Best budget Folders

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watertown28

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
2,216
I was needing some input on what you guys would think for a budget deticated folding machine.
I would need it all:
CPU
Ram
Mobo
PSU
Video card

I am looking to outputt the most PPD with this beast. I can build 1 or 2 for 450 ish for both or one for around that price

start posting... remeber I am after points per day here
 
If this is all about Folding and nothing else, then:
e4300, presume overclock to 2.4GHz with 1066FSB ($163 on NewEgg)
Gigabyte S3 ($105 on NewEgg)
1GB DDR2, budget whatever ($50 for G.Skill on NewEgg)
Small or even used HD, or 512MB flash drive
Cheap/throwaway CD/DVD drive, maybe even run headless (no monitor after initial installation).
Whatever CD burner

Running Linux SMP client
You can probably even build two for $600 if you get board, RAM, drives and PSU off the FS/FT forum.
Almost 2K PPD from each box.
 
mavalpha said:
If this is all about Folding and nothing else, then:
e4300, presume overclock to 2.4GHz with 1066FSB ($163 on NewEgg)
Gigabyte S3 ($105 on NewEgg)
1GB DDR2, budget whatever ($50 for G.Skill on NewEgg)
Small or even used HD, or 512MB flash drive
Cheap/throwaway CD/DVD drive, maybe even run headless (no monitor after initial installation).
Whatever CD burner

Running Linux SMP client
You can probably even build two for $600 if you get board, RAM, drives and PSU off the FS/FT forum.
Almost 2K PPD from each box.
Click to expand...

The OS im not worried about..but the question is do I need 1 gig of ram in the comp? I had a bunch of 754 going a while back and most ran on 256 mb DDR 3200's Does Folding really need that amount of ram or is it just raw cpu power?

I also have the HDS left over from the old farm....4 gig er but all they are is going to fold...heck i even got 4 or 5 20 gigs sitting here
 
I'm not 100% sure of the Linux distro, but I'd play it safe with 1GB- it does generate 4 threads after all, and you don't want to starve it. Someone else should chime in on this, though.
 
I use 512 in one system. I have to reboot it every 2 weeks because of stalling. Rebooting it right now even. A GB won't hurt. Also, wait to see what prices will be for the Quad cores. That would be the ultimate folder.
 
CPU/Barebones case combo...
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115003

http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16856110063$432.45


Ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161676$57.98


HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822140118$43.93



$534.36 shipped. I went with the 4meg version of the Core 2 Duo...more folding power. Running the SMP client on this will net you ~2000PPD. Remember, at the end of the month the prices on the C2D should tank by half. I don't suggest less than a gig of ram, and you need dual channel. If you wait for the C2D to drop by ~$150 and you have your own HDD, You're looking at this system for ~$350 (Kinda makes PS3 folding useless when you can get more than twice the PPD for half the cost)
 
Take a look here, I have a handful of setups, though, not with PPD numbers as of yet... but I'm working on it....


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
With the windows smp client I see an average of 89mb per instance of fahcore_a1.exe. So your looking at ~375mb just for fah to run on. Definately go for 1gb of ram. You'll be glad you did later.
 
okay so we established the 1 gig of ram is a good thing to have.... what about a cpu and prossesor? 805 intel? dual core amd?

Now dont get me worng I love the 6700 i have but even a 6300 is a bit steap for a price tag when paired with a decent mobo that can oc
what are the prie cuts on the lower intel cpu supposed to be and when?
 
watertown28 said:
okay so we established the 1 gig of ram is a good thing to have.... what about a cpu and prossesor? 805 intel? dual core amd?

Now dont get me worng I love the 6700 i have but even a 6300 is a bit steap for a price tag when paired with a decent mobo that can oc
what are the prie cuts on the lower intel cpu supposed to be and when?
Click to expand...

April 22 I believe is the date for the cuts.
 
watertown28 said:
would the 4300 do better then the ...say ....AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane
Click to expand...
Absolutely. The 3600 when overclocked will approach the ppd of the 4300 at stock. And when you account for the fact that the 4300 itself will overclock a fair amount, it'll beat the 3600 hands-down.

Of course, AMD is coming out with something new in a month or two that's rumored (by the AMD folk) to beat the pants off the Core2 chips, so we'll see. It's never a good time to buy computer hardware...
 
how much does the L2 affect the folding...not much or alot?
I read up on the price cuts and man...the quads are looking good
 
The L2 affects pretty good. Go with more than 256kb/core:p
 
Yes. Take a look at the ppd spreadsheet. This will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Take note of the opterons vs the x2's. The extra l2 caache makes a pretty good improvement in fah. One of the few apps that really benefits from more cache.

 
This is a very interesting change--in earlier times, clockspeed was king, regardless of cache. Celerons folded just as fast as their equally-clocked Pentium cousins. No longer, I guess.
 
I think I am going to wait at least 1 more week. That sheet gave a good insite for PPD which is really helpful
 
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