| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Caring and Sharing
Thread: How Many CPUs You Use & How Did You Get Them? |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 56
|
|
| Author |
|
|
mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 824 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Basically I never retire systems until there is simply no hope. Last one to go was a P-III laptop that had to be hooked to an external monitor to see. The laptops have been acquired for school, work needs, etc and eventually upgraded. Desktops (all running Linux) are mostly my personal fun systems; oldest one is an Alienware (from when they were still the best) and probably now the next in line to be unrepairable. It becomes harder to justify keeping around a single core system when I can throw in a cheap 6 or 8 thread board and re-use the case. Today I just finalized an AMD X2-64 that I picked up on clearance from e-bay. If it's cheap and I'm in the mood, it becomes a cruncher. KWSN - A Shrubbery where in the US do you live?   [Edit 1 times, last edit by mikey159b at Sep 19, 2012 12:17:32 PM] |
||
|
|
mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 824 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I fix pc's for a hobby so have 11 Boinc machines running right now, and 2 non Boinc machines. Of the 11 Boinc machines 2 are 6 core machines, 4 are 4 core machines and the rest are dual core machines. The 2 non Boinc machines are a 4 core Mac laptop my wife won't let me use and her dual core work laptop I won't touch. All but 3 of the 11 have gpu's that ALSO crunch in them, 2 of which have dual gpu's in them. I got MOST of my pc's by replacing firends pc's and they gave me their old parts which I now crunch with. I also pick up pc's on the side of the road and after wiping the hard drives use them too. I have over half a dozen pc's needing very little work to get them up and running sitting on the floor but my house is maxed out on its electricity usage, some of the outlets were getting EXTREMELY WARM so I had to unplug 2 pc's! Working on peoples pc's sometimes they give me cash and I do use that to buy newer parts, such as the 2 6 core machine I built for $400US each. At Christmas I only ask for cash, or specific pc parts, and get enough to buy parts with that too. I have not been able to get others to crunch too though, they just don't see any short term possibilities of finding anything worthwhile. I have been crunching since 1999 and am #72 in the World so won't stop, but just can't seem to convince others to join me in the search. My old work considered it, with over 10,000 pc's they would have been a FORMIDABLE Team themselves, but the local power company offered to cut their rates if they ran a piece of software that shuts all idle pc's off at night. This saved the power company from having to build a new power plant and saved my old work a TON of money too! What a factory you've got mikey159b :) - How about distributing un-needed PCs in your house to needy NGOs/orphanages, on the condition of leaving them running 24/7 and connected to the net ? You'll be able to keep your eye on them through the My Grid thing of the WCG website ! - As for your old work, is it still an option, or is the case closed now ? I think if you could manage to make them run WCG during normal working hours idle time, it would be already great, and wouldn't make a lot of usage difference as it will only be during the normal working hours anyway ! - Do you have any suggestions on how to replicate what you're doing elsewhere, or other ideas ? My old work is closed due to them getting paid by the power company to power down the pc's at night. Oh but I was a bit off on the total number of pc's they have, they are on a 4 year pc replacement plan and they REPLACE 10,000 a year, sorry! It is a MAJOR County Government on the East Coast of the US. As for running anything during the day, that too is out, they say it detracts from the workers productivity. They have a bunch of preconceived notions, but the 'powers that be' are not flexible enough to even listen. They hear 'Berkeley' and 'Seti' and think 'little green men' and they are too busy to hear any more. As far as replicating what I do, anyone can do it, it is easy, I got into the hobby of fixing pc's in the late 70's and have never stopped accumulating stuff! When my sons friend showed me Seti pre Boinc, I have ALWAYS been a sci-fi buff, it was a match made in heaven. I have since branched out to other Projects like WCG. |
||
|
|
Movieman
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 1042 Status: Offline |
Was just reading through here and wanted to point out that the electrical efficiency of the latest cpu's like the 2600K and 3770K can actually pay for themselves while increasing the work done over time.
----------------------------------------An old single core P4 machine at say 3200 can pull 280W from the wall while a 3770K at 4GHz can pull as little as 128W. The 3770K will EASILY do TWENTY times the work of the old P4 while using 1/2 the electric. Now at the rediclous end of this is my dual E5-2687W machine. With turbo mode off( more efficient) it will do 130,000PPD while drawing 350W..I know, buying the machine is hugely expensive but I show that just to illustrate what can be done. My best to you all.  [Edit 1 times, last edit by Movieman at Sep 19, 2012 6:34:59 PM] |
||
|
|
Bearcat
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 6, 2007 Post Count: 2803 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
MM, does shutting off turbo on Westmere processors work similar to your E5-2687's or are those processors made more efficient? I know mine eat more electricity, just haven't done a comparison yet. If I di, I'll want to build another dually. Have to sell one of my dual Westmere systems to fund another build.
----------------------------------------
Crunching for humanity since 2007!
 |
||
|
|
KWSN - A Shrubbery
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 8, 2006 Post Count: 1585 Status: Offline |
Basically I never retire systems until there is simply no hope. Last one to go was a P-III laptop that had to be hooked to an external monitor to see. The laptops have been acquired for school, work needs, etc and eventually upgraded. Desktops (all running Linux) are mostly my personal fun systems; oldest one is an Alienware (from when they were still the best) and probably now the next in line to be unrepairable. It becomes harder to justify keeping around a single core system when I can throw in a cheap 6 or 8 thread board and re-use the case. Today I just finalized an AMD X2-64 that I picked up on clearance from e-bay. If it's cheap and I'm in the mood, it becomes a cruncher. KWSN - A Shrubbery where in the US do you live? Pacific NW, in fact you can't get much more NW without getting wet. Movieman, I know my systems are horrible at electrical efficiency but since >70% of our power is hydro it is incredibly cheap (about 6¢ per kWh). This may be changing shortly as new regulations require an increasing percentage of "renewable energy" and they classified existing hydro as not counting. What this effectively means is that they will need to be installing bio-mass generators in order to meet this need. We don't have sufficient sunlight or reliable wind in this area to make any other type feasible. Lobbying is still ongoing to allow hydro power to be classified renewable. We'll see how it turns out. Clearly common sense, reason, and even rational thinking are not factors in this debate.  Distributed computing volunteer since September 27, 2000 |
||
|
|
Movieman
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Sep 9, 2006 Post Count: 1042 Status: Offline |
MM, does shutting off turbo on Westmere processors work similar to your E5-2687's or are those processors made more efficient? I know mine eat more electricity, just haven't done a comparison yet. If I di, I'll want to build another dually. Have to sell one of my dual Westmere systems to fund another build. You should see some of the same benefit. I remember when I had my SR-2 system running at 4200MHz I was pulling 640W then a buddy in Germany spent a little time and had his SR2 at exactly 4GHz at 400W so it should be effective. Key point is max stable overclock isn't the smartest place to be from a cost perspective for work done. Now as to where you are your app 1/3d the cost I pay for elec. Heck, as much as I like NH it's the only place I know that spent THREE BILLION to build a nuc plant, watched it sit for almost 20 years and then when it was allowed to run the power is sold out of state and WE PAID for it!.. Yea, idiocy of Govt. Where do they find these nitwits?  |
||
|
|
Bearcat
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 6, 2007 Post Count: 2803 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
You would think the power goes to the state first, then sell off excess to other states. It's a joke though. Power grid is so unsecure meshing them under one control.
----------------------------------------BTW, you still using a ssd for page file? My 30gb is just about maxed out. Starting to wonder if trim isn't working properly under win7 64.
Crunching for humanity since 2007!
|
||
|
|
Amr Adam
Advanced Cruncher Egypt Joined: Aug 13, 2012 Post Count: 74 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Interesting topic, but what does this thread have to do with "Caring and Sharing" ? Should this be moved to the "Chat" forum? CJSL Hi cjslman, As the admins see fit, but i put it here from the perspective of sharing the ideas and suggestions about how to spread WCG, and how we could spread it around, and recruit more CPUs. |
||
|
|
Amr Adam
Advanced Cruncher Egypt Joined: Aug 13, 2012 Post Count: 74 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
1: 2 machines, 12 cores. All AMD Phenom II 1090T X 6 (Black) 2: Both home built. 2a: Win 7. 3: I'm running these about 100 h/wk, processing SN2S, GFAM, DSFL, CEP2, HCC, C4CW (when available), F@H, POEM@Home. Would run more hours but for electricity cost$.  Hey John C MacAlister, Thnx for sharing, did u try sharing the idea and raising some funds for that since u already have the machines & the temperature ? Maybe a fundraising dinner or event ? Or even make some products n sell them ? N how about spreading to friends and family ? |
||
|
|
Amr Adam
Advanced Cruncher Egypt Joined: Aug 13, 2012 Post Count: 74 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Thnx KWSN - A Shrubbery & yojimbo197, good info/ideas..
|
||
|
|
|