P4 folding

E

enhanced08

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Messages
123
Basically I could possibly have access to about 20 older dell desktops. They are all P4's with HT. The thought crossed my mind about setting up a farm but I doubt its worth the trouble. fah seems to be moving more towards GPU and SMP just because of the type of calculations needed. Would another DC project be better suited? Like Seti@Home? Or will they require the same calculations?
 
It will be just as productive on either one of the DC projects. Those P4s with HT will probably net around 250 - 350 PPD each, so you're looking at ~5000 - 7000 PPD from all those rigs combined. Do they have PCI express slots? If so, 460 GB video cards are getting cheap on the used market place (under $100 shipped) and they turn out ~12k PPD each. So you'd be looking at 240k PPD if they can handle 460s, but you'd have to spend ~$2000 on GPUs and they'd consume more power than a 4P but make somewhere around the same on the low end.
 
There is a HUGE backlog of uniprocessor work to do in f@h.
I second the comment, if the electricity bill does not worry you, fire it up and fold uniprocessor.



 
Skillz said:
It will be just as productive on either one of the DC projects. Those P4s with HT will probably net around 250 - 350 PPD each, so you're looking at ~5000 - 7000 PPD from all those rigs combined.
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Wyluliraven said:
If the electricity to run the rigs is not an issue, by all means, go for it!
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Skillz said:
Do they have PCI express slots? If so, 460 GB video cards are getting cheap on the used market place (under $100 shipped) and they turn out ~12k PPD each.
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Wyluliraven said:
If the electricity to run the rigs is not an issue, by all means, go for it!
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This^^^
 
Im not sure if they have pci-e or not, I have my doubts. If Im going to spend $2000 then I would just build a whole system.

As far as electricity goes... a little more background is needed. I just got a new job in IT at a local company. (my first IT job too, btw!) They have these systems sitting in a storage room, just sitting there. I havnt asked about them just yet because I dont want to push my luck with it being a new job and all.
So if it would work out to my advantage, the company would pay for the electricity and I would just set them up.

Why cant the uniprocessor units be run on SMP? I realize that GPUs may do the calculations different but the only difference with SMP is the ability of more than 1 CPU to be able to work on a single unit. The calculations should be the same... I figured with SMP and GPU that folding on uniprocessors would be a waste.
 
If you decide to go BOINC projects, here is what I recommend. WCG as the CPU project and then also tack on Surveil@home, WUProp, and FreeHAL. Two of those projects are down right now and probably will be for a while. However, this will get you more points because those three projects are considered non-cpu intensive and will run alongside other projects. It all just depends on how much memory you have which swap space will take care of mostly. If you do toss in GPU's, the project suggested will all depend on the GPU. Also, keep in mind that there are a few low end cards that could be crunched under BOINC projects that were also produced in AGP or PCI that could still be used and would produce more points then the CPU's. The low end 8400GS is one of those. So keep your eyes peeled for old parts laying around.
 
enhanced08 said:
Im not sure if they have pci-e or not, I have my doubts. If Im going to spend $2000 then I would just build a whole system.

As far as electricity goes... a little more background is needed. I just got a new job in IT at a local company. (my first IT job too, btw!) They have these systems sitting in a storage room, just sitting there. I havnt asked about them just yet because I dont want to push my luck with it being a new job and all.
So if it would work out to my advantage, the company would pay for the electricity and I would just set them up.

Why cant the uniprocessor units be run on SMP? I realize that GPUs may do the calculations different but the only difference with SMP is the ability of more than 1 CPU to be able to work on a single unit. The calculations should be the same... I figured with SMP and GPU that folding on uniprocessors would be a waste.
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As they are, they wouldn't consume that much power. ~250W at the most I'd imagine. (Without GPUs)

Granted it does have HT, I don't think it would meet the deadlines of some of the SMP units, thus you'd be wasting time crunching and not being able to finish on time.

As someone else mentioned, there is a huge backlog of Uniprocessor units on F@H that those machines would do fine with; I currently have three rigs pumping out ~230PPD on those WUs. I think PG got ahead of themselves when they were doing them, then when SMP and GPU came out, they didn't expect so many people to jump ship. *shrug*
 
A simple points adjustment on them would be the easiest fix to get more people running them. Same thing for the PS3.

I've got 2 uni clients going now, ones been borged for years just chugging away at uni's
 
Vaulter98c said:
A simple points adjustment on them would be the easiest fix to get more people running them. Same thing for the PS3.

I've got 2 uni clients going now, ones been borged for years just chugging away at uni's
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No need for more points, once all the old core 78 WU are finished they will be mainly using core a4, this has the ability to do either uni proc or SMP and it may well be that uni proc only WU disappear.
 
I don't think your new employer would like you spending their money to run old computers. Make sure you get permission.

Best of luck in your new job. Live long and prosper.
 
Pocatello said:
I don't think your new employer would like you spending their money to run old computers. Make sure you get permission.

Best of luck in your new job. Live long and prosper.
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I know all about getting permission, back in the day I talked my high school into installing fah on their ~250 computers. Its not something I would "just do".

Thanks, Im pretty excited about the job. Its been a long time coming. :)

Nathan_P said:
No need for more points, once all the old core 78 WU are finished they will be mainly using core a4, this has the ability to do either uni proc or SMP and it may well be that uni proc only WU disappear.
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I hope the uniprocessor units dont disappear. I realize that nearly all new CPUs today are multi core but there are still a large number of single core systems out there. The whole idea of distributed computing is to use a large number of less powerful computer to do the work of a large powerful one.
Maybe Im just jealous that I dont have a 4p farm to play with. :p
 
stick around long enough and we'll talk you into getting one lol
 
enhanced08 said:
I hope the uniprocessor units dont disappear. I realize that nearly all new CPUs today are multi core but there are still a large number of single core systems out there. The whole idea of distributed computing is to use a large number of less powerful computer to do the work of a large powerful one.
Maybe Im just jealous that I dont have a 4p farm to play with. :p
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Thats the beauty of core a4, it can do both - send a wu using that core to a uni proc client and it will run as a single core wu (with QRB). Send the same wu to a SMP machine and t will usually run in smp mode, everyone is happy!:)
 
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