Cheap PS3's worth it?

O

opticalserenity

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I see PS3's on Craigslist for anywhere from $40 to $70 with broken drives. Is adding a few PS3's to the house worth it for running F@H? Is there a cheaper way? I mean it seems pretty economical to me, rather I should say bang for the buck.
 
Cheap to acquire, but to run might be a different story, depending on what you pay for power.
 
Unless you have free power, not worth running.

A PS3's Points per Day per Watt is less then 1 PpDpW.
A low end SMP rig is around 4 PpDpW.
A mid range SMP rig is around 40 PpDpW.
A GPU rig is around 60 PpDpW.
A high end SMP rig willl pull well over 200 PpDpW.

So you'd 10 PS3's to match a single SMP box in terms of PpD.
Plus you then need to shift all the extra heat.

Luck ......... :D
[H]
 
Yeah, it's definitely not worth it. For only 900 ppd and using up to 300 watts to do it, it's not very efficient at folding. The only good thing about it is its stability. I left my PS3 folding for several months at a time without issue, but since building my current rig, I rarely leave it on to fold.
 
I wouldn't buy PS3s just for a small folding farm. If you want bang for your buck you can build a cheap CPU/motherboard combo w/ a GTX 460 for like $350. That will generated more PPD than 10 PS3's put together.
 
mekkanic said:
If you want bang for your buck you can build a cheap CPU/motherboard combo w/ a GTX 460 for like $350. That will generated more PPD than 10 PS3's put together.
Click to expand...

I was looking on both Craigslist and Microcenter. If I want to stay below $200, is it possible to get something that's better than a cheapo PS3?
 
opticalserenity said:
I was looking on both Craigslist and Microcenter. If I want to stay below $200, is it possible to get something that's better than a cheapo PS3?
Click to expand...

If you can get like....a cheap Dell PC with a PCI express graphics slot (for around $150) off of craigslist, you can stick a Nvidia GT 430 GPU in there and get 4K PPD....that's about the cheapest I think you can go....
 
Don't forget the old favourates.
My 9800's are still pulling ~5-6k PpD.
A 260 will pull around 1k PpD more.
Etc, etc.
You dont need a lot of cpu power to drive a the gpu client.
So if you can find a low wattage cpu, couple it with a couple of PCI-E slots.
That will still probably give you the best PpDpW without going the i7 or SR-2 route.

Remember it the cost of running a farm thats the killer, not buying the hardware ..... :(

Luck ......... :D
[H]
 
Tigerbiten said:
Plus you then need to shift all the extra heat.
Click to expand...

...and man, is there a lot of heat. :eek:

You'd be better off buying a used [96 stream processor model] 8800GS or 9600GSO for $40 (roughly, if not cheaper) and run that, you'll completely obliterate the Ps3 for PPD as well as power requirements and heat.
 
<thread jack>
I am selling a 8800GS (the 96SP version) for right around $40 shipped right now.
</thread jack>

seriously, PS3s just don't make it worth your while. Get yourself some low end hardware with 1 or 2 PCIE slots and a decent PSU, and you will out fold a herd of PS3s for less $ and lower electric bills.
 
That one would work but is a bit slow. I think the mentioned above the 8800gs would be faster. And about the same price
 
I'm not as familiar with G92 cores as I once was, but I think all the ones you are looking at will fold roughly th same. I'm trying hard to be objective here as I am currently trying to sell some cards. The 8800GS I'm selling should be marinally faster (it is the exact same card as a 9600GSO). I am absolutely certain that the $50 9800GTX+ (roughly the same thing as a GTS250) will out fold any thing you're looking at.
 
8800GS/9600GSO have 96 stream processors.

The 9500GT has 32, the GT220 has 48. Meaning 1/3 and 1/2 the folding performance PPD each (perspectively).

The key # is stream processors. The cheapest card with the most performance is a 8800GS or 9600GSO, assuming the GSO is the 96sp version and not one of the newer crippled ones (such as the 9600GSO 512 which only has 48sp's).
9800GTX has 112sp's so that's even better but most likely you won't find one of those cheaper than a GS or GSO. EVGA released a dual slot GSO with 96sp; the newer EVGA cards are single slot and all those are 48sp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9_Series
Long charts - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units
Stream processors are listed as the first number set under Config core. You want to buy something with 96sp's or more (ideally). Again, 8800GS or 9600GSO are the best bang for the buck.
 
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jfb9301 said:
I'm not as familiar with G92 cores as I once was, but I think all the ones you are looking at will fold roughly th same. I'm trying hard to be objective here as I am currently trying to sell some cards. The 8800GS I'm selling should be marinally faster (it is the exact same card as a 9600GSO). I am absolutely certain that the $50 9800GTX+ (roughly the same thing as a GTS250) will out fold any thing you're looking at.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the info. Send me a PM, let's talk about your card.
 
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