Best CPU value? Folding performance:price

Fantastic reply, Untitledone! Sounds like the more processors, the bigger (more important) the job, thus the higher reward. "Go big or go home!"

I'm not doing this to get points or glory, I want to do my part to help kill cancer and other nasty ailments! (That's why we do it, right?) :)

I should just have a cheap little i3 rig for games and really build up a monster for pure folding!

Aren't 4P boards and the G32 chips for them really expensive though? $500 for the board + $5-600 per processor.... ouch!

Maybe you can suggest a more affordable path? I also can't suck up so much wattage - my landlord will have a fit! :D
 
BlueMax said:
Fantastic reply, Untitledone! Sounds like the more processors, the bigger (more important) the job, thus the higher reward. "Go big or go home!"

I'm not doing this to get points or glory, I want to do my part to help kill cancer and other nasty ailments! (That's why we do it, right?) :)

I should just have a cheap little i3 rig for games and really build up a monster for pure folding!

Aren't 4P boards and the G32 chips for them really expensive though? $500 for the board + $5-600 per processor.... ouch!

Maybe you can suggest a more affordable path? I also can't suck up so much wattage - my landlord will have a fit! :D
Click to expand...

The i3 rig is a good idea! less power, and cheaper, and will still get the job done! My IRC/forum laptop I am on now is still a core 2 duo T5600 at 1.83Ghz and 1Gb of ram lol.

I could begin to suggest options if I knew what power envelope you wish to hit. Also, you said you would like to keep it under $1000, is that for both systems? I.E.($350 for i3 rig, $650 for dedicated folding rig?).

Budget, Power, and Points are the 3 laws of foldingdynamics™ (registered trademark of Untitledone, haha).
 
Let's just concentrate on the folding rig... but let's aim lower - under $1000 but possibly with room for more processors later, etc.

Running 24/7 means it can't be crazy-high wattage either... don't have an exact number to give there. It also can't be some monster case full of screaming fans... the noise will drive me insane!! This Dell Dimension 9200 Q6600 is 100% silent... I'll miss that.
 
BlueMax said:
Let's just concentrate on the folding rig... but let's aim lower - under $1000 but possibly with room for more processors later, etc.

Running 24/7 means it can't be crazy-high wattage either... don't have an exact number to give there. It also can't be some monster case full of screaming fans... the noise will drive me insane!! This Dell Dimension 9200 Q6600 is 100% silent... I'll miss that.
Click to expand...

A used 2P 1366 would be a decent folding rig for that price. If you manage to pick up an SR2 with hexacore processors in it, there would not be much upgrade room, but it will put out a decent amount of points. The problem is 2P 2011 is the current Intel 2P platform, and the price is a bit high at this time. 2P 1366 is the old generation and has no more new CPU's since it is EOL, but is much more affordable. AMD 2P's are a bit slow, but could provide an upgrade path since socket G34/C32 are still on the road map and will be receiving new CPU's soon as well.

If you want to attempt it, you could pick up a used or new 4P G34 board and throw as many 6128 CPU's in it as possible. You could build a 1/2 4P for under $1000 and have many upgrade options. Boards are $650 new for low end ones, and used ones can be had under that, and 6128 CPU's can be had for about $100. Overclocking would be possible on some Supermicro 4P boards. Although this is a little out there, and straying away from what you want.

2P is a bit all over the place right now unless you find a smoking deal on 2011 chips/boards. Single CPU has a lot of options, and 4P AMD is an amazing platform.

As for power, I have a 2P 1366 loaded with 2 Xeon X5570's for 8 cores 16 threads at 3.2Ghz. It puts out 44K PPD on SMP for 315W.

Unless it is a really low power 2P, you are looking at 250W+ for a 2P, and some of the 2P's can go to 300W,400W,or more watts depending on architecture,clock-speed etc..

I know how noise can be, my 8P has 4x 8K RPM 40mm screamers lol, 1x 6200 RPM 72mm, and 3 x 3200 RPM 80mm, and 2 120mm fans in the 1500-2000 RPM range. Noise is completely dependent on what cooling you decide to use.
 
Last edited:
BlueMax said:
I'm bumping this thread up from the depths because I'm still in the same boat as then - wanting to get the highest PPD I can, for the least amount of cash
Click to expand...
Subbing, and thank you! I'm looking to do the same after the holidays, and on the same sub 1K budget. Now I can sit back and let you ask most of my questions! :D
 
Untitledone said:
Ouch!, my 8P is north of 850W on its own!
Click to expand...

I know, but our cost of living is high, electricity is over $0.20 per hour and we have been warned of anorther rise in January - its partly why i gave up GPU folding.

I also have a house with old electrics.....:(
 
Untitledone said:
A used 2P 1366 would be a decent folding rig for that price. If you manage to pick up an SR2 with hexacore processors in it, there would not be much upgrade room, but it will put out a decent amount of points. The problem is 2P 2011 is the current Intel 2P platform, and the price is a bit high at this time. 2P 1366 is the old generation and has no more new CPU's since it is EOL, but is much more affordable. AMD 2P's are a bit slow, but could provide an upgrade path since socket G34/C32 are still on the road map and will be receiving new CPU's soon as well.

If you want to attempt it, you could pick up a used or new 4P G34 board and throw as many 6128 CPU's in it as possible. You could build a 1/2 4P for under $1000 and have many upgrade options. Boards are $650 new for low end ones, and used ones can be had under that, and 6128 CPU's can be had for about $100. Overclocking would be possible on some Supermicro 4P boards. Although this is a little out there, and straying away from what you want.

2P is a bit all over the place right now unless you find a smoking deal on 2011 chips/boards. Single CPU has a lot of options, and 4P AMD is an amazing platform.

As for power, I have a 2P 1366 loaded with 2 Xeon X5570's for 8 cores 16 threads at 3.2Ghz. It puts out 44K PPD on SMP for 315W.

Unless it is a really low power 2P, you are looking at 250W+ for a 2P, and some of the 2P's can go to 300W,400W,or more watts depending on architecture,clock-speed etc..

I know how noise can be, my 8P has 4x 8K RPM 40mm screamers lol, 1x 6200 RPM 72mm, and 3 x 3200 RPM 80mm, and 2 120mm fans in the 1500-2000 RPM range. Noise is completely dependent on what cooling you decide to use.
Click to expand...

2P 2.4Ghz Hex core running SMP - 215w from the wall on a shit PSU for 46k PPD, with a gold unit it could be 200w:cool:.

There are still some reasonable deals on LGA1366 and some spicy L5640 CPU's out there. High end X56xx CPU's are still rare in both retail and spicy and not all spicy chips work on all boards due to power restrictions on the mobo's
 
Nathan_P said:
I know, but our cost of living is high, electricity is over $0.20 per hour and we have been warned of anorther rise in January - its partly why i gave up GPU folding.

I also have a house with old electrics.....:(
Click to expand...

I feel your pain Nathan!

Nathan_P said:
2P 2.4Ghz Hex core running SMP - 215w from the wall on a shit PSU for 46k PPD, with a gold unit it could be 200w:cool:.

There are still some reasonable deals on LGA1366 and some spicy L5640 CPU's out there. High end X56xx CPU's are still rare in both retail and spicy and not all spicy chips work on all boards due to power restrictions on the mobo's
Click to expand...

That does sound tasty! If the CPU's could be found cheaply a dual L5640 machine would probably be his best bet in an ASUS Z8NA-D6C. I don't know the pricing as of late, but last year I picked up a Z8NA-D6C for around $140 used.
 
Dang... the jump from 1155 i5 2500k to i7 3770k is $100 (Does hyperthreading add 10% more PPD or 50%?
The jump from 3770k to the 3930k is another $300 (At least you have six cores - again, does HT mean that much??) It also uses 130W vs. 77W
The jump to a 1366 Xeon server adds at least $400 more to get the special board & case... ASUS has a nice server barebone for 2P 1366 but it's $600... plus another $600 for the processor (at least there's room for one more later.)

In short, I need a $2000 budget, not sub-1K, to really bother with anything fancy. :(

I wonder if anyone's really tackled the question of how much HT really helps...
 
BlueMax said:
Dang... the jump from 1155 i5 2500k to i7 3770k is $100 (Does hyperthreading add 10% more PPD or 50%?
The jump from 3770k to the 3930k is another $300 (At least you have six cores - again, does HT mean that much??) It also uses 130W vs. 77W
The jump to a 1366 Xeon server adds at least $400 more to get the special board & case... ASUS has a nice server barebone for 2P 1366 but it's $600... plus another $600 for the processor (at least there's room for one more later.)

In short, I need a $2000 budget, not sub-1K, to really bother with anything fancy. :(

I wonder if anyone's really tackled the question of how much HT really helps...
Click to expand...

Try these searches at the egg and on ebay

Asus Z8NA-D6C, 2p ATX mobo, will take upto an x5675 and will fit any case (Egg)
L5640 - no need to specify anything else (Ebay) - these are 60w cpu's for upto 50k PPD.
 
BlueMax said:
Dang... the jump from 1155 i5 2500k to i7 3770k is $100 (Does hyperthreading add 10% more PPD or 50%?
The jump from 3770k to the 3930k is another $300 (At least you have six cores - again, does HT mean that much??) It also uses 130W vs. 77W
The jump to a 1366 Xeon server adds at least $400 more to get the special board & case... ASUS has a nice server barebone for 2P 1366 but it's $600... plus another $600 for the processor (at least there's room for one more later.)

In short, I need a $2000 budget, not sub-1K, to really bother with anything fancy. :(

I wonder if anyone's really tackled the question of how much HT really helps...
Click to expand...

You will have a much harder time hitting your goals if you go retail.
A used Asus Z8NA-D6C 2P 1366 can be had for $140 (what I got it for last year).
Nathan pointed out the L5640's which are $300-$350 per CPU on ebay.
that is about $840 for motherboard + CPU's
add in $50 ish for ram
$45 for heat sinks
$35 for a power supply (I got a 400W bronze last year for that)
$20-40 for an HDD
Maybe $20 for fans
$0 for naked case (Z8NA-D6C can run in a standard ATX, cheap cases will work)

So $980 total for a naked 2P 1366 dual hex.

Any other hardware you reuse will help you.
You can upgrade from L5640 to higher hexen later or get a SR2 board later and do 3Ghz+ overclocks on the L5640.
 
Untitledone said:
BlueMax you may just be in luck!

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1724569

Go forth and fold!
Click to expand...

But for a little more he can go down a 4p path which will offer upgradability and options to expand on.

No offense, but the 1366 xeons are past thier prime. A 4p with dodecas will do 3x-5x the ppd for 2x the cost of those, hell, if you shop it you can get a 4p running 2p for a little more than a grand.

When I did my build:
Cpu's $600
PSU-repurposed
Ram: $150
Mobo: $650
212's-repurposed
Total: $1400

I hate to see you paint yourself onto a path that isn't going to be feasible for the long haul.

I got 2x 2p 1366 L5430 boxes that are good for 30-33k ppd, each one pulls around 200w from the wall, 400w for 60-66k ppd. A 2p g34 dodeca will pull 400w+ and do do substantially more.
 
BlueMax said:
I wonder if anyone's really tackled the question of how much HT really helps...
Click to expand...

HT gives you roughly 50% better folding performance for chips of the same generation and same clock speed.
 
Unfortunatrely, I do not own a chip with HT at the moment to do a comparison.
 
ChelseaOilman said:
I think HT is worth 20% at best on the latest CPUs
Click to expand...

I think with the latest hot shit Xeon chips, HT has a been more performance than that. I think 'alias' can give some insight on this. For a long time HT has been pretty worthless.
 
sc0tty8 said:
But for a little more he can go down a 4p path which will offer upgradability and options to expand on.

No offense, but the 1366 xeons are past thier prime. A 4p with dodecas will do 3x-5x the ppd for 2x the cost of those, hell, if you shop it you can get a 4p running 2p for a little more than a grand.

When I did my build:
Cpu's $600
PSU-repurposed
Ram: $150
Mobo: $650
212's-repurposed
Total: $1400

I hate to see you paint yourself onto a path that isn't going to be feasible for the long haul.

I got 2x 2p 1366 L5430 boxes that are good for 30-33k ppd, each one pulls around 200w from the wall, 400w for 60-66k ppd. A 2p g34 dodeca will pull 400w+ and do do substantially more.
Click to expand...

I recommended a 4P as well Scotty, but he as expressed his need for a machine that pulls a moderate amount of power. It seems as if the 200W-300W zone is what he is shooting for.

We want him to get his feet wet, but I do not think his budget will allow a full on 4P system. I also do not want to see him get saddled with hardware he can use due to power restrictions. We have to slowly let the poison sink in :D.
 
Untitledone said:
I recommended a 4P as well Scotty, but he as expressed his need for a machine that pulls a moderate amount of power. It seems as if the 200W-300W zone is what he is shooting for.

We want him to get his feet wet, but I do not think his budget will allow a full on 4P system. I also do not want to see him get saddled with hardware he can use due to power restrictions. We have to slowly let the poison sink in :D.
Click to expand...

the 4p can start as a 2p:p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top