Redeploying What has been a Great System

QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
edited January 2006 in Folding@Home
I guess we've all had our favorite PC and this one has definitely been mine. Ironically, this is the first system I'm retiring without really "needing to", but it also presents a first-time opportunity for me.

It's an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe mobo with an AMD 3000+ Barton in it and it can currently play whatever title me or my teens have thrown at it- from Visual Studio 2005 to F.E.A.R. Demo. I'm planning on stripping out almost all my other components and using them for a new X2 system I'm building or handing them down to the other family systems.

Rather than put this horse down, I want to put her to pasture. That means Folding. I've got a spare 512MB PC3200 stick and a venerable 27GB WD drive I can throw into the kitty with the mobo and CPU.

While I know you've all been down this road ... what prof? 647 times? :crazy: - I'd like to finally saddle up and begin my "farm" and pick at some genius for ideas on a good compact (space issues) case, PSU and any other other farming tips and tricks the budding sod-buster ought to know. I don't plan to OC and want to leave enough power (and hence $) for potentially other future rigs.

Links to your favorite threads/posts along these lines are appreciated as well.

Thanks all :D

Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    If you're planning to re-use the case for a new computer, you could consider going caseless. (This assumes you have a safe place to stash it - where the dog can't get at it, etc.)

    Otherwise, I'd just go to Newegg and buy the cheapest case you can find with a decent PSU. In fact, since you're not going to be stressing the machine with a big volt-sucking Video Card, or multiple drives, I'd even say that a mediocre PSU would suffice.

    This one looks about my style. :cheers:

    You don't need a Floppy Drive, and once you have the OS installed you can remove the cdrom drive as well. Unless you want the rig to pull double-duty as a spare "everyday use" computer you can even set the BIOS to "Halt on NO errors" and get by without a mouse and keyboard, too. Forget about a monitor and just monitor FAH via EMIII. A spare USB mouse (I just bought one at the drug store for $3) is handy for those times you may want to get in there and tweak a setting or two.

    I currently have eleven rigs (not counting two laptops) running in a 2BR apartment. Only six of them are currently in cases.

    It is also 46F outside at the moment and I've had to turn my A/C on... :eek:
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Qeldroma You asked how I do it, and it is buy the way you’re doing it “well starting to do it”. I agree with Prof on this one, getting away with no case is the best. I have about 6 caseless machines and I just throw a big 120MM fan in the front and call it a day. I am constantly building new rigs for myself and for my clients. But cheap cases with PSU’d are also a good way to go. I always looks nice when you have 5+ towers that are all in the same bling bling case. Thrown a blue fan in it and bam you have a pretty glowing corner in your room or office…

    Prof "nice case I think I have used that one a few times" but to the point I have found no matter how old a computer is, they all work well for folding. I have my Dual Pent 3 450's going at it now and she screams on those Tinker WU's :) I even rolled out my original AMD chip some of the first to even hit the market. Having a hell of a time getting a good version of windows going but I will get them there 

    So any questions you have post them, As most of us Folders have some sort of knowledge to get almost anything folding :) and I mean anything.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited December 2005
    Wow. I actually hadn't thought of a caseless solution- maybe because I still have teenagers rollicking about all over the house that makes this idea seem like showing up to a gunfight with a club ;D. However, I think I have a spot that might be possible and I guess I could even score standoffs long enough to be separators and actually stack the boards- I only have ATX anymore- (?). Thanks for the idea- it's got me brewing now.

    However, profs temperature thought is a major one for me and probably one you've had, Sledge. I live in the desert SW where temps get up to 120F in the summer and most of the days between April and October cruise around 100. So things like overclocking have a two-fold power penalty for me. If you've had extra thoughts on that subject, that would be great too. (Actually- thought about a basement- but that's more scratch than I've got right now). A big fan would be cool, but quiet would be welcome as well since it (they) will proably occupy a spot by the bedrooms.

    Thanks for the input. BTW prof- time to hit up prime$u$pect for that raise :D
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    Well I live in Sunny So Cal where temps reach to the high 118's so I can say I have the heat here also, but 1 fortunate factor I have is my new house is surrounded by 2 story homes on both sides. With just that factor it allows my house to stay very cool all the time. Last summer while they were building our house we went down to check it out. It was 112 outside and the inside of our house was about 72 Degrees.. very nice for cooling bills :)

    But yes computers do produce a good amount of heat, most of my towers running at about 30C to 45C and seem to warm the room up, but to a honest comfortable level. the only thing I do is prop a cheap $12.00 wall mart fan up and make sure that warm air is circulating. Computers can take allot of heat abuse, especially Intel systems. But as long as the inside of your house isn’t peaking 95+ degrees I wouldn’t worry that much.

    I use to build computers in sealed cabinets for shops with computerized equipment we recorded 145 Degree temps in the boxes and never had any computers fail.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited December 2005
    Sledgehammer70 wrote:
    ... But as long as the inside of your house isn’t peaking 95+ degrees I wouldn’t worry that much...

    As long as it has no one else is in it either ... hmmm ... has possibilities ... ;D
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited December 2005
    People- I'm having trouble posting. My last post was incomplete- and it's been going on all morning- is it me or the site (maintenance?)- I'm loggin out in the middle of replying. My net seems fine- other sites stay up. ?

    I'll edit this later, but it's about all I can get in today.- Thanks.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    I was having issues with posting a message and when I hit post my Fire Fox window would bug oout and close!
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited December 2005
    When my clan was up and running, I had 7 or 8 running in a closet. I had to put a bathroom exhaust fan in the ceiling to exhaust the hot air into the attic.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited December 2005
    Hey, what happened to our Team #93 avatar stickies? :ninja::rant: :screwed: ;D

    Thanks for all the insights. Any reason I might want to steer clear of maybe stacking a desktop style case? I ask that because I've seen almost exclusively towers.

    Not a bad thought donut. Putting in a ceiling vent fan may work out very nicely- considering my thought right now is a linen closet. I think I'll pipe it to the bathroom duct.

    I also have what may be another noobish question(s)- is there a way to hook up a single large supply to mutiple boards- like a PSU connector/adapter?
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    For the price it isn't worth it, But i have seen guys split everyhting up, but it seemed to always fail in the long run.... PSU's are trickey and the last thing you want to do is fry 2 computers at once.... :)
  • DonutDonut Maine New
    edited December 2005
    The only reason I can think of on desktop cases is heat. IMO, airflow would not be as good and harder to keep cool, especially at max load.

    You might want to check out a couple of threads. There's one of pics for ideas for you, and another on farms.http://forum.folding-community.org/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=0054234c1e524df254394204dd50665c

    Here's another here.http://short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31177&highlight=folding+pics

    On the closet, it worked out fairly well, I had about a 2" gap under the door for airflow and in the summer (or when I got crazy with the woodstove) I had to open the door a couple of inches.

    Shelves in the closet were pulled forward a couple of inches to allow hot air to rise up the back.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited December 2005
    If you want to keep the Aria case do what I did with 2 120MM fans. I just used my dremel and cut out 2 nice looking circles. marked holes for sqrews and mounted the fans on both sides. and since I did a custom mod for the PSU, I had room on the back for 1 more 120MM fan. the CPU runs at about 37C - 42C on full load. and idelas around 30c-32c if you want to get real good remove the CDRW and put another 120MM fan and just plug in the CDRW when needed!
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited January 2006
    For a folding rig psu, I've used a couple of the Thermaltake Silent Pure Power 420's, which are here - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006 . They have been good enough to feed a socket 754 machine overclocked to 2600 MHz with no problems and with good rails. I don't believe in getting real cheap power supplies because they can take out so much other stuff if they crap out.

    Also, my relief here on the rig has the neatest IDE to USB 2.0 converter you've ever seen. He bouth it from Newegg- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006 . It will not only let you run a spare hard drive on a USB port but it will also let you run a CDrom drive on it too. It also has a 2.5" hard drive connector too, so you can use it to salvage information from a laptop drive. Here's a picture of the converter.
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