Planning on getting a huge farm!

SpywareShooter

First off, let me say that I hate my town. I can no longer get computers from the dump. I've been waking up late on accident every Saturday and have been getting to the dump late, but still expecting to pick up a computer. Every time I've gone they have had dumpsters with attendants standing right next to them, to prevent anyone from picking through the pile. I figured it was because it was late in the day and they were taking all the metal out to the processing plant. Today I was talking to one of my brother's friends and he said that it was to prevent trash pickers. The thing that really sucks about that too is that I Just got Partition Magic yesterday, expecting to create a partition to install Linux on a computer I was hoping to get today.

So if things don't get sorted out at the dump soon, allowing me to pick up a computer every week, I may start putting up 'wanted' posters around town for computers. I would leave one at each of the town's stores (they all have bulletin boards for ads) saying something like this:

WANTED: OLD COMPUTERS

Do you have a computer that you are planning on throwing away? Why not just donate it to a charitable cause? We are looking for old computers to run a program called Folding@Home, a project created by Sanford University to help find a cure for diseases like Alzheimers and Mad Cow Disease. For more information about Folding@Home please visit www.joinfolding.com. If you have an old computer that you would like to donate, please call the number below. No computer is too old or too slow to run the project, and part donations will be accepted.

*phone number*

So now, I have a few questions about this:
1)Why do some of you guys run partial systems (using as little hardware as possible)? Does it save electricity? I'm concerned that all these computers running 24/7 would add a HUGE amount to my Electric bill, and I would like to do anything possible to minimize the increase in cost.

2)Would this be worthwhile?

3)How much per month (on average) would running a low end system 24/7 add to my monthly electric bill? I know the average is about $4 but what about for a low-end system? My town is pretty poor so chances are people won't be donating P4 3.0s with 1GB RAM in them.

4)Should they all be running Linux (minus my 3 main computers) or should I have some with Win9x and some with Linux?

Thanks

Leonardo

Be careful what you ask for...

All's well and good unless you starting getting old K5's and Pentium (1's). These would be next to useless for Folding. Would you be able to just toss what is worthless, or is there a fee for discarding computer components?

I'm not trying to discourage you at all. Just think maybe a plan would be in order.

The best way to save energy with a 'farm' is to not run multiple monitors. A CRT is going to draw about as much power as the computer it supports. I think about $4 per computer/month would be about right. Add more if it has a monitor.

GrayFox

Make sure to say minimum pentium 3.

Leonardo

Agree. Minimum Pentium 3, Athlon, or Duron. I would imagine anything below 1000MHz wouldn't be worth the effort and energy bill.

SpywareShooter

I've got a 566MHz folding for me right now (my first computer) that gets about 200 points/week. I'd probably say nothing under 600MHz. I'll still accept lower but won't use the processors, they can just go to the trash. There is no fee for computer disposal. Right now I have two monitors plugged in. One is on the office computer (for when we need the office we don't have to drag in a monitor) and one is shared between the 566MHz Celeron and the 2.1GHz Athlon. I plan on sharing the currently shared monitor with any computers that I receive.

primesuspect

i'd say the minimum should be a pentium 2-era computer. As long as it supports DIMMs, even PC66, it should be decent enough to run folding. Anything older than a P2 is likely to use SIMMs and max out at either 32mb or 64mb of ram - neither which is sufficient to fold, even using linux.

Yeah, you're not gonna get a ton of points out of a P2-300, but I have lots of computers like that folding for me, and they definitely add up. If a 300mhz computer is folding, it could be the one that makes an important discovery, you just never know.

One of the primary reasons to run farms built without cases and things like that is to save money on parts costs. With donations, that's not a concern.

Thanks for trying so hard to add computers to the project, SS. If we all thought like you did, imagine what we could achieve

SpywareShooter

I also figured that maybe any "extra" parts I could donate to SMx if there's anything good enough, although there probably won't be.

I just helped one of my friends *try* to get his computer back online. Suddenly sometime last week his Internet went out on his main computer (2.08GHz Athlon) and he was stuck using an older Dell to access the Internet when that would allow him to. It turns out that the problem was that the port he was using on his router was dead, which he figured out for himself, but I removed a few viruses from his Athlon. I'm going to try to get him folding for us. He's got the 2.08GHz Athlon, a 1.something GHz Pentium (not sure what number) and a few machines around 800MHz. I know he'll at least let me install it on the Athlon, I don't know about the others.

So how is the advertisement? Did you spot any typos I missed or have any suggestions on stuff to add/remove/revise? I'm going to fix the font and stuff but that's the basic text I'll probably use. I want it to be all pretty and perfect to attract people's attention, maybe with a cog in the background or something.

mmonnin

Thing is with a P2-300, Brian is not paying the electric bill on all those that he has folding. I would pay for it to fold for me. I have an 788 Celeron with me thats not even folding. It just doesnt cut it when it comes to Points/power cost. I'm a college student and we have enough computers in our small apt the way it is. Heck I am thinking about getting an X2 so I can sell a computer, my current A64 and having one less computer in my room.

Go ahead and put the advertisement up. You might get something useful out of it but most likely it will be some small HDDs that you could use for an OS and FAH only.

profdlp

I'd go along with those who say stick to around 1GHz as a minimum. Much less than that and you would be better off socking away the money you'd otherwise spend on electricity to run them and put it toward a couple of decent Athlon XP rigs. You could build a Sempron-based rig for about $150. Spending $32 a month to run eight rinky-dink rigs would make your break-even point only a few months away.

With your skill at spyware removal you might have better luck by offering folks a discount if they allow you to run Folding in your name on their computer. Just make sure you're prepared to answer a bunch of questions about the project when you make the offer.

I also agree with everyone who is giving you a big thumbs up for having a very creative idea. Good man!

SpywareShooter

ok I'll keep the minimum to 1GHz.

I would do the spyware removal discount as you said, but the nearest PC shop is about 45 minutes away, so I don't work there . How would I go about doing spyware removal? Have people bring their computers to my house? I wouldn't want to have to travel to each client's house to service their computer with the prices of gas and the fact that people aren't willing to pay much for spyware removal it wouldn't be worth it.

scott

As Far as Typos go the one that got my attention was
" Sanford University "
It is
"Stanford University"



Scott

mmonnin

Oh people will pay. Tell them that if they brought it into a normal shop that it would cost them like a min of $50 just to look at it.

profdlp

scott wrote:

As Far as Typos go the one that got my attention was
" Sanford University "
It is
"Stanford University"



Scott

I can't believe no one else caught that.

Including me...

witenoiz

SpywareShooter wrote:

So now, I have a few questions about this:
1)Why do some of you guys run partial systems (using as little hardware as possible)? Does it save electricity? I'm concerned that all these computers running 24/7 would add a HUGE amount to my Electric bill, and I would like to do anything possible to minimize the increase in cost.
Thanks

This is a very noble project and you are to be commended for your dedication and willingness to devote your all I do have a bit of knowledge in this area. I built a farm with at one time 26 units running in my house. I used 300 watt power supplies and when I shut most of it down, the reason was cost only. My electric bill over the last 2 years has averaged over $250.00 a month. The slowest rig was a celeron 700 or something like that - but most were Athlon Barton 2500+ Socket A. These were no frills blades - pix included I hope. A few days ago I fired up an old Dos box with a huge 260MB hard drive in it. I loaded Windows 3.1 on it just to see once again how that looked on a system. It has no modem or network card - who knows whats ahead! Keep Folding - I like your enthusiasm. Jack

SpywareShooter

Thanks. Does running a system with the minimum amount of hardware possible decrease power costs?

witenoiz

SpywareShooter wrote:

Thanks. Does running a system with the minimum amount of hardware possible decrease power costs?

Location would figure into the cost - example, California electricity is more expensive than other locals - and is it posible to build your own solar system. Less hardware would have to be less cost - and less heat is my thinking. A guess - maybe a few cents for the cost of fans to keep a case cool. These hard drives are only 3.2 gigs and just run the OS, Folding, Dimes and WinVNC - we have some engineers in here that would know costs - My concern was building good units for the least amount of money - cases cost too much when I built my farm. Now I can buy a case with a 450 Watt PS for $35.00. Jack

Enverex

SpywareShooter wrote:

Thanks. Does running a system with the minimum amount of hardware possible decrease power costs?

Thats like saying "If I don't drive as far in my car, will I use less petrol?"

Well obviously... :rolleyes2

SpywareShooter

I figured that it would but I was just making sure I wouldn't be wasting time by stripping down systems.

Leonardo

The extra hardware won't per se, increase your energy consumption. For instance, an optical won't pull any watts to speak of unless it's playing something. Sure, there are the signals from the motherboard going to all the components for monitoring, but that's a very lower power draw. An increased draw would be multiple hard drives. The are spinning whether you are accessing them or not.

SpywareShooter

Now that I think about it, I would be better off doing spyware removal and installing FAH on customer's computers (with their permission). Not too many people would be willing to donate a 1GHz or better computer for free. Or I could pay a small amount, but probably not more than $10 since money is tight right now, but that wouldn't make a huge difference either.