Best folding choice per $

[Lincoln]

Economically, what's the best folding system per $ right now? I'm specifically looking for a cpu/mobo combination.

I know the "best" would be something ridiculous like quad 64-bit Opterons or some other craziness like that, but I wonder if for that price it wouldn't be more effective to buy a number of cheaper systems?

Anyway, what do you think the best kick for the dollar is? :)

[primesuspect]

Best kick for the buck, as mudd and I were discussing the other day, I personally believe is s754 semprons right now

here (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813185052) you have a s754 mobo with onboard video and lan for $56

here (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104226) you have a s754 Sempron 2600+ for $78

[profdlp]

PCChips? prime, I'm disappointed in you... :wtf:

Packing a little more wallop for about $50 more:

AMD Sempron 3100+ Paris core .13 800MHz FSB 256KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor$115 shipped w/HSF (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104214)

MSI K8MM-ILSR Socket 754 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $72 shipped; Onboard everything (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130459)

OCZ Premier Value 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory $40 shipped (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146998)

[primesuspect]

Right, but if I'm gonna build a farm or a super low cost dedicated folder, PCChips it is! :D

[edcentric]

Any idea as to what the point output for the Semp is?
We might be able to actually calc ppw/$ and compare setups.

[Lincoln]

We might be able to actually calc ppw/$ and compare setups.
That would be pretty sweet :)

Also... any recommendations on how to make (a) rig(s) like this a small, compact, and inconspicuous as possible? Space is at a premium for me.

[profdlp]

...any recommendations on how to make (a) rig(s) like this a small, compact, and inconspicuous as possible? Space is at a premium for me.
...Micro ATX AMD Motherboard ...
Physical Spec
Form Factor Micro ATX
Dimensions 12" x 9.4"

:cool:

[primesuspect]

I sense a new project coming on. Other sites have their "recommendation" articles (like ars has the budget box, midrange box, godbox, etc. - i think they publish twice a year), we could have the best "folding bang for the buck system" and update it on a regular basis :eek2:

volunteers?

[csimon]

I've always how/if these 1.2ghz c3's would fold for $125.

VIA EPIA MII 12000 LVDS 1.2Ghz Motherboard
VIA EPIA MII 12000 LVDS - 1.2Ghz
£125.00
£146.88 inc. VAT

Now with LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling) interface as standard. LVDS can be used to interface to certain flat panel displays, at signal rates as high as 655 Mbps.

The fastest Nehemiah motherboard currently available. The Nehemiah MII 12000 has an onboard "fansink" reducing heat and noise (a mere 25dBA at one metre). Onboard VIA Apollo CLE266 graphics and 1.2Ghz C3 Processor with next generation Nehemiah C5P core gives the EPIA MII 12000 vastly improved Padlock encryption, 3D graphics and DVD playback, and the board has 6 Channel audio, 10/100 Ethernet, USB 2.0, Firewire and TV-Out support and one PC Card (Cardbus) Slot and one Compact Flash slot. Ideal for the perfect multimedia playback machine. Image is of EPIA MEII 6000.

The EPIA MIIs have ONE PC2100 DDR DIMM memory slot. Suitable DIMMs, Compact Flash Cards and Wireless PC Cards available.

[profdlp]

Those are British lbs. 125 pounds = $239 US. :o

[csimon]

Those are British lbs. 125 pounds = $239 US. :o
:bawling: :scratch: wait don't british pounds weigh as much as american pounds? ;D

[Gargoyle]

I've always how/if these 1.2ghz c3's would fold for $125.

I've always wanted to play with one of those VIA C3/Epia systems, but from the benchmarks I've looked at, they don't seem like remarkable folders. I've been wanting to put one in my car :D

[Thrax]

They have FPUs fairly reminiscent of the Pentium II. They are miserable folders.

[shwaip]

another important consideration in cost is power consumption. I think I saw a post @ folding-community comparing points/power consumption of a system. But I've since forgotten where it was. IIRC, the Pentium M was the best deal.


http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=11314

[Gargoyle]

Mobile processors in general sound like a good idea.

[KingFish]

This is something I exhaustingly researched last year when building nodes for my folding farm. After weighing all the options I went with biostar M7VKQ Pro motherboards (integrated everything) and thoroughbred 2400+ chips with 256mb value ram. I got some cheap allied psu's and small hard drives (around 5gb or so), set it up, then ram them headless via pcanywhere. I feel it is the most bang for the buck setup. It is small and compact and I have them stuffed below my embroidery machine where they can't even be seen on some small plastic shelves I bought from wal-mart.

If I were to make the decision today I'd probably still go with biostar as they have been pretty good for a budget brand although I think I may play the market a little more and see what deals I come across on the refurb section on newegg as well as ebay. I think the s754 semprons are the way to go. You can get by just fine with 256 mb ram even with big work units to save on some money. Turn off all the eye candy in Win XP by configuring it for best performance in the system section of control panel to save on ram usage. Otherwise set it and forget it except for a reboot now and then.

I'm in the process of adding and rebuilding nodes and nearly totally redoing my folding farm as I've had three computers not work on me lately. When time allows I'll get the nodes back up and begin to charge forward with more. You do have to take in consideration the thermal release of each chip (this being an area the thoroughbred sucks) as you'll possibly have to cool the room additionally and also take into consideration the electrical usage of each node. As a rule of thumb each node costs about 6 bucks a month.

[edcentric]

How good of an inicator of out put is the benchmark that FAH runs at start-up?
We could collect a lot of system info from those.

For an OS I like W2k. It isn't too big and it is solid as a brick.

[lemonlime]

How good of an inicator of out put is the benchmark that FAH runs at start-up?
We could collect a lot of system info from those.

For an OS I like W2k. It isn't too big and it is solid as a brick.

Really trimmed down linux distros work well too..

[primesuspect]

Yeah I think for real budget work, linux is probably the way to go.

[TheLostSwede]

What about a cheap Dothan and the asus adapter? You get a new Dothan 1.5 2mb cache for around $100 on ebay pretty regurarly and the adapter costs $35-40 and a m-atx i865 Asus board is like $70 new. (called VM or something like that, but it's supposed to work with the adapter). $200 + ram for a cpu and mainboard that does 2.1-2.3 ghz without a fan. (yes, they run so cool you dont need a fan if you use a good heatsink)
I'm not sure how good the Dothans fold though. I'm building a Desktop Dothan right now, so we should see soon.

[profdlp]

Really trimmed down linux distros work well too..
You know what we need? A custom Linux CD, stripped down to the bare necessities, with a FAH Console installer built-in and a method so the end result can be seen as a Windows share so you could monitor it via EMIII from a WinXP computer. I know someone who could use something like that right now. :D

[TheBaron]

sounds like knoppix to me! I know I've seen knoppix bundled with FAH too...

[KingFish]

A feature that would need to be integrated is the ability to restart the computer remotely aka via pcanywhere or vnc. I know the latest version of pcanywhere (which I don't have) has the ability to control linux pc's. This is necessary so the computer can run headless, which saves mucho dinero unless you want to spring for a kvm (which are pricey).

[danball1976]

They have FPUs fairly reminiscent of the Pentium II. They are miserable folders.

I thought it was even worse than that, I read/head that the VIA Cyrix III such as a 1GHz CPU is equal to something like a 300-400MHz regular CPU.

[primesuspect]

with linux, you don't need pcanywhere or anything like that. Every linux computer has remote access built in. It's called SSH.

[profdlp]

with linux, you don't need pcanywhere or anything like that. Every linux computer has remote access built in. It's called SSH.
You could have told me that two weeks ago... :rolleyes:

[Camman]

I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything (cause I'm not :D) but I figured I'd chime in with my comments

I just built a system using an ASUS A7V400-MX motherboard and a Sempron 3000+. It's a microATX board and it was only $54. Asus is of course a good brand and it has onboard video and LAN. It's socket A so it wont work with the 754 Semprons, but the 3000+ Socket A is only $104. So for mobo and processor it was like $158 with super saver shipping from newegg, call it $160 for a pretty decent folding machine. And that's with the PIB Sempron 3000+, OEM is probably a few bucks cheaper. The S754 Sempron 3000+ runs at 1.8ghz but the Socket A runs at 2ghz. Any reason for this?

The only reason I mention it is cause I really like this board and I'm thinking of buying 2 or 3 of them to start my own mini folding farm but I first need to figure out a way to network boot them or something because I don't want to have to run 2 or 3 hard drives.

[mmonnin]

Dothans are AWESOME at folding. If I get a p1477 it doubles the PPW of any machine I have. Thats a 1.6 P-M compared to a 2.4GHz XP-M. Those WUs fold rediculously fast!

Any VIA processor is crap for folding. They wont do crap.

If you want best initial bang for the buck, get the s754 CPUs like prime mentioined if you want new. If you want to buy used, get a regular AXP, slightly cheaper and slightly slower.

If you want cost over time, the Dothans might work out for you, esp if noise is an issue.

[lemonlime]

Good ol' AXPs are great folders. I have my barton 3000+ @ 2.2GHz folding next to my A64 @ 2.6GHz, and the frame times on identical proteins are pretty close.

[mmonnin]

The A64 should be faster even at the same clock speed from what Ive heard.

[profdlp]

My A64 experience has been that the production boost is largely dependent on the type of WU.

[lemonlime]

I think you are right prof, Tinker WUs seem to be fairly close in frame times.. Less than 30 second difference in frame times on identical proteins on my systems right now. The memory intensive WUs seem to be much more in favor of the A64 architecture.

[mmonnin]

So then Large WUs?

And I am sure the ones that utailize SSE2 see a nice performance boost as well. The double gromacs.

[lsevald]

p1477 seems to like cache (and the dothan has 2MB of it). The Abit KV-80 (Via chipset) setup is a 3200+ s754 1MB Clawhammer, running 200x10 2.5-3-3-8. MSI Neo2 (NF3) is a 3200+ s939 512kb Winchester running 240x10 2-2-2-5 DC...and it's only 17sec faster pr frame :scratch:

[mmonnin]

Hmmm must be it. The XP-M is faster than a 1700+ I have at the same speed. The timings are off but the XP-M has the cache and is faster.

[csimon]

yeah an xp-m barton core is going to be hard to beat. And there are a few 35w models still hanging around but probably not for long.
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103439

[lsevald]

I find this combo tempting:

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103444R
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123240

Though I have no idea if the mobo supports mobiles :)