Need some advice for a new box

S

Syco

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
125
So I just got into folding 2 weeks ago and I'm already addicted. I am currently only folding with my main rig which is a q6600 (@2.8ghz) on a evga 750i ftw with a 8800gts 512mb, and an 8800gt. When I've had it running all day I've been getting about 11-12k ppd. I have a spare 8800gts 512mb that doesn't run on this mb which I will be putting into my home server (has a c2d, but will only gpu fold).

I am looking at spending around $300 to either upgrade my system (ideally) or assemble a dedicated folder. I have some various power supplies, hard drives, cases and what not laying around which would be plenty for a simple folding box. I also just bought a 5870 for my main rig.

The option I was leaning towards, would be to get an i7 930, a new motherboard, and memory for my main rig. Unfortunately that would blow my budget ($200 for i7, ~$200 for xfire mb, ~$175 for 6gb ddr3). I could make some of the money back by selling my current components but I would almost rather not as they could be used in a new system for the wife that could still fold as well. The other option I have is to leave my main rig alone and pick up a cheaper motherboard/cpu/memory combo and use my 8800's in that. I could also spend some time working on overclocking my q6600 into the 3.2-3.6 range.

Any suggestions? Any good budget folding builds?
 
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your right on with the i7 best ppd vs $ A X58 mb runs just fine with 2 sticks of ram. about 1000 ppd lose vs 3 sticks if that. I use a asus p6t standard @ 211X19 and i average over 19,000 a day.
 
Why not pick up an AM2+ MB, Athlon II X4, and some DDR2? That would be cheap (would fit in your budget) and you could clock the X4 up nicely. This would put out decent SMP PPD and could push a 9800GT or better with no probs.
 
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So the Athlon II X4 would be better than a phenom or similarly priced Intel chip? Also, I have no problem going used or open box to save some bucks.

So for about $600 I could get 19-20k ppd with an i7 setup and either get some cash back from selling my current stuff or eat the additional cost and get an additional 12k ppd (or more if I o/c the cards and q6600).

For ~$270 I could get this athlon II x4 635 and MSI 870A-G54 combo for $170 after rebate and 4gb ram for $100. Not sure what the ppd would be from that, but I would have to think in the 15-17k range when I add my 8800's to it. The output of my main rig would drop then as I would only be using SMP.

So I could be wrong, but between those two options I'm looking at about a 10k ppd difference, for about $300. However, my main rig would get a nice upgrade as well.
 
The Athlon II folds as well as a Phenom II. Neither fold as well as a C2Q at same cpu speed. With that said I don't believe you can buy a Intel C2Q and MB as cheap as you can get a AM2+ MB and Athlon II. If you want to go used then we're talking a diff game.

If I was in your situation and it seems money is an issue. I'd go with the AMD Athlon II rig and keep my main rig.
 
Yea, money is an issue as I have a wedding to pay for however, $600 is doable, just that $300 is the preferred sweet spot. I also just remembered that I have $125 in gift cards to newegg. I think I need to check to see how much I could fetch for my q6600, mb, ram and video cards. Might be worthwhile to take the hit on ppd for a new rig for myself.

Decisions, decisions.

*Just did a quick check on ebay, and it looks like I could easily sell the extra stuff after upgrading for about $325-350
 
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Syco said:
So the Athlon II X4 would be better than a phenom or similarly priced Intel chip? Also, I have no problem going used or open box to save some bucks.

So for about $600 I could get 19-20k ppd with an i7 setup and either get some cash back from selling my current stuff or eat the additional cost and get an additional 12k ppd (or more if I o/c the cards and q6600).

For ~$270 I could get this athlon II x4 635 and MSI 870A-G54 combo for $170 after rebate and 4gb ram for $100. Not sure what the ppd would be from that, but I would have to think in the 15-17k range when I add my 8800's to it. The output of my main rig would drop then as I would only be using SMP.

So I could be wrong, but between those two options I'm looking at about a 10k ppd difference, for about $300. However, my main rig would get a nice upgrade as well.
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My Athlon x4 620 only ever managed 4k PPD on the smp client @ stock clocks so you would be looking @ 5-5.5k from that CPU, sweet chip though i swapped it out for an x6 1090 just recently so you could look at that as a future upgrade
 
Grab a X6 chip (they have been doing 10k ppd with OC)

You should be able to do that for just over $300

If you can push it to $400 and sell your q6600 and mobo for ~$100 I think you could build an i7 rig.
 
I think the root of my question/problem boils down to weather or not it's worthwhile to build a dedicated box for my 2 8800's that are now just sitting on my desk or if I should just sell them off and put the money towards upgrading my main rig.

I was initially leaning towards the i7 as it's such a nice chip and I get my rig upgraded in the process. However ppd per $, i think I would be better building a cheap box to house the 8800's. My power bill and heat output will be a little higher, but I'm ok with that. Around christmas time, I should be able to upgrade my rig. Then again, I could upgrade my rig now, and sell off my components for about the same out of pocket expense, make roughly the same ppd, and use less power. Then around christmas I could either upgrade or make a dedicated rig, and my ppd would be a lot higher. Or I just bite the bullet, upgrade, don't sell anything, and make a whole lot more ppd.
 
All I have to say is.....DAMN YOU KENDRAK!

This is all your fault for luring me into folding with your little giveaway. I can just hear you now, "Come to the Dark side, we have free boxen."
 
Syco said:
I think the root of my question/problem boils down to weather or not it's worthwhile to build a dedicated box for my 2 8800's that are now just sitting on my desk or if I should just sell them off and put the money towards upgrading my main rig.

I was initially leaning towards the i7 as it's such a nice chip and I get my rig upgraded in the process. However ppd per $, i think I would be better building a cheap box to house the 8800's. My power bill and heat output will be a little higher, but I'm ok with that. Around christmas time, I should be able to upgrade my rig. Then again, I could upgrade my rig now, and sell off my components for about the same out of pocket expense, make roughly the same ppd, and use less power. Then around christmas I could either upgrade or make a dedicated rig, and my ppd would be a lot higher. Or I just bite the bullet, upgrade, don't sell anything, and make a whole lot more ppd.
Click to expand...

Go with the cheap box for now, you're not the only one with a folding rig more powerful than his/her main rig
 
Syco said:
All I have to say is.....DAMN YOU KENDRAK!

This is all your fault for luring me into folding with your little giveaway. I can just hear you now, "Come to the Dark side, we have free boxen."
Click to expand...

These aren't the droids you're looking for......
 
Syco said:
All I have to say is.....DAMN YOU KENDRAK!

This is all your fault for luring me into folding with your little giveaway. I can just hear you now, "Come to the Dark side, we have free boxen."
Click to expand...

You will be pleased to know that the condition gets worse....

Have a nice day :D
 
Kendrak said:
Grab a X6 chip (they have been doing 10k ppd with OC)

You should be able to do that for just over $300

If you can push it to $400 and sell your q6600 and mobo for ~$100 I think you could build an i7 rig.
Click to expand...

I fully second this, considering I believe I have one of the best 1055T's here F@H 24/7...I have lowered my o/c until tomorrow when UPS drops off my brackets for my EXOS (mmm...water cooling again;))..I am running @ 3.9Ghz @ 1.45V and pulling in over 13K PPD with my SMP client and 5~K PPD with my 8800GT....For the math challenged that is basically 18-19K PPD....

I just recently sold my 4850 and replaced it with two 8800 series cards stricly for F@H...I just put one in my dad's box at his home to keep the heat down in my main rig..The scary thing is with the push to GPU3 coming, many people seem to indicate that PPD is going to fall way off for the G92 based cards like we both use....

I have been keeping my eye out for a GTS 250 or 260 that I can hopefully afford...You may want to sell off both your 8800 series cards and pick up a used 260..they are going for under $130 in FS forum and they are getting over 10K PPD currently..

I am by no means an expert, just been folding since the beginning..This X6 build is my first serious push to rack up some PPD and help cure something..

 
Ok, I think I am going to with a budget i7 build. It will cost me around $425 and I probably won't bother selling off my old stuff, unless I sell the 8800's for a gts260.

$200 i7 930 from MicroCenter
$99 open box ASRock x58 from Newegg
$110 4gb G.Skill Ripjaws

I'll run that in my main rig for the next couple months, then look at picking up another i7, better motherboard and more memory around christmas for 2 i7 folding box's. I just hope the asrock holds up to 24/7 abuse.
 
Here is the thing with the ASRock board.

I have 2, I love 'em. Stupid easy OC. You just tell the mobo what speed to run the chip at.

That said, some people have had that board die on them. Keep it cool! Put an extra fan over the NB, and have another fan blowing over the whole thing. Parts of that board get darn toasty when you OC.

With that I haven't had a single problem with either of mine.
 
I'm glad they are running well for you Kendrak, makes me feel better about the purchase. I heard the same thing about cooling the board (maybe from one of your posts even) and I was planning on doing that already. I notice in your sig that you have a 930 box with 4gb running -bigadv, i thought you needed 6gb for that?
 
Syco said:
I'm glad they are running well for you Kendrak, makes me feel better about the purchase. I heard the same thing about cooling the board (maybe from one of your posts even) and I was planning on doing that already. I notice in your sig that you have a 930 box with 4gb running -bigadv, i thought you needed 6gb for that?
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Not on linux native :D

I do suggest getting a 6GB kit.

I just stole 4GB from Nexus when I made this rig :eek:
 
Kendrak said:
That said, some people have had that board die on them. Keep it cool! Put an extra fan over the NB, and have another fan blowing over the whole thing. Parts of that board get darn toasty when you OC.
Click to expand...

[raises hand]
Mine is one of the ones that died. Within 2 months of buying one, one day it just refused to power on. Tobit's did the same thing a week later.

If I were you, I would buy a different board. Kendrak's had luck with his, several of us have had dead ASRocks now. I would not buy another ASRock.

If you want a cheap board, pick up a Foxconn FlamingBlade GTI. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186170

I would stay away from ASRock but obviously it's your $$, you do what you want. I can tell you that adding active cooling to my NB or mosfets would have made no difference; mine wasn't running hot to begin with and my oc and voltage was low (for i7 standards). I was running 3.8 with barely any voltage bumps; it's not like I was running 4+ and pushing 1.4+ Vcc and Vtt through the board.
 
Kendrak said:
You will be pleased to know that the condition gets worse....

Have a nice day :D
Click to expand...

I can' confirm this. I originally came here folding part time with the uniprocessor classic client on my laptop which has a AMD Turion 64 X2 Ultra which runs at 2.5ghz. Then I loaded up the SMP client and started folding full time on my laptop. Then I threw in my gaming rig in my sig which was good for 7-8k ppd cpu only. Next thing you know, I end up putting together a dedicated folding boxen with the help of these guys, which allowed me to take the gaming rig and laptop back offline. Now, i'm trying to plan and budget for a dual Magny Cours 24 core rig by the end of this year. If I stay frugal with my daily expenditures, i'm hoping I can make it happen.
 
Or you can get lucky and win an i7 rig!

Rumor has it that there will be a free i7 giveaway!

I'll let you know when I know more.
 
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