suggestions for building a budget foldiing rig

shellshock · Jun 26, 2005

I was looking into building a budget folding rig and I need some recomdetions. Im just looking to buy ram, mobo, and cpu. I have everytihing else. My buget is strickley under $150. I dont care if its intel or amd, Just whatever can get the Maxium PPD. Oh ya, It'll be overclocked, but i dont need to go all elaborate in cooling. I'll oc it according to my cooling and what it will handle.

Thaks guys

amer1337 · Jun 26, 2005

check newegg in the refurb or clearance section i bet you can get a system up for thatmuch

(or check the recycling center

shellshock · Jun 26, 2005

for folding and price, Is intel or amd better?

orionlion82 · Jun 27, 2005

id give the edge to intel if you wanted to tear up the QMD's dont know if those are still around though actually...

Audioaficionado · Jun 27, 2005

Yep the QMDs are an Intel exclusive right now and I get 95% QMDs on my two Intel rigs and 75% of my PPD.

funnyperson1 · Jun 27, 2005

The question is how good are the celerons at folding? I'm not sure how much cache matters, but if it does I think your best bet for a system under 150 total would be an Athlon XP/ Cheap NF2.

You shouldn't have many problems finding a used/refurbished NF2 board with an AXP plus 256mb of ram for less than 150.

ChasR · Jun 27, 2005

Celeron Ds produce 100 ppd/GHz on p191x (QMDs). Northwood based Celerons are slower. P4Es produce 150 to 160 ppd/GHz on p191x but the cheapest of these is $180, a budget buster.

Strictly as a folder, the XP-M is still the most bang for the buck. Almost all of them will hit 2.4 (200x12)GHz with decent cooling. My system of choice would be XP-M 2500+, Abit NF7 or NF7-S, and 512 MB (2x256) of PC3200 Corsair Value Series ram. I know that'll bust the budget but not by a lot. You can expect on average 55ppd/GHz on small gromacs, 85 ppd/GHz on Tinkers, 112ppd/GHz on big Gromacs.

The A64s on and nForce 3 board will outpace the XP-M by about 10% running at the same GHz, with the same ram. Except on p1477 where they jump to 185ppd/GHz. You might find some deals on these but don't expect the easy OC you can get on the XP-M.

muddocktor · Jun 27, 2005

I just pieced together an A64 system from Newegg's refurbs that's a bit over your $150 limit, but not by a whole bunch. I chose a DFI NF3-250 Gb board, Sempron 2600 Palermo socket 754 proc and a 512 MB TwinMos Speed Premium dimm for $173 delivered.

You definitely need to go with at least 512 MB ram nowdays so you can get BP wu's. The Speed Premiums have overclocked very well for many folks here and are reasonably priced. The DFI board is a great overclocker with with features and very many bios options for overclocking, plus has memtest86 built into the bios to test your overclocked ram speeds. It also can run enough vdimm to get some good performance out of the Speed Premium ram. I have no experience with the Sempron procs, but I've heard that they are good overclockers too. As far as overclocking the A64's with the DFI board, I've had no particular problems and are basically just as easy to overclock as a K7 system to me.

shellshock · Jun 27, 2005

I was thinking about this

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=395585

and then I could go pick up some cheapo 512mb stick of ram at newegg

Nexus Realized · Jun 27, 2005

shellshock said:
I was thinking about this

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=395585

and then I could go pick up some cheapo 512mb stick of ram at newegg

Err Can't view it...Classifieds section?

shellshock · Jun 27, 2005

Nexus Realized said:
Err Can't view it...Classifieds section?

yep

funnyperson1 · Jun 27, 2005

That looks like a good deal to me, but from what I saw here: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=395532
Maybe a Celeron isn't a bad choice for Folding after all.

shellshock · Jun 27, 2005

hmmm..I might look and see if there are any celeron D's in the newegg refurb and see what they have

Silver · Jun 27, 2005

Chasr and I have been discussing this in regards to the clerons. We have not and do not seem to be able to find solid data on a celron d running on a 200fsb at tight timings. As of this time it would seem that it could not finish a QMD within 24 hrs. Again this is not conclusive so more first hand experience is needed. On the Amd, picked up an 2800+ off this site for $75 along with a DFI ut refurb from newegg for $64 and have had it folding on an xp-90 at 2.5Ghz and as high as 2.65Ghz. Stable bigpackets require the 2.5Ghz speed. It is producing approximately 300 ppd.

Oh, I run my A64 754 machines with one stick of 256 as that is all that is needed for big packets as of this time.

AlabamaCajun · Jun 27, 2005

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130475
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819104217
Thats the MSI K7N-Delta and Athlon 3000 Barton. This board will run any Socket A proc but this is a winning combination. I have 3200 memory downclocked to 333 and the latancies at 2-2-2-11 Primed 24 hours. Find some good memory or reuse what you have. This board is an awsome overclocker with sata raid drivers, net and AC97 sound so it's up to date with current IO. Also has AGP8x to support recent cards. BTW, my 7200 ripped from an Intel "books" on this board. Hope this helps. BTW Loads linux really well, I tuxed it in 1 hour with Fedora 3.

shellshock · Jun 28, 2005

Thanks Alabama, I will probally go with something socket A, even know its kinda outdated. Im still looking around, and if i decide on what im gonna get, I'll post it here before I buy it so you guys can give your suggestions

Thanks guys!!

ropey · Jun 28, 2005

Socket "A" might be outdated but the AXP-M is still a great CPU for both the money and speed.

Celeron "D" running @ 200MHz fsb or AXP-M @ 2.4+GHz are good choices.

R

ChasR · Jun 28, 2005

While mud is right and the A64s aren't hard to OC, the XP-M has its multiplier completely unlocked, so you can keep the ram at DDR400 with tight timings and bump the processor speed. You don't have to spend money on ram that will run @ DDR 480 to get to 2.4 GHz @ 1:1. That makes it easier in my book.
I see no reason to opt for any Socket A solution that's not using the XP-M.

Edit:
The socket A line is outdated. I wouldn't recommend anyone build a socket A rig if they plan on doing anything with the rig other than fold.

dwschoon · Jun 28, 2005

are the older xp mobiles (ie 1700) multi unlocked as well?

funnyperson1 · Jun 28, 2005

dwschoon said:
are the older xp mobiles (ie 1700) multi unlocked as well?

I do believe that all XP-Ms are unlocked.

The XP-M is great for the price, although I am a bit dissapointed that the mobile Bartons haven't dropped much in price, $100 for a cpu that can run 2.5-2.6 isn't too bad of a deal.

Don't get a Sempron unless you are absolutely strapped for cash.

suggestions for building a budget foldiing rig

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