Posted: 5/2/2008 7:22 PM
Post subject: The best low-cost computer to use with folding@home ?
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ZeXr0
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 883
Hi, i'm looking to buy a cheap, low-cost and energy efficient computer. It must run linux (saves on Windows price) It must be energy efficient (a low power consumption) It must be small (the space is a mather in my case) It must be cheap (the price is also a mather because I plan on buying more than one) This computer will run 24/24. Do you have any idea about what kind of computer I could get ?
Posted: 5/2/2008 7:27 PM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
Cheapest dual-core Celeron with box cooler + some cheapo motherboard with on-board graphics + 512 MB of cheapest DDR2 RAM + scrap HDD (you don't need much space), stuff it into a minitower with 300W PSU, and you're set. Approximate cost in total: $190 or less. Alternatively, buy a used machine of the same calibre for $100 or less.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 5/3/2008 4:56 AM
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OmnipotentEntity
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Player (36)
Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2624
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153073 $40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822210002 $36 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103196 $36 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609084 $10 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156085 $21 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152019 $13.50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106087 $18 $40 + $36 + $36 + $10 + $21 + $13.50 + $18 = $174.50 This also includes a power supply purchased separately from the case (essential), and the correct mix of OEM versus retail hardware to insure that you'll have all the cabling you need. You may have to grab a pack of case screws from the dollar store.
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Posted: 5/3/2008 7:02 AM
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Chamale
He/Him
Player (178)
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1352
Location: Canada
What are you planning to do, assemble a supercomputer? Or an automated TASing machine? Either would be pretty cool.
Posted: 5/3/2008 9:29 AM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
A folding@home machine. That's written there in the topic.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 5/3/2008 4:53 PM
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Titus_Kwok
Joined: 4/30/2006
Posts: 480
Location: the secret cow level
Interestingly enough, the single best processor out there for folding is the PS3's Cell.
Posted: 5/3/2008 7:11 PM
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ventuz
He/Him
Player (123)
Joined: 10/4/2004
Posts: 940
maybe a PS3? On my old machine, it didn't do a single frame for 24 hour so I deleted F@H. I think old machine was Intel 1.6 ghz. Dunno what about on new machine I'm using, Intel Quad-core 2.4 ghz, but anyway, PS3 best for F@H because it finish "unit" in 3~9 hours.
Posted: 5/3/2008 7:45 PM
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Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
how many are you planning to buy? If you wish to buy lots, keep away from standard configurations. You could save money as well as ~10 Watts on the hard disks and CD-Roms if you get one USB CDRom for all the computers, then boot them from CD. It's cheaper to buy a gig of RAM and keep the OS in memory than to buy a hard disk. Less noisy, too. Of course that'll only work if you know how to create a bootable linux CD that'll copy itself to a tmpfs before remounting the root fs. When it comes to cases, the cheapest way would be a freaky home-made rack mount, if you know how to do that. Another thing to consider: cheap isn't always good. You'll want to calculate price per processing power. A dual-core Athlon64 X2 may add ~20 Watt and 10 bucks to a machine, but may double the processing power. You'll need to hunt down some CPU benchmarks (tomshardware.com?) and compare prices.
m00
Posted: 5/4/2008 7:22 PM
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ZeXr0
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 883
Yeah I know, I looked at the forums of Folding@Home telling various configuration. I'll go with some of their tips on how to build it. By the way, linux will be booted from a small USB Key.
Posted: 5/4/2008 8:39 PM
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dartht33bagger
Joined: 12/10/2007
Posts: 260
Location: Oregon
I looked into folding@home and I'm wondering why you would want this program to run (its just protien folding, I see nothing helpful in it)?
Posted: 5/4/2008 8:44 PM
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ZeXr0
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 883
What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease? Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery. Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.
It actually helps to find why those disease appear and how to cure them. But if I use computer, I might go to World Community Grid which covers those project AfricanClimate@Home Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together FightAIDS@Home Help Conquer Cancer Human Proteome Folding 2 I think that it can be useful, if it can help those who find cure I think it worth giving an helping hand.
Posted: 5/5/2008 1:15 AM
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Raiscan
Joined: 11/11/2006
Posts: 1235
Location: United Kingdom
I use a PS3. I don't have to worry about cooling as its all certified (this is in contrast to my PC which is seriously overheating in the current heatwave and as a result is keeping me offline for anything but 10 minute bursts), and it has other cool bundled functions (bluray player, games console). It also can have linux installed. From a technical standpoint it has the more balanced performance compared to CPUs and GPUs which each excel in different things.
<adelikat> I am annoyed at my irc statements ending up in forums & sigs
Posted: 5/12/2008 12:11 AM
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arflech
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Joined: 5/3/2008
Posts: 1120
Just stack a whole bunch of these together; they are small and energy-efficient and they do not come with Windows by default, though judging from the other posts in this thread it seems as if a 500MHz CPU and 256MB of RAM (with no possibility of upgrade) may be insufficient for your needs. http://www.fit-pc.com/new/specifications.html Specifications Hardware CPU: AMD Geode LX800 500MHz Chipset: AMD CS5536 Display: Integrated Geode LX display controller up to 1920x1440 Memory: 256MB DDR 333MHz soldered on-board Hard disk: 2.5” IDE 60GB Ports: 2 x RJ45 Ethernet ports 100Mbps 2 x USB 2.0 HiSpeed 480Mbps RJ11 RS-232 (cable supplied) VGA DB15 Stereo line-out audio (headphones) Stereo line-in audio / Mic Software General Software Embedded BIOS Special BIOS features: Etherboot for boot over LAN Etherlink for BIOS update over LAN Linux: Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) - Preloaded Gentoo – optimized for fit-PC - available as an ISO image Other Linux distributions are tested to work Windows: XP Home/Pro Mechanical and environmental Splash and dust resistant enclosure Material: Aluminum Finish: Black anodized Width: 116mm Length: 120mm Height: 40mm Weight: 500g Operating temperature: 0-70C Power: 5V single supply Power consumption: 3-5W Certifications CE, FCC Class B for Home or Office Use (see certificate) Package contents fit-PC computer (p/n ENC-iGLX-HDD) according to specification AC adapter - 110/230 to 5.0 volt AC cable (U.S. plug) RJ11 to DB9 RS-232 serial cable Price: $259 + S&H S&H (first unit in a shipment): $20 inside Israel, $60 to North America and Europe, $80 elsewhere Add half the initial S&H for additional units in a shipment. For the record, I live in America, not Israel, and I learned about the Fit-PC via a text ad while I was looking at Gmail. Also for all I know they might soon upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 now that it's available, just as they recently upgraded from a 40GB to a 60GB HDD.
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Posted: 5/12/2008 10:29 AM
Post subject: Re: The best low-cost computer to use with folding@home ?
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
ZeXr0 wrote:
It must run linux (saves on Windows price) It must be energy efficient (a low power consumption) It must be small (the space is a mather in my case) It must be cheap (the price is also a mather because I plan on buying more than one)
You clearly want either a cheap laptop or the mac mini. Of course with cheap laptops you can't expect any efficiency to speak of.
This computer will run 24/24.
Whatever that may mean.
Posted: 5/12/2008 1:13 PM
Post subject: Re: The best low-cost computer to use with folding@home ?
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Note that as for power consumption, if you intend to run the computer at 100% CPU load at all times (as is to be expected if you want to run folding@home on it), it will certainly not run at as low power consumption level as is advertised; those levels normally apply for idle times, such as staring at a wordprocessor screen while not typing anything. Another thing: folding@home saves its state to the disk once in a while. If that "once in a while" is something like "1 hour", it may be a good idea to set the disk deactivation time to something short. If the "once in a while" is something like "5 minutes", you should probably set the disk buffer sizes and flush thresholds very large to avoid it writing to the disk too often.
Posted: 5/13/2008 3:56 AM
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ZeXr0
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 883
Well actually, it's sure that I will boot the system on a USB Key. That's the best thing to do and it's the fastest. It's also pretty cheap. 24/24 ... I might have said 24/7 like always running ? arflech : the system needs to be more powerful than that. I might use a couple of PS3, but then again the price is a little concern, but I'll take a look.
Posted: 5/13/2008 12:12 PM
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SXL
Joined: 2/7/2005
Posts: 571
if it's supposed to be 100% dedicated to this project, why not consider donating the same amount to the association ? they'd use the money more efficiently than you (no offense), like buying clusters of servers. you'd also save the power needed to run the machine, and supplies to maintain it, as well as the wasted place in your room.
I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death - NAS