X2 3800+

[Hito Bahadur]

Well I got a 3800+ that I'm building for someone up. I'm liking the 540 PPD for 2 1140's (600 pointers). Wish all my boxes were 3800+'s

 

[Mayhem33]

Wow! 540 outa a single box that is awsome.

 

[CaptRingold]

540ppd for a single box?

I think I get around 800 - 900 ppd for a 2.4ghz 3200+ (Venice, darn motherboard restricting anything higher), 2x 2400+ AXPs, and a 1.8ghz Turion64 that is sorta flakey on the speed (mostly 1.8ghz, throttles down even on AC occasionally.. thermal reasons perhaps?).

Oh well, few more deposits in the bank and I might be getting a 3800+ myself.

Main question: Let the current 3200+ go to someone else, or buy a cheap setup for it to fold with? sigh.. if only I could afford to do exactly that.

Edit: well, now my little .. window garden (can't call it a farm yet) reports 1100ppd. I like these WU's. It'd still be a good chunk more with that 3800+!

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Yeah, I'm stoked. And that isn't even with the best PPD WUs. 600's are nice. With 2 tinkers it is 342. Looking forward to 2 364 pointers. It should be be in the 600+ PPD range

 

[CaptRingold]

Total edit for clarification: Do you think you generally get more points from one 3800+ or a pair of 3200+ systems?

I'd think due to having one core completely free of the overhead of an operating system, it'd make for a better investment, but as I know from my dual 2400+ system, not everything scales 20%, much less 100%.

Sorry, was working on about 3 hours of sleep yesterday from getting home late from a showing and waking up early for a funeral. (Death from lung cancer, as it so happens, which is what some of us are folding for)

 

[blakex]

Yeah - those are some sweet processors. Had I been into folding when I built my latest computer, I definitely would have shelled out a little more for the X2 rather than the XP64 3700+. After 23 days of folding, I'm averaging 245 PPD out of the 3700. Not bad, but could be double with the X2.

And since I just killed a power supply today (tried to get 2 computers running off one), my production will dip until I can get another PSU...

 

[Hito Bahadur]

Out of curiosity, is it much more inefficient then having two seperate CPU's on different computers? I'd think something like this might scale really well, loading the data it immediately needs on to the cores individual cache, and with decent speed and amounts of RAM... Not to mention, two different computers would both have a little overhead on both CPUs; the little bit of overhead on a 3800+ will be limited to one core, with the other entirely free to fold.

My logic might not hold up though either, so just curious. Probably more bang for the folding buck too though, two cores, one motherboard, one psu, etc.

Not exactly certain what you question is CaptRingold. I could test it if you could explain. I currently have the x2 3800+, a 2x246 Opteron and a 3400+ I could downclock.

But let me try to answer the question. The power consumption is just about half of what it would be with 2 computers, so it is much more efficient that way. As far as responsiveness, I never notice a problem with any of my computers unless I go over the amount of memory in the system. I built the X2 with 1GB of memory which is more than enough for usual computing. I will turn off big packets when I send this baby to its origin (although I might end up just running one instance with packets on, if I can determine which produces more PPD).

As far as I can tell, FAH is pretty good about letting go it's processing requirements so the little bit of overhead is a memory thing. Just make sure you have twice the memory in an x2 as you do in a single core box and you are good to go.

I generally use 2 single core computers for my normal work. This is a bit of a problem because I only use 1 monitor so I am constantly using my KVM. I am getting a 15" secondary LCD for use and I think, at this point, 2 computers, 2 monitors will be the best multi-tasker unless I use the computers with 2 programs that I have to switch information between (unfortunately cut and paste doesnt work between 2 computers.

Hopefully that more than answers your question.

 

[Maniacmous]

(unfortunately cut and paste doesnt work between 2 computers.

I have that problem when simultaniously working on my laptop and my desktop - I've found though that if you have an internet connection handy, get 2 screen names for an IM service, and log onto one per system, allows for about as fast a copy and paste as you're gonna get. (just is 2x copy and 2x paste)

 

[unhappy_mage]

I have that problem when simultaniously working on my laptop and my desktop - I've found though that if you have an internet connection handy, get 2 screen names for an IM service, and log onto one per system, allows for about as fast a copy and paste as you're gonna get. (just is 2x copy and 2x paste)

One word: Synergy. It allows you to use one mouse/keyboard to control both machines, cut and paste between machines, and all sorts of cool stuff. It's a little different than other solutions (eg a KVM) in that you still have two monitors. The mouse pointer just moves from one screen to the other. It's really cool, and once you get used to it, it's awesome to work with.

When/if you set it up, the "server" goes on the machine with the keyboard and mouse that you want to use, and the "client" goes on all the other machines. You can have a really large number of machines working together with it, two isn't the limit.

More good stuff in the docs. I didn't write Synergy, I just like it.