Building a Folding Farm

[Bryce]

I'm planning on building a server farm. I know I'm new to folding and all, but my last build got me hooked and now I wanna build a farm for folding mainly. Having a case for each computer would be nice, but I'm going for the most bang for my buck. I noticed that my current PC just crunched like 10 WUs in the span of 20mins. This computer is a Intel C2D E8400 @ 3.8ghz, 8gb RAM.

Anyone got any advice on how to build a server farm for this? What also got me into this was watching the History channel earlier today and now I want to help search for aliens lol.

I'm probably going out on a limb here, but I've got ~$500-800 to get started on this farm. Is there any way I can build bare bones computers that I can OC to about 3.8ghz or more? I have already built a mini-rack to house the motherboards, etc in. It should hold 3-4 per shelf with the power supply. Thoughts on what parts I should use?

MOBO: ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $108.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail - $164.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK - Retail - $94.99
GFX: EVGA 512-P3-N956-TR GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $79.99
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $34.99
POWER SUPPLY: Antec BP550 Plus 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail -$89.99

TOTAL: $573.94

Is this to much power for a folding farm or is there anything I can do to get the cost down some more?

 

[Spawn-Inc]

not sure on what all the fold program uses but thats more ram then you need, all you need is 1 maybe 2gb's. for the video card i would go with on board, unless you want to also fold on that.

as to my understanding folding works best with quads so i would grab a quad core

here is a quad the same price as the e8400

 

[Kayden]

This'll probably save you a ton of money:
http://hackaday.com/2008/10/04/another-ikea-linux-cluster/

 

[LilBuddy]

I'd go with something like this:

Intel Q8200 - $169.99

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L - $52.99

Corsair XMS2 2x1gb DDR2 - $4.99

WD 80gb HD - $34.99

Antec Basiq 500W PSU - $39.99

Total - $302.95 each

Buying 2 Q8200 setups like this would definitely score you more points than 1 E8400. I'd compare what a Q8200 and a E5300 could do. You could build almost 3 E5300 systems for $600.

 

[EarthDog]

You would likely get more points buying one cheap rig ($500) and maybe 2 9800gt's. One for the new PC and another in your current rig to fold on. Those should yield 10k ppd between them, and if you run a client on a dual core that should help a bit as well. Its more than you would get with 2 rigs and some cheap card for the new one.

You only need 2gb ram.
You can get away more inexpensive mobo, or even look at open box deals for better ones for cheaper.
You can get a better cheaper PSU.
I would run a Q8200 and overclock it.
You should be able to find that for like $550 to your door.

Add those 9800gt's in for $230, and you have a solid cruncher, 12k ppd I would imagine.