Need to change things up a bit...

Vaulter98c

Vaulter98c

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2009
Joined
May 21, 2008
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OK, well, I should be back stateside in a few weeks, been a long year+ but the war's over lol

Anyways, I'm coming home single (long story, fiance left right before I deployed) and my place of work doesnt even exist anymore, so I don't have a job. Granted, I hope to get one, but I have to plan on the safe side. I don't have much money saved up from this tour since I had to pay off the roughly 20 grand the ex put me into (another long story lol).

So, as you can see, I'm financially fucked for a lack of better terms lol. I have been able to get myself out of debt 100% (on Januarys paycheck) but I need to adjust my living style to be able to get by on a single guys income, and I need to cut every lose end I can so that I don't end up back in the mess I was in 18 months ago. Now, that brings a big problem, because I was doing like 100-120 a month extra, more in the summer, in folding. That's an expense I can no longer afford, especially since I need to finish building the house over the next year. I also have a stock pile of some pretty hefty hardware that I just can't afford to run anymore.

Total farm still has:
1x SR2 with L5640 hex's at 3.6 ghz (the one K's been running for the team)
1x SR2 with E5530 Spicy's at 3.85 ghz
1x old dual core intel with a few (I don't know how many lol) 9800GX2's on them
1x i7 920 with a 470 Fermi in it, and I think I've got a box full of other odds and ends
Misc other stuff in the works that never went anywhere

Now, I have a laptop, and I plan to keep either the i7 or the dual hex SR2. I'll only be keeping one tho. That leaves me with whichever rig I don't keep, plus my other SR2 and a handful of other stuff to sell. Whichever rig I do keep I won't be running it 24/7 except for maybe a contest or to promote something for the team, stuff like that.

Now on to the actual question lol, what are my options for 1 (or maybe 2, but the price better be damn good) low to very low power folding machines? I'm no longer concerned with the PPD really, points are nice, but even tho I'm backing out I still want to put forth some contribution to the team. Also, it would be nice to maybe do some other DC projects as well. Whatever is good for the team and good on the power bill.

Some things to consider:
1. I plan on the budget only being the money I can make from selling off excess gear
2. I do have rackmounted cases ready to go in 2 seperate depths, so cases and power supplies are not needed (unless theres a nice and cheap and really efficent PSU out there)
3. Integrated graphics are fine, if not I already have a slew of low profile low power cards I'll probly keep because I only have like 10$ invested in them
4. I'm open to any ideas really, that's why I'm throwing this idea out there. Really, anything that works out in the end to be cheap to build and cheap to run, I was even considering 2x MicroATX boards with i3's or i5's on there, one to run FAH and one for the commandos/file server. Also thought about one dual socket/quad socket (PRICE MATTERS THO) running windows and doing FAH and Commando stuff on the same box. So, any ideas are at least worth mentioning lol
5. AMD or Intel, doesn't matter, end cost and power cost is most important to me, even if it means shedding a few points versus more expensive options. Sustainability is key, I can't allow myself to get back in any debt again.

O yea, be ready for a nice FS thread when I get back, just in time for Christmas ;)
 
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Go budget quad core

Im running a 1090T AMD chip and that still puts forth a conservative amount of points and finishes WU's in a reasonable amount of time for contribution

You may even think of a 2600K Intel rig. Just run it when you have time and it too will finish on time and respectably so.


Much love and respect to my horde brother!
 
The SR2 with the L5640's that you already have shouldn't draw that much power. You may want to hang onto that box. The others, especially that 920 with the 470, you might want to ditch and build something a bit more power efficient such as a dual C32 or G34 build. I recently built a 12-core C32 system for dirt cheap (CPUs were only $68 for both) and it is doing over 330 PPD/W. I think you saw the thread.

I wouldn't make any firm decisions until we see what happens with the bigadv changes. I have a few things in mind to add more efficient "D" to my farm as well but waiting to see how things shake out.
 
The SR-2 rig that I have, I would keep it.

~450 watts OCed and 200+ ppd on a 6904
~250 watts stock and 120+ ppd on a 6904

That should be less than $20 a month to run the SR-2 at stock (prolly closer to $15)

Sell everything else, but keep a low powered daily driver.... maybe the laptop or such.

Also, on the job end of things, send me a PM.
 
I've got a help desk/installer job to follow up on when I gt home, but if that falls through I'll let ya know bro

As for the suggestions, keep em coming guys, the more ideas I have the better I can plan out what I'm doing before I get home
 
Personally, I would keep as much hardware as possible, and work with what you have.

Those Intel chips in your SR2s can be very efficient, especially if you keep the volts down. If you're worried about the power bill, manually force a low vcore then overclock as far as you can. You won't hit 200 bclk, but you will probably be near the best cost/ppd ratio.

Unless you scoop up used parts at a good bargain, you will be taking a bit of a loss if you start playing with selling old stuff and buying new stuff.
 
For a low power dually folder consider the Asus combo that NobleX13 is selling and put in your L5640's, This should only pull about 240watts from the wall and would be good for upto 110k PPD on 6904 - offset some of the cost by offloading the E5506's that are in the combo
 
I'm thinking about keeping the dual hex SR2, finding a way to put it into a Thor V2 case (any help would be great lol) and sell everything else like it's going out of style. Truth is I just can't afford to play at these levels anymore lol. That being said, I think if I sell now while the parts hold value in 6 months to a year when I'm able (hopefully) to contribute more than one PC to the cause times will change and hopefully so will my job (I plan on going active duty again by then, that'll really open up some options, like free power!!)

I think for now I should just be happy with a modest 100k ppd and get some of the other aspects of my life in line before I get back into the fold

But I guess 100k isn't really backing out lol, O i confuse myself even lol
 
yeah 100k isn't backing out. Your just doing what our Gov hasn't been able to do for a while cut costs.

The SR2's are still pretty valuable but the SR3's are coming and pretty darn soon so if you want max cash might be wise to dump them (if you can get good money for them) use the money to do the house and then when you are ready to jump back in SR3 should be ready.
 
nwrtarget said:
yeah 100k isn't backing out. Your just doing what our Gov hasn't been able to do for a while cut costs.

The SR2's are still pretty valuable but the SR3's are coming and pretty darn soon so if you want max cash might be wise to dump them (if you can get good money for them) use the money to do the house and then when you are ready to jump back in SR3 should be ready.
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I think a dual hex SR-2 has a long life in front of it.

When the SR-3 comes out nothing about it will be cheap.
 
just a note, if you haven't touched your GI bill yet (if you are getting out of the military when you get back state side), do the paperwork right when you get out and sign up for some useless classes at a nearby college and take advantage of the GI bill, its what my cousin did when he got out of the army because he had a similar issue when he came back from being stationed in korea. his old job promised to rehire him when he got out of the military but they went out of business a week before he got back. the GI bill will cover housing/living expenses plus school while you are attending.
 
GI Bill at my current level will only get me about 75% through month to month, which will be my plan if I can't get this tech job I'm working at right now. I would have to be extra careful tho because the way they changed the bill this month you only get per the days you actually go, they won't round out semesters to equal full months, so during the off time I'd have only a part time job to get by on. Not that bad, but I'll have to budget even harder than if I had a steady paycheck like a 9-5 provides. Either way I should be covered and good, I just want to make sure I don't get back into debt after I spent a year bailing myself out lol.
 
Vaulter98c said:
GI Bill at my current level will only get me about 75% through month to month, which will be my plan if I can't get this tech job I'm working at right now. I would have to be extra careful tho because the way they changed the bill this month you only get per the days you actually go, they won't round out semesters to equal full months, so during the off time I'd have only a part time job to get by on. Not that bad, but I'll have to budget even harder than if I had a steady paycheck like a 9-5 provides. Either way I should be covered and good, I just want to make sure I don't get back into debt after I spent a year bailing myself out lol.
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ahh that sucks.. good luck with the job. i wish we had more tech jobs out here. we have 7 schools that have tech related job classes but no friggin tech jobs other then comcast.
 
Yea, its like that here. Northern Ohio is just dead now. but I'm talking with someone I worked with here and they are trying to hook me up back in the states. Plus, I've got a letter of recomendation from the VP of R&D at Cisco (deployed with him and worked with him personally this year) HQ in Cali, so that's always good lol

You meet all sorts of people in the army lol

I just need to get by until I can get a permanent job or go active duty again. I should be fine, but I just can't afford to fold with the big dogs anymore

At least not right now.... (evil laugh)
 
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