Cheap 8 core! Dell Small Business has the PowerEdge SC1430 Tower Server Dual Quad Core Xeon 5310 1.6Ghz 2x4MB Cache 1GB/80GB, No CD, 1yr warranty, No OS $729 shipped free. Ends Soon
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Dell PowerEdge SC1430 8 Core Server $729
- Thread starter annaconda
- Start date
Looks like this bad boy could be fun to tweak:
http://www.techanswerguy.com/2007/09/setting-up-dell-sc1430.html
http://www.techanswerguy.com/2007/09/setting-up-dell-sc1430.html
visionviper
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2007
- Messages
- 1,222
I wonder how it folds 
To be honest, not that great. Folding productivity on current hardware simply isn't scaling well beyond four cores, probably due to bandwidth issues. I'll be interested to see how much, if any, the larger cache .45nm procs will boost F@H performance. Whatever the reason, though, right now the best bang/buck for Folding is a fast single quad.I wonder how it folds
Wow, someone reported that an 8800GT worked in the modded slot. It's hard to buy it as a gaming system though. Faster CPUs raise the price significantly at Dell and modding the 1.6GHz to 1333MHz FSB only gets you to 2GHz.
I was tempted by this system earlier, but I have no idea what I'd use it for.
The BSEL "pad mod" has been met with much success by many.
I wonder how it folds
That's because the FAH SMP client is only aware of 4 threads. Easy way to solve this problem: two instances of the SMP client. If you bought the 1.86ghz E5320s ($150 upgrade to $879) and used the pad mod to overclock them to 2.3ghz, this system would produce over 5000 ppd.
Yea, the lack of x16 PCIe makes it tough to justify as a gaming system.Wow, someone reported that an 8800GT worked in the modded slot. It's hard to buy it as a gaming system though. Faster CPUs raise the price significantly at Dell and modding the 1.6GHz to 1333MHz FSB only gets you to 2GHz.
I was tempted by this system earlier, but I have no idea what I'd use it for.
I am tempted to use it as a grossly overpowered Windows Home Server, that would double as a FAH monster
Edit: only two drive bays. I think my WHS has 7 drives already
Assuming the right mix of WUs, yes. Throw in a bandwidth sucking WU into the mix and its a different story.
My testing was done running multiple clients to load the cores, testing w/ dual WinSMP clients as well as dual, triple, and quad LinSMP VM clients (both VMWare player and VMWare server tested). It simply didn't scale well. Here are the numbers from that test:
So yes, overall PPD did go up by adding clients, but it didn't scale well. And this is assuming the best of the available crop of SMP WUs. Throw one *lesser* WU in there (eg a P2608/P2609) and the avg totally tanks, resulting in significantly lower PPD w/ multiple clients vs a single client. The assumption being that those WUs chew through the available bandwidth faster. IIRC adding a 3rd *bad* WU resulted in a much lower PPD than running just two clients on the dual quads in the VM environment, and a *bad* WinSMP WU would lower the dual WinSMP's total PPD below what a single WinSMP client would produce. I'd have to find those numbers to verify this though.
EDIT: apologies for the thread hijack.
Thanks for the info. I was running off secondhand information, which was apparently somewhat incorrect. And I think this discussion is relevant to the threadAssuming....
EDIT: apologies for the thread hijack.
That's the biggest hurdle I'm jumping now. I really don't need another box hanging around... I could even deal with a 4U rack'd deal much easier than a box...
maybe?
I haven't touched one of the boxes for awhile, but since they're 2.33GHz B3 quads, I'm guessing they're SL9YL.
Regardless, going around and doing physical mods production systems isn't going to happen.
I dunno. Its pretty barebones, so you're going to be adding a CD/DVD drive, more (or replacement) HDDs and more (or replacement) memory at the very least. And you're saddling yourself w/ the slowest versions of the previous gen Xeons. Also factor in that the price-point for the new Harpertown procs is lower across the board w/ the *low* end E5405 2GHz version w/ 12mb L2 @ ~$250 (Newegg Harpertowns). That's where I'm probably going to be looking for my next server build.
So yes, if it has the components that you want out of the box, its a pretty good deal. Otherwise, I'd recommend pricing out some options to see if you're really ahead w/ this deal.
So yes, if it has the components that you want out of the box, its a pretty good deal. Otherwise, I'd recommend pricing out some options to see if you're really ahead w/ this deal.
I think you are right. Once you start pricing out add ons it really isn't a good deal. Again if you are going to use it pretty much as is, it is a steal, but if you really want something higher end optioning this one out isn't a great buy.
It wouldn't. I've tried Supreme Commander with the Skulltrail and compared it to a 780i SLI system. It wasn't any faster.
Not suggesting you should in a pro setting. But, for the home/SMB user who doesn't mind some tweaking/maintenance, maybe
Agreed. For a critical server system, look elsewhere. For those who have a few bucks to play with that might want a potentially mod-able 8 core server, this is money.
Agreed. Seems SupCom can only use around 4 threads.
That's the model for this industry and others these days. Basically give away the base model but make the margins on the upgrades/add ons