starting f@h

[wayland64]

So im really interested in folding at home, and i have a good amount of money to spend on old server gear. Im wondering what i should be looking for to get the best for my buck.

[tobben]

Depends on your budget, you are probably

best of betting on gpus while spending 

minimum on everything else. 

[wayland64]

1 minute ago, tobben said:

Depends on your budget, you are probably

best of betting on gpus while spending 

minimum on everything else. 

im looking at 500-750usd for the gear. So i shouldn't be looking at old servers?

[tobben]

8 minutes ago, wayland64 said:

im looking at 500-750usd for the gear. So i shouldn't be looking at old servers?

Likely not advisable. Just to throw some 

unsubstantiated numbers at you  

let's say a mid range cpu gets from 20-40k

ppd, while a mid range gpu might get from

150-300k ppd. 

 

Just to maximize sheer computing power, 

gpu's currently seem to be the way to go,

that being the case, old server hardware

might not be the ideal route. 

[wayland64]

1 minute ago, tobben said:

Likely not advisable. Just to throw some 

unsubstantiated numbers at you  

let's say a mid range cpu gets from 20-40k

ppd, while a mid range gpu might get from

150-300k ppd. 

 

Just to maximize sheer computing power, 

gpu's currently seem to be the way to go,

that being the case, old server hardware

might not be the ideal route. 

are there certain gpus i should be looking for?

[Imakuni]

21 minutes ago, wayland64 said:

So im really interested in folding at home, and i have a good amount of money to spend on old server gear. Im wondering what i should be looking for to get the best for my buck.

If you are interested in F@H, here are the guidelines for getting the most out of your money:

1. Use PCs you already have. Might seem obvious, but if you already have hardware that's not crunching non stop, then you are wasting a lot of potential.
2. Upgrade your machines. Have a 750ti? Maybe a 970? Perhaps you are like me and you have a n HD 4350 (yeah, THAT) on one of your PCs... well, then upgrade those cards to newer, stronger and more energy efficient cards. The go-to right now is the Gtx 1070, but upgrading old LGA 775 Pentium machines to newer Sky/Kaby systems is also on the menu. You might also want to upgrade your PSUs to 80+ Gold ones to save on power in the long run.
3. After the 2 above, strat throwing a 2nd GPU onto machines that can handle it is the next bet.

Only after doing those you should thinking about building new systems, at which point I'll be glad to help.

[wayland64]

3 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

If you are interested in F@H, here are the guidelines for getting the most out of your money:

1. Use PCs you already have. Might seem obvious, but hardware you already have hardware that's not crunching non stop, then you are wasting a lot of potential.
2. Upgrade your machines. Have a 750ti? Maybe a 970? Perhaps you are like me and you have a n HD 4350 (yeah, THAT) on one of your PCs... well, then upgrade those cards to newer, stronger and more energy efficient cards. The go-to right now is the Gtx 1070, but upgrading old LGA 775 Pentium machines to newer Sky/Kaby systems is also on the menu. You might also want to upgrade your PSUs to 80+ Gold ones to save on power in the long run.
3. After the 2 above, strat throwing a 2nd GPU onto machines that can handle it is the next bet.

Only after doing those you should thinking about building new systems, at which point I'll be glad to help.

Ok, ill take that all under advisement thanks.

[wayland64]

5 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

If you are interested in F@H, here are the guidelines for getting the most out of your money:

1. Use PCs you already have. Might seem obvious, but hardware you already have hardware that's not crunching non stop, then you are wasting a lot of potential.
2. Upgrade your machines. Have a 750ti? Maybe a 970? Perhaps you are like me and you have a n HD 4350 (yeah, THAT) on one of your PCs... well, then upgrade those cards to newer, stronger and more energy efficient cards. The go-to right now is the Gtx 1070, but upgrading old LGA 775 Pentium machines to newer Sky/Kaby systems is also on the menu. You might also want to upgrade your PSUs to 80+ Gold ones to save on power in the long run.
3. After the 2 above, strat throwing a 2nd GPU onto machines that can handle it is the next bet.

Only after doing those you should thinking about building new systems, at which point I'll be glad to help.

one more question. i have a couple of old xenon systems is worth getting those up and running again?

[Imakuni]

Just now, wayland64 said:

one more question. i have a couple of old xenon systems is worth getting those up and running again?

For folding, you'd be better off selling them and using the money to get GPUs. F@H just doesn't care about your CPU. Now sure, you can do work with it, and it will be worth to get them running while you wait for someone to buy them, but as far as how much work is done and how many points you get, they really aren't anything next to a graphics card.

 

(That's for F@H, ofc, but the story changes if you are to do Boinc work instead).

[wayland64]

1 minute ago, Imakuni said:

For folding, you'd be better off selling them and using the money to get GPUs. F@H just doesn't care about your CPU. Now sure, you can do work with it, and it will be worth to get them running while you wait for someone to buy them, but as far as how much work is done and how many points you get, they really aren't anything next to a graphics card.

 

(That's for F@H, ofc, but the story changes if you are to do Boinc work instead).

Sorry for bugging you still. But how does it change for boinc and would that be a better option for me?

[Imakuni]

Just now, wayland64 said:

Sorry for bugging you still. But how does it change for boinc and would that be a better option for me?

For Boinc, there are many projects that are mainly / entirely CPU based, so your Xeons would be pretty useful there. As to specifics, it depends on which project (and within that, which subproject) you decide to aid. If you'd like a place to start, World Community Grid has the same biomedical vibe as F@H, though not limited to it.

 

If you are interested in joining, use this referal link so that it automatically adds your account to the LTT team.

[wayland64]

1 minute ago, Imakuni said:

For Boinc, there are many projects that are mainly / entirely CPU based, so your Xeons would be pretty useful there. As to specifics, it depends on which project (and within that, which subproject) you decide to aid. If you'd like a place to start, World Community Grid has the same biomedical vibe as F@H, though not limited to it.

 

If you are interested in joining, use this referal link so that it automatically adds your account to the LTT team.

ok thanks for all the help