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Farm building: What's it going to take me to hit 2kPPD?

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Audioaficionado

Sparkomatic Moderator
Joined
Apr 29, 2002
You can see all the flolding hardware I have in my sig. It's been good for ~1100PPD running 24/7. I'm tired of getting beat down below the top 50 all the time :mad:

I'm thinking of building a fun 2nd gaming dullie AMD64 X2, nF4 ultra mATX (when someone makes it) late this fall. I hope to clock it to at least 2.5GHz and get the memory up to 250MHz. I want the Toledo 4000 if they ever release it. Otherwise I'll get the 4400 when it drops below $500 (hopefully).

I will sell the P4 shuttle but maybe keep the P4c 3.0 and put it in an overclockable mATX layer. This box just runs too hot to OC and that's a waste of a good P4c. Maybe I can also put a cooler running Celly in it and fold with it as a layer too.

Now for the folding layers:

I can build diskless Overclockix layers with Barton, nF2 mATX and 512MB of memory for $200 per.

How about Celeron-D layers? Anyone build folding layers out of these and what did it cost per layer?

So with my X2 rig, how many additional layers would I also have to add and maintain for 2kPPD or better?

Thanx in advance guys & ChasR :D
 
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I'm sure chasr has a far more detailed set of calculations, but heres my two cents :

Celeron D320 skt 478 2.4ghz - $75ish retail
Mobo w/ built in video ASUS P4P800-VM - $90 (probably a diff board would be fine as well, and considerably cheaper)
Memory - OCZ Value VX - 2x512 - $105 retail (may only need 2x256 when new FAH client makes it easier to choose QMD's)

Total: $280ish w/ shipping

Ave OC ~ 3.4-3.6 ghz

Ave PPD ~ 350-400 w/ QMDs and depending on ram timings.

Now, theres a decent chance you can chop the mobo cost in half, and probably the memory as well, wich puts you right around $200 per layer.

but, assuming the above figure, semi-conservatively you get around 1.25 PPD per $, with the potential to have that ratio be considerably better if you can cut costs down to ~ $200

Now these are very rough calcs based on my own experience with QMD's on my celeron D 320 (2.4ghz @ 3.6). Getting a Celeron D 315 (2.26 ghz) might let you get a bit more FSB to get to the same OC as the 320and then get you probably close to 450 ppd with tight mem timings.

Lets see what chasr has to say :). I'm sure he can get you a much more detailed analysis than my 20 minutes of research can.
 
thanx Helsyeah, I appreciate any advice I get here. Especially from guys who's stats prove they know how to fold :thup:
 
Lately I've been trying to figure out a cost effective way to use 3000 or 3100 Sempy Palermos or Italys. They have the SSE2 and now some have the SSE3, use less power and wipe the case floor with comparable Cellys. They do cost a little more as Intel is dumping on the market right now. By fall the prices should drop, holding breath.
 
till AMD's can get QMD's...your screwed if you go AMD :(

there are a few WU's out there that get my winnie and venice rigs into the 400+PPD range but they are usually sitting around 150-210 PPD... :cry:
 
I have a celeron D 330 2.66 that takes 30min/frame on p147x. My p3 tualatin 1000 will do the same frame times if i could run it at 1333 with 2-2-2 timings. at 3-3-3 timings it will run 33min/frame. I think the only way to get decent numbers out of the celeron is to run the fsb way up with tight memory. They are very cheap though.
 
Hello there, If you are doing 1100 PPD, all you really need is one of this beast for roughly $400-500. Pentium M 740, Thermalright XP90, Ct479, asus p4p800se, 512M patriot XBL

dscn00032ee.jpg


And here is what it can do

7406xe.png


The best part is the whole system with my latest overclockix consumes roughly around 60W :p

You can see that my whole farm produce just about 4K PPD with 4 of this and 3 XPM 2200 running at default. Note that each XPM system consumes 70-80W :santa:
 
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GD that just makes me... SICK!!!

(1477) is the WU that my 64's get 400+...and you get 970 PPD ... ... ... ... ... ... speechless :(

this is all about SSEII or III right? and how intel chips "get to use it" and AMD's dont... :shrug: :rolleyes: :bang head
 
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The issue comes with the QMD software. The license means that it cannot run effectively on AMD CPUs and if you see it from the Pandegroups point of view it would make more sense to run these units on systems that will complete them in quicker time (read: more PPD :p).
 
I'm just about to build an overdoze special myself, except that I'll be using the P4C800-E Dlx board. I'm waiting for the proc, which will be coming in tomorrow, hopefully. I should have some more concrete info on it's folding abilities in a couple of days. I'm sure that walaka7 will sing praises for his P-M folders too.

It will be replacing a XP machine in my farm.
 
Oh, as for costs, this is what I'm spending for this new machine for the upgrade:

P4C800-E Deluxe - New, $132.50 shipped from ebay. Rcvd it as advertised, NIB and all accessories. I've already flashed it to the newest bios (with a P4).

CT-479 - New, ZZF, $49.99 shipped

Dothan 735 (1.7/400) - used, ebay, $122.50 shipped. Waiting for arrival now.

I'm reusing the ram and vid card (Corsair BH5 and Radeon 7000) from old machine.

You can save a few bucks and go with the P4P800-SE like walaka7 did, but I decided I wanted to try the 875 chipset board instead and see what the difference is. Also, the latest bios on the P4C800 gives you vcore to 1.6v and multiplier control in bios.
 
The P4C is a better board for sure. I just wanted cheap and got them both at newegg for $54 refurbed @. One of them arrived new with latest BIOS so it was just wire mod and go.

the third one Ill proll try the e-delux and see what it'll do.
 
I think the difference is almost nil. The only extra power needed is for the socket adapter itself. I looked at the dedicated boards but the cost is too much to bear for the mediocre performance.

The first board you linked to looks like they made wonderful improvements, but I still can't digest the $320 price tag. The second one is crap :/ where's the bandwidth?
 
Spending those kind of bux, I don't think I would touch an Aopen with a 10 foot creditcard. Aopen is good for general purpose and may last a lifetime used as such but I may be wrong.

I still think a sempy would have cellys licking the floor even with QMDs -IMO.:burn:
 
If I did get that first one, it would have to be in place of an X2 rig. :(

Nice to get QMDs and such but I build my main PCs to use for other things too in addition to folding.

Any dedicated folding layers will only do FAH 24/7.

So how much per layer for your Asus/Pentium-M builds?
I come up with ~$350-$400 per diskless layer not counting power supplies.
What size power supply is needed to run one P-M layer?
 
Just some more info I want to share
The picture probably speak for itself. $40 Thermaltake 420W power 1 xpm and 1 Pentium M.
The p4C mobo generally is about maximum 1s frametime faster than p4p800se for the same cpu and ram.. Most of the time the frame time are the same between the 2 mobos if you tweak the bios setting to turbo cpu and normal on ram. P4p800se you would have to cool the mosfet below VGA board as in the picture to maximize OC potential. After all those mods both mobo performs identical. You can check out the review on xbitlab.

Note that I'm running TCCD ram at about 285MHz cas 2.5 3 3 6 and cpu at 2.9ghz to get that kind of frame time. cpu temp is only 38C amazing!!

Pentium M can fold QMD for about 400PPD
 
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