Huge Production Upgrade!!!

Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
edited February 2004 in Folding@Home
Thought I would update all of you on this.

I will be adding 3 new pc's next week. All powered in my house :rockon:

1st PC:
Athlon XP-m 2400+ (@2.4)
Abit AN7 rev 1.0
512 MB Buffalo Pc3200 CH5
SLK947U w/ Tt SF2
Maxtor 6GB 5400rpm (c: )
2x 120GB JB's Raid 1
Powmax 400W PSU
Sony 52x CDROM
Windows 2000 Professional
PNY TnT 2 m64 PCI 32mb

2nd PC:
Athlon XP 2400+ Thornton 266FSB (@2.2-2.3)
Abit VA-10 v1.1
512 MB Crucial Pc2100
Stock Heatsink + Fan
Cheap HD (2-8GB) Please PM Me if You have anything to sell $10 shipped max
Fortron FSP300-60PN 300W PSU
IBM Case (Aptiva P2)
IBM 16x CDROM
Windows 2000 Professional
Onboard S3 UniChrome Graphics

3rd PC:
Duron 1.83GHz Applebred 266FSB (@ 2.4, modded to Thoroughbred)
Abit NF7-s
256 MB Buffalo Pc 3200
SLK800U + Tt SF2
Cheap HD (2-8GB) Please PM Me if You have anything to sell $10 shipped max
Antec 300W SmartPower PSU
Antec SLK2600AMB
Sony 52x CDROM
Windows 2000 Professional
TnT2 m64 32 MB Please PM Me if You have anything to sell $8 shipped max

It's official. Al's starting a folding farm. Can't wait to get a job and just pump out PC's.

Hopefully I can go Orange within 2 weeks. Then after that it's on to red.

If anyone has any tips on starting/maintaining farms please share.

Nick:woowoo:
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Comments

  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited February 2004
    good gawd man!

    fold on!
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited February 2004
    Way to go Mr Capown :clap::clap:

    You just reset the heights of the goal posts, lol. :fold::fold::fold:
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited February 2004
    So it's gonna be the "fight of the folding farms eh"? Run all you want but you can't hide Al. I'm still coming for ya. I got cheap hard drives off ebay. I've bought a bunch of hard drives here from this guy, Duncan Online. Check out his other deals also. Apparently he does a lot of pulls from old computer systems. I'm awaiting mine in the mail right now. My schwag is also en route from newegg too.

    KingFish
  • miinkiemiinkie UK
    edited February 2004
    me wants a farm too. way 2 go :celebrate
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited February 2004
    Also, if you need tips for your farm, I'd be glad to help. I'm going through the pains right now. So far so good.

    KingFish
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2004
    Al, starting up the farm is a sure sign that you are hopelessly addicted. :rockon::D Congratulations on getting together your farm.:clap:

    One thing that I really found that helped maintaining my farm is the use of kvm switches. VNC works ok for maintaining but sucks when you are trying to find your max overclock; nothing's better than switchable direct control of the keyboard, mouse and monitor. I bought a 4 port kvm switch with cables for about $100 (I think, it's been a while) from Newegg. Another problem you will run into is the heat that several machines put out confined to 1 room. I had to add a 10,000 btu window ac in my computer room to cool my farm down, but I am running 7 high end XP, P3 and P4 machines. The heat wasn't a real problem until my farm grew beyond 3-4 machines. One other thing for you to be prepared for is to hear Mom and Dad start bitching about the electric bill too because 3-4 machines will make a noticable difference in power usage. Be prepared for this by offereing them 30-40 dollars per month to pay for the electricity costs of running the farm, in case they bitch about it.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Odds are you will catch up to me in no time, then, instead of hanging out 2-3 weeks behind me. Best of luck, its for the cause and my stats do not matter except for that.

    BTW, gang, one side effect of all this-- we in fact are outproducing Both of Team Egg Roll and Maximum PC in weekly and daily production, have been for a few days, consistently. ROCK ON!!! JiHAD FOR FOLDING!!! JiHAD ON CANCER!!!

    Or is it....
  • DogSoldierDogSoldier The heart of radical Amish country..
    edited February 2004
    Al, even with all that firepower, I figure all I'll need to hold you off is another 3Ghz of HT power - And if that's not enough.... well, we'll have to see. But good luck with that farm, you'll have a blast, I know I am with only 2 computers.. lol. I'll vouch for the use of KVMs. Up until 3 weeks ago, I didn't even know what they were. Now, It's so convenient to switch between computers. Just press num-lock twice and either 1 or 2. The only downside is the mass of wires behind the desk, and my cat loves to play...
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited February 2004
    I've tried two KVMs (both were the exact same brand/modell, though (it's a no-name brand, so don't ask)) on my NF7-S and it just won't work. Have you had any issues with your NF7-S not liking your KVM?
    muddocktor wrote:
    One thing that I really found that helped maintaining my farm is the use of kvm switches.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited February 2004
    I considered the use of KVM too but once I grow to above five or more motherboards, the switch would be outgrown. I have a keyboard/monitor/trackball that I use on one of my boxes that I use for my farm mobo(s) when I need to monkey around in the bios. Other than that, I've had good success with pcanywhere utilitized across my network. The only other investment is to add another 5 port switch so far for only 30 bucks. I can add another switch with more ports or add another 5 port switch. I've been doing mine dirt cheap with nearly all my money going to cpu/mobo/ram/hsf/psu. Just another way of attacking the problem for cheap and has been a good alternative for me in lieu of a kvm.

    KingFish
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2004
    a2jfreak wrote:
    I've tried two KVMs (both were the exact same brand/modell, though (it's a no-name brand, so don't ask)) on my NF7-S and it just won't work. Have you had any issues with your NF7-S not liking your KVM?

    This is the 4 port kvm switch that I'm using. It plays fine with all mobos I've thrown on it. The only problem, if you can call it a problem, is that the side buttons on my intellimouse optical don't work with it. Also, the price has come down on it quite a bit since I bought mine. It's now only $63 and it includes 2-6 ft cable sets and 2-4 ft cable sets.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    One seemingly dumb question:

    Have you tried running a KVM line bundle from the primary KVM to the secondary? Other than line length totalling too much to get good signal, there is no SYSTEM reason you cannot hook up an outport on the primary to the "master connection ports" on a secondary KVM. In essence, primary KVM can be partly(or totally) routing to another KVM or KVMs. I run 16 feet of line(total) in some places with cheap KVMs-- good professional ones can push signals 200 feet or more.... Signals are steady as a rock....

    The only reason I do it this way, is no always-on software load to run the PCAnywhere clients on the end node folding boxes when you use an all-hardware routing.

    John D.
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited February 2004
    Thank ya much, Mudd! :)
    muddocktor wrote:
    This is the 4 port kvm switch that I'm using. It plays fine with all mobos I've thrown on it. The only problem, if you can call it a problem, is that the side buttons on my intellimouse optical don't work with it. Also, the price has come down on it quite a bit since I bought mine. It's now only $63 and it includes 2-6 ft cable sets and 2-4 ft cable sets.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    muddocktor wrote:
    This is the 4 port kvm switch that I'm using. It plays fine with all mobos I've thrown on it. The only problem, if you can call it a problem, is that the side buttons on my intellimouse optical don't work with it. Also, the price has come down on it quite a bit since I bought mine. It's now only $63 and it includes 2-6 ft cable sets and 2-4 ft cable sets.

    Muddocktor, look in manual, turn the PS\2 mouse emulation off. With it on, the driver installers will think it is a PS\2 mouse and not install the right mouse for the special buttons. I have one (KVM) mfr'd by the same company, there is a keystroke sequence from keyboard to turn off the PS\2 emulation. When you power all the boxes off at once, and have it plugeed only into boxes, it draws power through PS\2 ports, so if you have them off for long (all at once) and do not have a searate power transformer hooked to it, then you might get to redo that when you power it back up. Some mice only get recognized as to special buttons whern they are hooked to USB KVMs or where the PS\2 mouse emulation is off.

    I do not use the special buttons on my MX700 right now, and on one XP box the mouse is detected as a Microsoft Wheel mouse optical and on other as a Logitech PS\2 mouse set to 200 pulses per second. One of the things the folks that made that model series of KVM found is that sometimes the driver installers for the mouse support software detected right with the PS\2 emulation off. Not guaranteed, but worth a try. Yuo probably will get to reinstall your Intellipoint software, though you will also find you can MANUALLY use some choices to choose your mouse with Intellipoint. I have Intellipoint 5.0 running on the box that thinks the Logitech MX700 is a wheel mouse optical.

    John D-- who wanted speed, did not need the extra buttons, and wanted a mouse with a recharge cradle.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    My hat is off to all of you. :respect:

    My late-Summer upgrade slipped to Christmas, then was postponed again. ($$$ :-/ ) If things don't turn around soon I'm going to have to start cheating at cards, or robbing old folks of their Social Security checks.
  • OverLoadOverLoad
    edited February 2004
    ive just started folding- ive known about it but didnt really know what it was about but now that i do FOLD! hopefully soon ill have a better rig to help with our team. getting a amd 64 3200+ and 1 gig of corsair xms.needless to say im really happy with my tax return:)
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    OverLoad wrote:
    ive just started folding- ive known about it but didnt really know what it was about but now that i do FOLD! hopefully soon ill have a better rig to help with our team. getting a amd 64 3200+ and 1 gig of corsair xms.needless to say im really happy with my tax return:)
    Congrats and welcome to the team OverLoad!!! :fold:
    I manage my farm thru an access point and remote access. Still takes a long time to access 26 procs that way but way faster than the alternate.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    Al get EM3 on your main system that your use. Share the FAH folder on each computer. Then monitor each with EM3 so you know when each goes down if any do. Saved me a few times.
  • sgstairsgstair Reverse Engineer Redmond, WA Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    IMHO the best way to monitor multiple PC's is with a remote access type program, I personally use TightVNC (www.tightvnc.com) - it exists for windows/unix/linux, and can run as a service under win2k/xp so you don't have to worry much about startup. As long as your motherboard doesn't require a keyboard to boot ;)

    -Stephen
  • sgstairsgstair Reverse Engineer Redmond, WA Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Granted, just to monitor folding, use em3 (http://home.comcast.net/~wxdude1/emsite/download.html) or f@h log stats (http://fahstats.sourceforge.net/mt/)

    -Stephen (again)
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    I use realvnc, but its all the same.
  • OverLoadOverLoad
    edited February 2004
    when i complete my first wu will i be registered on the score site?
  • sgstairsgstair Reverse Engineer Redmond, WA Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    You bet!
    And then, we'll all throw a party on the forums :)

    -Stephen
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited February 2004
    Stephen called it - once the first WU goes in you'll want to watch the Team Short-Media forum for your official welcome thread.

    When you hit 1,000 points you'll be honored in the Notable Milestones section.

    Then it's party time!
    :celebrate

    BTW: looks like sgstair is nearly ready for the coveted BWA! :thumbsup::fold:
  • sgstairsgstair Reverse Engineer Redmond, WA Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    :D Yup, should be breaking 5k later today ;)

    -Stephen
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited February 2004
    I have a Belkin OmniView Pro 8-Port KVM. Works great! $125 on eBay plus $4.95 per cable set.

    KX7, KD7, NF7-S and K7S5A Pro on it right now. :)



    Keep building those Folding Farms. :celebrate
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    I got my K7S5A back up and running today. Only 1.5 GHz and it was only down a few days but still more power.
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    Before I hit google, does anyone have any good guides on modding an applebred to thoroughbred?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    Al, why are you using hard drives? I still think that diskless nodes and network booting is the way to go. It's cheaper.

    Oh, and by the way... you guys (Al, Kingfish, and the rest of you too) can laugh it up all you want now, but come this summer, you won't be laughing any more... *evil laugh*

    Soon you will all learn to fear the awesome power of a machine with dual 400MHz P-II Xeons and the even MORE awesome power of a machine with Dual P-IIIs @ 450MHz *evil laugh*














    WHY ARE YOU NOT SCREAMING IN TERROR?!?!
    You! In back! Stop singgering or I'll come back there and shove that AXP up your nose!
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    I can get HDDs for like $3-5 at a computer show that comes twice a year close to me. Doesnt cost that much. Plus the extra 5W or so a HDD takes. Cost would not be that much difference overall.
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