In light of bigadv changes, new best ppd/$ recommendations

mrfrankmrfrank · Nov 15, 2011

It seems that for some time now the best bang for the buck has been to get a 2600k or i7 equivalent and fold -bigadv for the best ppd / $ ratio. Spend $500 or so on a bare minimum 2600k rig, overclock, and fold 50k ppd. Now given the new requirements of -bigadv, I was curious what this forum's thoughts were on your future planned purchases. Given the cost and power requirements of the higher end nvidia gpu's and their ppd output to cost, I assume that a 2600k/ 2700k is still a solid investment.

What will you be buying for future dedicated folding rigs now that bigadv has changed?

Also, what would you guys recommend as a good starting point for a "bare bones bigadv rig?"

killerkid · Nov 15, 2011

2600k's are still great processors and that is what I will be moving up to in december. I game a lot hardcore and just started folding on the side. I am pretty excited for IB considering the prices of SB E.

LuvToGame · Nov 15, 2011

My thoughts are that the $600 SB-E should yield 1.46X the performance of the 2600K. Given my current 2600k speed of 4.4Ghz, an equivalently clocked SB-E would yield a bigadv return of 74,500 PPD. Hmm, 55% increase in performance for double the price. So I'm guessing three 2600k's equal two SB-E's more or less. Given the cost of the third motherboard, memory, and power. I would say the SB-E is a better investment. But the cost of admission is daunting to many.

mrfrankmrfrank · Nov 15, 2011

LuvToGame said:
My thoughts are that the $600 SB-E should yield 1.46X the performance of the 2600K. Given my current 2600k speed of 4.4Ghz, an equivalently clocked SB-E would yield a bigadv return of 74,500 PPD. Hmm, 55% increase in performance for double the price. So I'm guessing three 2600k's equal two SB-E's more or less. Given the cost of the third motherboard, memory, and power. I would say the SB-E is a better investment. But the cost of admission is daunting to many.

the currently released SB-E processors don't meet the minimum requirements of the new -bigadv though correct? 12 cores out of 16.

killerkid · Nov 15, 2011

Correct.

ChasR · Nov 15, 2011

If one assumes there is no change to the points structure, I think 2P or 4P Interlagos would be the best bang for the buck and best ppd/KWh.

Macaholic · Nov 15, 2011

ChasR said:
If one assumes there is no change to the points structure, I think 2P or 4P Interlagos would be the best bang for the buck and best ppd/KWh.

+1

Ultim8Degen · Nov 15, 2011

Interesting, lmao I guess I wont miss to much since I just set up my folder to big-adv like last week :/ Did hit a 41kppd one day!

ChasR said:
If one assumes there is no change to the points structure, I think 2P or 4P Interlagos would be the best bang for the buck and best ppd/KWh.

How do i/we make these changes? With v7 f@h.

ChasR · Nov 15, 2011

You don't have to change anything anything in the client.

tuigi69 · Nov 15, 2011

mrfrankmrfrank said:
It seems that for some time now the best bang for the buck has been to get a 2600k or i7 equivalent and fold -bigadv for the best ppd / $ ratio. Spend $500 or so on a bare minimum 2600k rig, overclock, and fold 50k ppd. Now given the new requirements of -bigadv, I was curious what this forum's thoughts were on your future planned purchases. Given the cost and power requirements of the higher end nvidia gpu's and their ppd output to cost, I assume that a 2600k/ 2700k is still a solid investment.

What will you be buying for future dedicated folding rigs now that bigadv has changed?

Also, what would you guys recommend as a good starting point for a "bare bones bigadv rig?"

2600k is still best bang for the buck, especially right around now with folks dumping their 2600k's for SB-E. Prices for used 2600k have dipped. If memory serves me right, during the -bigadv shortage, my 2600k's were still pulling low 30k ppd on regular wu's. As someone pointed earlier in the thread, you can build a good 2600k rig for about $500.

tuigi69 · Nov 15, 2011

mrfrankmrfrank said:
the currently released SB-E processors don't meet the minimum requirements of the new -bigadv though correct? 12 cores out of 16.

Yep, and I just ordered a SB-E rig. A well. I'll have at least two months to fold Big WU's. With the new standard, you'll basically need server rigs to fold -bigadv. Interlagos is starting to look real good right now. And the chips are pretty cheap. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5096/amd-releases-opteron-4200-valencia-and-6200-interlagos-series

$523 for the low-end 16-core chip isn't bad at all.

Hopefully someone releases a board that can overclock these puppies.

LuvToGame · Nov 15, 2011

Until I see some Interlagos PPD numbers, if I had the cash in hand I would be buying a SB-E at this moment in time. Even with the loss of bigadv, I would bet it will be a sound investment vs. 2600/2700k.

tuigi69 · Nov 15, 2011

LuvToGame said:
Until I see some Interlagos PPD numbers, if I had the cash in hand I would be buying a SB-E at this moment in time. Even with the loss of bigadv, I would bet it will be a sound investment vs. 2600/2700k.

Unless FAH makes changes to QRB for regular SMP, than 2600k is better proposition price/ppd than the SB-E. 2600k non-oced can get about 25k ppd while SB-E is looking at about 35k. You can get two 2600k rigs for the price of a single SB-E rig.

SB-E will only become viable again if there's a price cut on SB-E (not any time soon or ever based upon Intel's record and no high end challenge from AMD) or 8 cores come to SB-E, which it will allow it to do bigadv again.

LuvToGame · Nov 15, 2011

Too bad Intel made the judgement call that eight cores wasn't worth it. Take a look at the die they just cut 'em right out. I wouldn't mind a lower stock clock to get that extra pair. What are they odds they release an extreme edition with eight in the next nine months???

tuigi69 · Nov 15, 2011

LuvToGame said:
Too bad Intel made the judgement call that eight cores wasn't worth it. Take a look at the die they just cut 'em right out. I wouldn't mind a lower stock clock to get that extra pair. What are they odds they release an extreme edition with eight in the next nine months???

I don't know about in the next nine months. I believe that as long as Intel doesn't make any changes to the die layout, I'd say pretty good chance. Afterall, they are already making 8-cores processors and THEN have to disable two. It would actually be cheaper for Intel since they won't have to perform an extra step to "make" a six-core processor.

'Cuda340 · Nov 15, 2011

LuvToGame said:
What are they odds they release an extreme edition with eight in the next nine months???

Slim to none..........With NO pressure from AMD, why would they.

I think you will see Intel sit tight until they transfer the high-end to 22nm......Not as in Ivy Bridge (Main stream), but Ivy Bridge-E.

KGH · Nov 15, 2011

ChasR said:
If one assumes there is no change to the points structure, I think 2P or 4P Interlagos would be the best bang for the buck and best ppd/KWh.

+2

soon 2600K would not be best bang for the buck when SF set new requirement: 16+ cores to fold bigadv.

ChasR · Nov 15, 2011

The 2600K, 2700K and SB-E cpus will still be great bang for the buck for desktop machines. If you're building a farm, server class hardware is going to be a must.

tuigi69 · Nov 16, 2011

ChasR said:
The 2600K, 2700K and SB-E cpus will still be great bang for the buck for desktop machines. If you're building a farm, server class hardware is going to be a must.

After some consideration, you're right ChasR. The BEST bang for the buck will be server hardware, especially since only server hardware will now qualify for -bigadv. Problem with server hardware is that it's pretty dang expensive and the price of entry for a decent rig is about twice that of an SB rig. A real good rig will run you several thousand dollars, which is way out of the range for most people.

If you compare to SB-E, pricing of a cheap AMD 2p rig comes closer to parity. Especially since you can get some decent 8-core AMD server chips for cheap now that 16-core Interlagos is out.

I'll wait until after the new year before I start buying more server hardware for folding rigs. This will allow me to concentrate on family over the holidays, give a better idea how well interlagos rigs fold, and give more time for companies to upgrade to interlagos and dump 8 and 12 core processors onto the market.

Also the new Xeon SB-E's with 8-cores will be out sometime during that time frame (and hopefully SR-3) and we can evaluate how well those fold based upon the new bigadv system.

ChasR · Nov 16, 2011

THere's been no change to the point system so what we see today from the servers is what we can expect in January. From numbers I see now, a 48 Core Magny-Cours rig @ 2.7 makes 390,000 on regular -bigadv, much more than that on 12 core BA. I found another performance post on a 4P 6176se (M-C) @ 2.3 GHz, 509,764 ppd. So that's 10x and 15x the ppd a 2600K will make without BA. Interlagos ppd should be even better.

In light of bigadv changes, new best ppd/$ recommendations

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