When to snuff a boxen?

S

Strikemaster

[H]ard|Gawd
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From this thread (and "Thanks!", BillR, for yet another threat to my fiscal sanity), comes the question that bothers me:

When do you call it quits on a Farm unit and toss it aside?

The vast majority of these "Space Heaters for 'Fords" in my basement are doling out 4, 5 and even 6 PPH on typical work units. It's the 1 PPH brick that's bugging me:

cerebus.jpg


The sole factor keeping it alive, is it is also my SME Server / firewall box.

Thoughts in general?
 
Seeing as how you're using it for something else anyway, so it's gotta be there, it may as well be folding regardless of whether it's outputting 1 or 100 points per whatever.

Every little helps :)

 
yup.... unless you feel the need to upgrade your firewall box..... then..... do so..... with an X2 :D


Keep on Folding!!

 
Yeah, I'd borg the refrigerator if it had an IP address. ;)

Seriously, I've got idled crates around here with more power than Cerebus. The scrap pile parts that I can glance at include a Slot-A Athlon that can kick that P3's ass in floating-point, but the heat it throws out (and the mobo drive restrictions) make it worthless.

Rule of thumb metric: At what PPH / PPD do you cut your losses?

 
Strikemaster said:
Rule of thumb metric: At what PPH / PPD do you cut your losses?

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I kind of think that depends on if you pay for power or not. If you got free e- then NEVER

If it is being used for something else say your firewall and then you keep it until you replace it

If it just folds and is old and you feel that cost/points is just not working for you you take it out back and kill it... then you replace it with something new

 
I don't directly pay for my power, so I don't "snuff" any boxen. Well... maybe in the summer, since the boxen tend to overpower the AC. There is a point where your room get's hot enough that you no longer can stand it. :(

 
Yeah I reach that point... but I break down to the boxers with ice water and fans... you do what it takes :p

 
lol that was last summer it was a bloody sauna in my room like 90-100 degrees all the time
 
84gthatch said:
lol that was last summer it was a bloody sauna in my room like 90-100 degrees all the time
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yeah it is sad when it is 98 outside and it feels cooler then it does in your room

 
Like you I’m paying way too much for power. I finally drew the line at anything smaller then an XP at 2.2 or better got shut down. My last four of those CPU’s are in duallys.

I’d love to jump back up to where I was but 10 cpu’s (those include 2 X-2’s counting as 4) is still pushing things dollar wise with the power bill.

One of your bigger machines could perform all the functions of your firewall machine and you wouldn’t be down any folding power.

Just a thought ;)
 
I agree with BillR on this one, I am having to shut down anything less than 2 ghz (means i'm getting rid of everything socket A) and as soon as I can afford it, the duallies will be converted to dual core boxen. I just received notice of another 15% increase in my utilities, my bill is already over 350 per month.

T-3

 
Well, all of you rich bastards that can just afford to snuff AXP boxen, feel free to donate those my way. I'll gladly plug them in and take the power bill spankin'.

For me, Pentium3 is my cutoff, but I do have a small farm of P2's at my friend's dorm, that are older machines he had and he just setup to do nothing but fold. He has the hardware, and his power is free so why not. ;)
 
T-3 said:
I agree with BillR on this one, I am having to shut down anything less than 2 ghz (means i'm getting rid of everything socket A) and as soon as I can afford it, the duallies will be converted to dual core boxen. I just received notice of another 15% increase in my utilities, my bill is already over 350 per month.

T-3

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I've been ahead of that pain, since the municipal power company I work for (and get power from) has not changed their base rate for fifteen years. The only thing they do is pass on the cost of fuel, no additional markup. That "pass-on" has meant my power bill went from $135 in 2001 (Jan) to $315 this Jan., for equivalent KWH useage. :(

My neighbors aren't going to be so lucky. :eek: Their rates have been capped by Delaware and Maryland law for corporate power entities, and that lid comes off in June. There's going to be a LOT of screaming from the DelMarVa Peninsula, except for that little enclave served by Easton Utilities. It's still going to suck for me, but the wind will be headed outbound from Talbot Co. :)
 
BillR said:
Like you I’m paying way too much for power. I finally drew the line at anything smaller then an XP at 2.2 or better got shut down. My last four of those CPU’s are in duallys.

I’d love to jump back up to where I was but 10 cpu’s (those include 2 X-2’s counting as 4) is still pushing things dollar wise with the power bill.

One of your bigger machines could perform all the functions of your firewall machine and you wouldn’t be down any folding power.

Just a thought ;)
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That has crossed my mind several times. The dual Duron wouldn't lose anything sorting TCP packets while folding, and now that the 5.02 core is available for Linux, why the hell not?

Wonder if anyone has played with Socket-A Semprons in a dually? I'd like more speed and more cache than these Durons have, but not enough to go X2.

Looks like the P3 might get retired to the local child care center. Poor bastard. ;)
 
Strikemaster said:
Wonder if anyone has played with Socket-A Semprons in a dually? I'd like more speed and more cache than these Durons have, but not enough to go X2.
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The Socket A Semprons are just renamed AXP's. Barton core and everything!

 
Well, it turns out I may have to snuff my P3's now. :( Got another power bill in, and this is the second month in a row my power bill has been double what it usually is. $130+ for power is entirely too much for me to take,when I was averaging around like $60. I'm gonna try to be hella conservative with the power this month (turning off every light when I'm not in the room) but I still may have to shutdown the faithful P3's. What makes me the saddest is my 750 has a 110 day uptime, and it's not even on a UPS. :( Poor guy.
 
tsuehpsyde said:
Well, it turns out I may have to snuff my P3's now. :( Got another power bill in, and this is the second month in a row my power bill has been double what it usually is. $130+ for power is entirely too much for me to take,when I was averaging around like $60. I'm gonna try to be hella conservative with the power this month (turning off every light when I'm not in the room) but I still may have to shutdown the faithful P3's. What makes me the saddest is my 750 has a 110 day uptime, and it's not even on a UPS. :( Poor guy.
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Have you tried all the other power saving options first? Like florescent lighting, lower the temperature, insulate better, etc? Also unplug appliances when not in actual use; many draw some power even when turned "off". Or consider budget billing if your electric company has it.
 
would using one power supply for two boxen help cut down power costs?
 
Bill Clo said:
Have you tried all the other power saving options first? Like florescent lighting, lower the temperature, insulate better, etc? Also unplug appliances when not in actual use; many draw some power even when turned "off". Or consider budget billing if your electric company has it.
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I won't budget bill, so forget that. And all of my machines only have what they need, no bling bling no lights, etc. Fans are about as extraneous as they get, and all of the machines can use all they can get.
 
rayman2k2 said:
would using one power supply for two boxen help cut down power costs?
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There is no simple answer to that one. It all depends on the boxen you are using. If you have a few smaller computers that are kept simple, re say 2 XP machines with one drive each and minimal fans you could probably get away with a “good” 450 watt or better PSU especially if you have a pair of older less efficient 400 watt or better PSU’S in there now.

On the bigger machines it gets a bit more complex and you would need a huge PSU to keep it all running, thus little or no savings.

If you have any specifics you would like to try PM me and we can see what might work.
 
P3 866, that's a pretty nice crapper!

Free power- P2 and below
Pay for power- any more than the computers you actually use

You've got about the worse possible WU on that box for P3's, 241 tinker.
 
marty9876 said:
P3 866, that's a pretty nice crapper!

You've got about the worse possible WU on that box for P3's, 241 tinker.
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Yep, you gotta wonder what Stanford was thinking when they set the issue parameters.

This box is the slowest I still have running, and up 'til this weekend I was tolerant of running it as long as it could fold and do it's primary job. You can see by the graph that it just isn't worth the power it's eating. I'll let it finish this WU, then down it and donate it somewhere.

When it awakens again, the firewall will be a ~1.7gHz P4 Dell Dim. 4500S that a customer tossed aside.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll reformat the crapper and let it 'Think' awhile. On someone else's dime perhaps...
 
Distributed Computing is *my* anti-drug!

Oh wait, that says "snuff". Never mind.

 
Paying for power sucks. I've been considering turning off my main desktop at home, which is an Athlon XPm @2.4GHz. It sucks down ~170 watts while folding according to my kill-a-watt meter. I'm considering shutting it down, at least during the day, once I start having to run my a/c again, which will be soon. :(

I'll still have my laptop folding, and my other ~18 borgs, so I won't take too much of a hit. I just want to keep my bill under $100 per month so I can save up some funds for several projects I have going right now.
 
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