill. They usually end up cutting their fleet and getting discouraged with their production.

 

[Ken g6]

And remember, one machine is not insignificant. I'm running two old-ish machines, ignoring the duplicate laptop and the PII. (Good grief, is 2003 old already?) That should be about the same as one dual-core rig now.

The point is, I'm in the top 10 on the TeAm in four different BOINC projects.

 

[caferace]

Originally posted by: Ken_g6
And remember, one machine is not insignificant. I'm running two old-ish machines, ignoring the duplicate laptop and the PII. (Good grief, is 2003 old already?) That should be about the same as one dual-core rig now.

The point is, I'm in the top 10 on the TeAm in four different BOINC projects.

Heck, nearly half of my points are from PIII's, and I've only been seriously crunching for 11 months. :thumbsup:

-jim

 

[potato28]

Im also looking into making a F@H rack... or at least 2 more systems for it. Currently have 2(1 isnt ranked, 50,000 point WPU) folding.

 

[GLeeM]

Welcome Raduque

Building a farm is a way to get a fast start.

I would start with what you have, to learn about how everything F@H works, and then add the farm. I agree with Ken_g6, one machine is not insignificant.

Electricity costs are a thing to consider. The newest computers are going toward better performance per watt. If you do DC for a long time you will find that you spend more on electricity than on computers.

I started with the computer I had at the time and have slowly added a couple more as $ permitted. I plan to soon add another rig.

 

[Crazee]

You may want to see what the numbers are on the ATI GPUs for F@H before you do this. It looks like they will seriously outperform anything else. You may see that you will get more production for 1 or 2 machines with their video card than you would from many more that do not have them.

This is from the front page article here at anandtech

With help from ATI, the Folding@Home team has created a version of their client that can utilize ATI's X19xx GPUs with very impressive results. While we do not have the client in our hands quite yet, as it will not be released until Monday, the Folding@Home team is saying that the GPU-accelerated client is 20 to 40 times faster than their clients just using the CPU. Once we have the client in our hands, we'll put this to the test, but even a fraction of this number would represent a massive speedup.

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Crazee
You may want to see what the numbers are on the ATI GPUs for F@H before you do this. It looks like they will seriously outperform anything else. You may see that you will get more production for 1 or 2 machines with their video card than you would from many more that do not have them.

This is from the front page article here at anandtech

With help from ATI, the Folding@Home team has created a version of their client that can utilize ATI's X19xx GPUs with very impressive results. While we do not have the client in our hands quite yet, as it will not be released until Monday, the Folding@Home team is saying that the GPU-accelerated client is 20 to 40 times faster than their clients just using the CPU. Once we have the client in our hands, we'll put this to the test, but even a fraction of this number would represent a massive speedup.

They are saying that the GPU client does 20 to 40 times more science not 20 times more points. I would guess that the GPU client points will be adjusted so that they give a good bonus for those willing to contribute this extra resource.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Originally posted by: GLeeM

Originally posted by: Crazee
You may want to see what the numbers are on the ATI GPUs for F@H before you do this. It looks like they will seriously outperform anything else. You may see that you will get more production for 1 or 2 machines with their video card than you would from many more that do not have them.

This is from the front page article here at anandtech

With help from ATI, the Folding@Home team has created a version of their client that can utilize ATI's X19xx GPUs with very impressive results. While we do not have the client in our hands quite yet, as it will not be released until Monday, the Folding@Home team is saying that the GPU-accelerated client is 20 to 40 times faster than their clients just using the CPU. Once we have the client in our hands, we'll put this to the test, but even a fraction of this number would represent a massive speedup.

They are saying that the GPU client does 20 to 40 times more science not 20 times more points. I would guess that the GPU client points will be adjusted so that they give a good bonus for those willing to contribute this extra resource.

yes, they are going to be adjusted. The beta is going to give more points, but only mildly so. Once the official release is out, it'll be a somewhat lower point to keep it in line with CPU clients, and might be adjusted higher at a later time. It's better to start them off low and then bump them than it is to nerf them.

Personally I've kinda gone for a farm of spare parts. I've gone though a few little upgrades and it's left me with spare motherboards or CPUs, and lots of RAM and hard drives that have collected. So I just bought a piece here and there to fill in the machines and set them on their way.

And it's really not hard at all to set up a Xubuntu or Ubuntu computer to start crunching. Xubuntu is a good way to go if the machine is a little lean on RAM. Boot the live CD, install from the icon on the desktop, boot back into the installed OS, hit firefox, download the command line client, /.FAH502-Linux.exe from the directory it was put in when you downloaded it via the command line, and it's just like setting up a Windows command line client from there.

 

[CupCak3]

1 x2 3800+ @ 2.7 $150
mobo am2 or 939 $80
AC Freezer 64 pro $15
Cheapo case $20
decent PSU $30
512 RAM $55
Cheap-o used HDD $15
odd fans $5
ubuntu $0
Total $370

better performing and 2 cores unlike most of that stuff you'll get at BB or CC... so you're pretty much getting two for the price of one plus you could pretty easily save 50 bucks shopping around the f/s forums. doing crack rack would save you 20-25 bucks.

personally i would go for only 89W or less for CPUs. the electricity adds up. my 89W x2 uses about the same as one of my barton boxes while doing 2.3 times as much work

watching the f/s and hot deals forums could save you quite a bit of money... or at least let you buy more boxes... which is what usually happens with me

 

[Raduque]

Doing a crack rack isn't a bad idea, but I was planning on using a metal utility shelf unit, that wouldn't sit too well with bare mobos

Right now, my spare computers are
My server (Celeron 1.1)
My bedroom HTPC, its kinda useless right now w/out a TV card (Sempron64 3200+)
mobo/cpu from this rig before I put in my C2D (A64 3500)

I think I'll start with these 3 and see where I go from there, depending on heat output and electricity costs.

EDIT: oh yea, i don't have a WAF to meet, either, so pretty much anything goes

 

[Crazee]

I made a crack rack on metal shelf unit. I just broke down some old boxes and used the cardboard to cover the shelves for safety.

Back to the ATI thing it seems weird to me that they will have something doing 20-40 times the science but it won't get much more credit than a regular CPU

I know it supposed to be all about the science, but really the more incentive you give people the more likely they are to do it. There are a lot of people who do DC for the competitive aspect. People who constantly upgrade machines for no more reason than to squeeze out extra points. I think it is a little short sighted to not make the points correlate with the work.

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Crazee
Back to the ATI thing it seems weird to me that they will have something doing 20-40 times the science but it won't get much more credit than a regular CPU

I know it supposed to be all about the science, but really the more incentive you give people the more likely they are to do it. There are a lot of people who do DC for the competitive aspect. People who constantly upgrade machines for no more reason than to squeeze out extra points. I think it is a little short sighted to not make the points correlate with the work.

Well, you converted me! Besides how much does it cost them to give out points :roll:

 

[Spacehead]

First of all, welcome to the TeAm Raduque

If you decide to go the pre-built route, you can get some good deals thru Dell Outlet occasionally.