crappers.... when are they no longer worth it?

B

BakedON

[H]ard|DCer of the Year - 2006
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
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I have a 550 P3 here.... and i was thinking about reloading it and getting it folding.
The long and short of it is that this could take a bit of work. Memory could be bad, etc, but I'd like to get another box up now that I've suddenly turned 180 degress and am now an insomniac. I have a ton of energy this past week and I'd liek to use it while I can.

SO I put it to you..... is a 550 crapper even worth my time or would the time be better spent gathering parts to build a P4 / AMD box with a lot more ooomph to it?
May take a few weeks to get the newer box together, but the crapper may not have even posted a WU by then if the current WU are as intensive (even the low pointers) as they are looking.

Ordered a Sempron 2800+ PC for the kids of geeks.com today. It'll be here soon so I'll have that posting numbers soon enough. Still just have this urge to create something......
 
Personally I do not think a P3 550 is worth the electric bill, or putting any time or money into.
That Sempron 2800 will run circles around the P3 550.



 
I have no stats to back up my own take on this, but anything sub-gHz here has been put to pasture. The lone exception is my SME firewall box, and that's from sheer laziness (its replacement has been in "burn-in" mode over on the bench for a month).

If I'm pushed for a rule it would be "600-pointer in 7 days". The stark difference in performance between these two machines is a reminder of why the SME box ("Cerebus") must be uprated. "Little-Bear" is my wife's computer, a Barton 2500+ reduced to being her online poker conduit. ;)

footrace.jpg





 
I subscribe to the 1ghz rule, personally. Take the old systems, sell them to someone needing a cheap Internet machine, and but the nicest Folding-only rig you can with the money. Much more productive, and you help someone else out too.

I took that a bit further, and retired a 2.6ghz Celeron laptop because it was barely worth the power to keep it Folding. (90pts a day average).
 
I also tend to follow the 1ghz rule but with a twist. I also say must have SSE which rules out any amd cpu that isn't an athlon xp or above. With the tinkers gone, not having SSE is a pretty big loss on the ole tbird chips. My 2cents

 
Imitation said:
I also tend to follow the 1ghz rule but with a twist. I also say must have SSE which rules out any amd cpu that isn't an athlon xp or above. With the tinkers gone, not having SSE is a pretty big loss on the ole tbird chips. My 2cents

Click to expand...

I'll have to agree there. Just checked on those dual'ed Durons, and they do have SSE reporting in the log, thank whatever deity watches over CPUs. ;)



 
Let me know if you want some logs off a P3 600 I have folding.
 
ok so the 550 is out... I was just antsy.
working on getting a few more up in my home farm... then I'll be on teh lookout for borgs.

I wish i could borg some of these PC's at work.... many new dell workstations about that aren't doing anything 80% of the time.
The 1.7 celly is up. that should start posting soon. Maybe I'll get the parts off the FS/FT forum to build one more box.
 
marty9876 said:
Let me know if you want some logs off a P3 600 I have folding.
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I think my dual 600s would die if I folded on them. I had to cut the passive heatsinks off them and attach dual fan heatsinks on both just to keep them from overheating when I replaced the dual PII 350s. Oh well, that's the only box I own that doesn't fold...
 
I wouldn't say it's out, just slow. If you need to spend money on it, skip it. I;m sure someone has some spare SDRAM around here.

P3 650 on a 153 point Amber is ~ 31 PPD for me right now.

Config for large WU's, get almost 50 PPD (maybe). ~ 40 PPD on a Gromac, maybe a touch more on a double Gromac.

Load nix up on it/net boot the box off a windows box- try something different maybe for kicks. It's only gonna suck ~ 2 bucks a week most on electricity.
 
ND40oz said:
I think my dual 600s would die if I folded on them. I had to cut the passive heatsinks off them and attach dual fan heatsinks on both just to keep them from overheating when I replaced the dual PII 350s. Oh well, that's the only box I own that doesn't fold...
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pussy

I got one of these running and it's just fine. 500's I think they are.

:D
 
for me it's more about space right now......
I'm not so worried about how much electricity will cost, but it's sititng in my rack and for the PPD it'll net me and teh contribution to both the project as well as my home network in consideration..... I'd rather put in something better.
Once I get through with building and placing anything else in my house of real value then I'll return to my crappers.
Honestly... I have a crapper FARM that's just unrealized at this time. I have dual 700 P3's sitting here.... a P3 1.0 CPU that just needs a board, other s370 and slot1 CPU's, pleanty of ram, vid cards, NIC's, hard drives........ hell if anyone needs any of this stuff I should just give it away.
Marty.... need any crapper parts? Maybe I'll put those in the DC FS forum.

step right up and win some crap.....
 
marty9876 said:
pussy

I got one of these running and it's just fine. 500's I think they are.

:D
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Yeah, I know :( ...unfortunately it's my domain controller here at the house and I hate to lose it, been running that tyan 440bx board for over 8 years straight...
 
ND40oz said:
Yeah, I know :( ...unfortunately it's my domain controller here at the house and I hate to lose it, been running that tyan 440bx board for over 8 years straight...
Click to expand...
I'll send you a pair of 700's to keep as backups for the 600's IF you promise to fold on it..... Hell... I'd even settle for JUST one instance!
Hows THAT for motivation!?
:D
 
My new advice for people looking for new boxen is to buy something you actually want. Instead of best PPD/per buck buy something multi purpose, somehting you can actually use for other things too.

I'd tell ya to eBay the crap, but your going to net about $25.00 for the lot... I've done a ton of crapper eBay sales (parts). There is money in it just slow going. Sell off what you can and but a C2D or GPU/SMP rig and have some fun while your at it.

I've got 4-5 pallets of crappers right now, more crappers then I know/can do something with.
 
cleared teh rack..... the wife gave me permission and I JUST bought 3 2Ghz boxen off geeks.com. That will be 4 total new boxen and one more reclaimed box that I MAY get rid of... 1.7Ghz celly in an AMS Gbox. seems out of place.
Well.... look out kids. Here I come again.


(now I'm out of money to spend on crap.....)
 
BakedON said:
I'll send you a pair of 700's to keep as backups for the 600's IF you promise to fold on it..... Hell... I'd even settle for JUST one instance!
Hows THAT for motivation!?
:D
Click to expand...

Haha, it'll be retired soon...unfortunately it's an early rev. 440bx and can only take up to PIII 600 slot one chips. So far I've limited my folding to P4 or newer chips or the AMD equivalent. Which is why this is the only system I currently own that doesn't fold, I got rid of all the other ones and upgraded ;)
 
BakedON said:
crappers.... when are they no longer worth it?.
Click to expand...

When you cant get a P3-500 for less than $75.00, thats when its definatley not worth it. I dont know how many years ive been looking, I have not yet been able to add even one folding rig to my setup :(. I no longer fold on my gaming rig, because it was having issues.

Electricity isnt a problem, its the cost of getting crappers...Im not a rich person, going to college while unemployed sucks the life out of my bank account... Financial aid doesnt even cover books and gas for the car.

Its not even worth it to pay $30.00 for a P3-500 as far as im concerned, for around 90 dollars you can get a low end A64/P4, motherboard, ram and crapper PSU. This isnt a fair benchmark, but my 1.8Ghz A64 (which can be had for ~$40) encodes video 60-65 times faster than my 500Mhz K6. Im not sure how folding compares, but it would take quite a few crappers to meet a newer cpu.

This is blasphemy and crazy-talk, but ive mostly given up on the folding thing for now. The spokane area seems to be completley dry of any reasonably priced computers, though I may end up purchasing a 4x opteron server within the year, depending on how things go (website/gaming server use).
 
Here's another good Newegg deal....


Combo Price: $99.99
ASUS A8R-MX/SI Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice 2.2GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3400DAA4BY - OEM




 
DF454 said:
Here's another good Newegg deal....


Combo Price: $99.99
ASUS A8R-MX/SI Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Venice 2.2GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3400DAA4BY - OEM




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/shakes fist at Newegg

Newegg needs a Canadian division
 
Roman79 said:
/shakes fist at Newegg

Newegg needs a Canadian division
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Or they at least need to start to accept sales from us foreign Canadian types.... maybe they're afraid they'll have to learn French or something. :p


 
Joe Fission said:
Or they at least need to start to accept sales from us foreign Canadian types.... maybe they're afraid they'll have to learn French or something. :p


Click to expand...

Heh heh yeah could be. I'd rather they open an store here though; UPS / Purolator and I don't see eye to eye on the whole "brokerage fee" thing. Bunch of crooks :mad:

If I could get Newegg prices up here....oh what I farm I would have :cool:
 
electricity is expensive... i am slowly retiring every machine slower than 3ghz
 
FLECOM said:
electricity is expensive... i am slowly retiring every machine slower than 3ghz
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^_*

ouch... even * < 3.0ghz isn't enough for him, overclock them then and pay more in electric in the end :)
 
FLECOM said:
electricity is expensive... i am slowly retiring every machine slower than 3ghz
Click to expand...

That's why I don't run shit at home. I finally broke down and did up a server at home, box count =2 at home now... :(
 
Have to love the free electricity I get in my apartment :D and the $273 a month rent.
 
YoNeX said:
Have to love the free electricity I get in my apartment :D and the $273 a month rent.
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cheap co-lo for everyone? rent a pad there, fill with boxen!
 
marty9876 said:
cheap co-lo for everyone? rent a pad there, fill with boxen!
Click to expand...

University apartments, so I can't get another room :( I'm sure if I put more boxes up, the RSO would go like WTF is up with all the electricity use in that apartment, is he running a lab down there.

But really though, I think i'm going to run one of these crappers w/o a case, I don't have that much room left, but if I had those dells, I can probably stack up like 15 of them ;). Next year I dunno, might be moving out, maybe not. I hate to be stuck with a tons of boxes that I can't run because of electricity
 
Jon855 said:
^_*

ouch... even * < 3.0ghz isn't enough for him, overclock them then and pay more in electric in the end :)
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dude, my power bill is like $350 a month... i need to get the most out of it...
 
YoNeX said:
Have to love the free electricity I get in my apartment :D and the $273 a month rent.
Click to expand...

Jeez, your rent is less then my electric bill, you can't even get a tent where I live for 273 a month.
 
Roman79 said:
Heh heh yeah could be. I'd rather they open an store here though; UPS / Purolator and I don't see eye to eye on the whole "brokerage fee" thing. Bunch of crooks :mad:

If I could get Newegg prices up here....oh what I farm I would have :cool:
Click to expand...
Oh ya, forgot about those brokerage fees.... :(

I feel your pain though man.... I'd also like a Newegg type shop to show up here in Canada. Wishful thinking for now I guess.
 
When I saw free electricity, I was thinking about literally putting some racks in my apartment (since I live on my own), but I was wondering how long before they pull the plug on me for using too much electricity. :D
 
BakedON said:
ok so the 550 is out... I was just antsy.
working on getting a few more up in my home farm... then I'll be on teh lookout for borgs.
Click to expand...

Well, how about diskless folding with the thing? If it's an older BX platform and you have support for 133 FSB and Coppermine chips you may be able to use it provided you get a new processor for it. For example, you may be able to bag a cheapo 1 GHz P3 and fold with that - there are a load of them out there.

If it won't support 133, another alternative is the Tualatin - Tualatin Celerons can be run at 100 FSB in replacement and they don't draw that much energy in a diskless configuration.

The key is diskless - in other words, no HDDs, no ROM drives, no peripheral cards - just a PSU, LAN, cheapo vid card, memory and the processor. Anything that draws energy from the system gets 86'ed. The sticky up top has more information.
 
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