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[H]ardFolding CPU Question

A

AMD_RULES

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
3,010
I'm looking to build either a dedicated folding rig or a small folding farm.
Which would give me more points/wus and help for the cause?

_________________________________________________
Choice A:

Qty: 1

Computer with Q6600 (overclocked and one or two VMwares)
_________________________________________________
Choice B:

Qty: 3

Computer with E2160 (overclocked and one or two VMwares each)

_________________________________________________
I'm leaning toward the Intel Dual Core folding farm.

What would you choose?

Thanks!

FOLD FOR THE [H]orde!!! :)
 
Don't quote me on this as I'm still new to folding, can't be certain but with my stock q6600 i get around 2800ppd with two smp clients I believe when oc'd that can go up to 4000ppd. With an e2160 i believe u get around 1500ppd, so 1500x3 = 4500ppd. As for which to go for, I'm assuming the latter will cost more electricity but leaves you with an upgrade path to quad cores each. While the single quad would cost less electricity and almost as much points. Wait till the more experienced guys chime before u make a decision.


 
I vote A. An overclocked quad with dual VMs will pull in almost 5K points with less hassle and power used.

Also, putting more than one VMWare on a dual-core CPU isn't going to work out. That's for quads. I'm sure that's a typo.





 
Quad will be more effective (cheaper + less power used) and PPD would be similar ;)

 
The single quad is the choice then.
Would you all suggest I put more $$$ into getting more ram and doing say like three or four vms?
It will also work out better on my electricity bill as well :)

Thanks guys

Continue Folding for the cure!!!!!! :)
 
On the other hand, e2140 can go to FSB 1333 on stock voltage, so you get a huge performance benefit without increasing electric costs. q6600 has much less overclocking headroom without increasing voltage.

Or you could buy as many of the cheapest PS3's you can find.
 
bholstege said:
On the other hand, e2140 can go to FSB 1333 on stock voltage, so you get a huge performance benefit without increasing electric costs. q6600 has much less overclocking headroom without increasing voltage.

Or you could buy as many of the cheapest PS3's you can find.
Click to expand...

I think i'm gonna stick with the single Q6600 rig. I already fold on my other computers in my home. In the future, i'll add another folding rig to the clan :)

I just need someone to advise me on whether or not I should buy more ram and vm; and if it will help increases ppd
 
AMD_RULES said:
I just need someone to advise me on whether or not I should buy more ram and vm; and if it will help increases ppd
Click to expand...

Each VM uses 2 core, so a Quad will run 2 VM's for maximum points.
Each VM needs ~600 Meg to run completly in the Memory, so 2x 1 Gig sticks works best as it gives you ~1400 Meg for both VM's and the left over 600 Meg for Windoze.

Luck ............. :D
 
AMD_RULES said:
I think i'm gonna stick with the single Q6600 rig. I already fold on my other computers in my home. In the future, i'll add another folding rig to the clan :)

I just need someone to advise me on whether or not I should buy more ram and vm; and if it will help increases ppd
Click to expand...
I presently have 1 quad producing a reliable 3420ppd, not overclocked, nothing fancy, basically the same setup Fry's was selling last week for about $300 (cpu, mb, 2GB ram) thrown in a 5yr old case, w/ psu, 320GB hd. Running Xubuntu. 2 SMP's, drawing 140 watts. When I ran a small HD it only drew about 100watts. The m/b has absolutely no O/C capability.
However there seems to be an easy BSEL mod that will crank it up to 3Ghz at 1333. If I do that then it should crank out about 4300.
The system rarely sucks up more than 1GB RAM. I don't mess with VM.
From what I've seen here peeps generally advise a good O/C board ($80 plus) another 2GB RAM ($50?) and a fancy cooler ($40?), thus for half the cost of my system, plus more electricity, I might be able to get another 1000ppd. Or save the bucks, build another system for cheap and get twice the ppd.
 
Tigerbiten said:
Each VM uses 2 core, so a Quad will run 2 VM's for maximum points.
Each VM needs ~600 Meg to run completly in the Memory, so 2x 1 Gig sticks works best as it gives you ~1400 Meg for both VM's and the left over 600 Meg for Windoze.

Luck ............. :D
Click to expand...

Sounds good Tigerbiten. Thanks man :)

I'll post the final specs I'm looking at doing:

Case - Coolermaster Centurion 534 - $39.99
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6000 - $254.99
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-73VM-S2 - $54.99
RAM - GSkill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 - $44.99
PSU - Silverstone ST350 350 watt Power Supply - $34.99
HDD - Seagate 80gB SATA2 - $40.99
H/S - Zalman CNPS 9700 NT 110mm Green LED Heatsink - $64.99

Subtotal (before shipping) - $535.93
Click to expand...
*No optical since this is a folder. I have spares that I can use to load the guest os and VMware OSes :)
** The guest os will probably be Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition x86 since I've got a spare key lying around.
The vmware OSes will either be XP Pro or a linux distro.
Not bad for $500, eh? ;)

One more note: I only listed the Newegg link to the Q6600 because I have my wishlist saved on newegg. I plan to buy the Q6600 from ClubIT so I'm guaranteed the G0 stepping :)

Thanks guys
Keep on foldin'! :)
 
Best going for a Linux OS inside the VM.
If folds around 10-15% faster than a Windoze one and you can use Finstall to set it up as a service.
I use SMP Seesaw to set the affinity of the 2 VM's to each half of the CPU and Windoze task manager to check that the VM's are folding when I remote in.
Otherwise its FahSpy or FahMon to keep track of the clients.

Luck ............... :D
 
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