Pondering PPD on old multi-CPU boxes

C

Choder

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 14, 2000
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There are a few 8-CPU P4 3.0GHz w/HT servers in the junk pile at work with 32GB of RAM each. Anyone think they are worth resurrecting given that they are probably horribly inefficient?
 
Doesn't cost you anything to find out. I suspect you are right though. Still, 8 physical + 8 virtual cores at 3GHz may not be that bad.
 
Winter would be good.

Part out and flea bay, make a few bucks and buy new "D"?
 
Or offer them up for a [H]ard giveaway? Somebody might have some free power (dorm room heater anyone?) that can give them a good home...
 
If you don't have to pay for the electricity, then go for it! Otherwise, it will get expensive quickly.

 
You could get around 300-400 PPD with each of those P4's, maybe even reach 500, but thats doubtful. I have 2 p4's running right now and I average 365-425PPD with them. If they have an available pci-e, than theres a chance for more there.

Great for a heater in the winter too! :)
 
Wouldn't they be able to run -bigadv, after all they have 8 cores, and someone on FF managed to get -bigadvto run on some opteron 880's??
 
Nathan_P said:
Wouldn't they be able to run -bigadv, after all they have 8 cores, and someone on FF managed to get -bigadvto run on some opteron 880's??
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Maybe , but it be a strech.

Now the new A3, I'd run that.
 
I think it would be worth giving them a shot just to see how well they perform, at the very least. I don't think I've ever seen numbers from a P4 SMP box with more than two cores.
 
Out of the box thought here. Sell it on e-bay or craigs list and buy new parts?

 
musky said:
+1...I am curious on what they can do with the newer units.
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Lol imagine if they turn out to be awesome folding cpu's (somehow). there would be a made rush for pentuim 4's and buying all those surplus pentuim 4's last week with my 401k money would be a win! (jk)
 
Do you have exact specs on the processors? I presume they are S604 Xeons.
 
I'll have to take a look when I get back to work on monday.

Running them at work is a no-go. At full power they take over 10% of our power capacity in the server room. Each.
 
I want that server!!! :) Since i'm the one that has to deal with power issues in the server room I could tell everyone to F off and run it.

I know its ppd may not be great but I want to see what it does.

And you may have a unicorn!! I cant even seem to find a 8 socket intel board of any kind.
 
MrValentine said:
And you may have a unicorn!! I cant even seem to find a 8 socket intel board of any kind.
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They exist but are rare and usually very proprietary, extremely high-end equipment. Can't say what this server is without additional info.
 
It's an IBM xSeries 445. Booting it up now and should have some specs in a bit. Damn thing takes like 5 minutes to post.

Inside are two 4-socket SMP expansion modules.

Major bummer. It has 8 HT capable 32bit CPUs... FARK.. So much for SMP..
 
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Hmm. No -bigadv, but you can still run A3 units with the Windows SMP client, since it doesn't require 64-bit (and in fact is 32-bit only).
 
Hrm. Will have to find a copy of Windows that can handle 8 sockets.
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Hmmm I wonder if the chips could be swaped out for the 7000 series MP's (Pentium D based dual core). Probably not, but that would be fun to see on the amp meter!!!

And does that thing only has 2 expansion slots right? Its not possible to put even more in there is it?
 
Choder said:
Major bummer. It has 8 HT capable 32bit CPUs... FARK.. So much for SMP..
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Linux based SMP folding is definitely out of the question, so no -bigadv currently because that's 64-bit only. Enabling HT if it isn't already will net you 16 cores visible to the OS but the OS will have to recognize 8 sockets. Like others mentioned, you can still run A3 SMP with the -smp 16 switch and an appropriate MS OS.
 
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