Idea that needs some thought.

TruckerT · Post by **TruckerT** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 1:26 am

I just started folding about a week ago and have really become excited about it. What my question is, and this could be a big help to others, what would the most efficent folding machine be. By most efficent I mean cheapest to build - with only folding in mind as it's entire purpose - and considering the cost to build vs. the amount of work units it can produce.

If I buy the parts to build one, two or maybe three machines I would want to get the most bang for my buck. Things that come to mind are graphics on the MoBo so that a graphics card would not need to be purchased.

Is AMD or Intel the best choice for power vs. money???

If I get a lot of responses to this, maybe we could come up with a "Folding Machine Spec" with some dollars figures associated with it. I don't think I am the only one out here that would enjoy building a farm that is really efficent at folding. Maybe the right answer is two or three MoBo's on one power supply. A KBM switch would save a bunch of money on screens, keyboards and mice.

What are your thoughts????? Pitch in all you machine building, overclocking, folding people that know much more than I (most all of you).

Post by **Philip** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 7:32 am

How about using a dual processor MoBo ? It would save some $$ running 2 instances of Folding.

The Tyan AMD-760MPX has an on-board 3Com NIC, although there is no video card, and it might require ECC Ram... Just an idea.

TruckerT · Post by **TruckerT** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 9:32 am

Great idea Philip, I'm adding it to the list. Does anybody know how to calculate the speed of a cpu as it relates to work units??

Post by **Philip** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 9:46 am

It is not a simple speed comparison, since every wu is different, they also use different FAH cores, not to mention newer generation processors are better, and it is dependent on what command-line switches you use while running the client...

Here is some comparison...
http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=1907

Conclusion: Faster is better, lol

rickoic · Post by **rickoic** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 10:12 am

Also you might compare prices on a duel AMD as mentioned above and a multi threading P4 which will run FAH just like a duelie.

It used to be that AMD's had the advantage over P4's, however with the new client which turns on and uses SSE it is probably about even or maybe slight advantage to Intel.

Rick

emobley3 · Post by **emobley3** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 7:05 pm

If you are located near a Fry's store they have good sales on mobo cpu combos all the time, ie. ECS K7S5A pro mobo & Athlon XP2000+ cpu for $69.99. Mobo comes with usb 2.0 and nic. This would make a start to a relatively fast folding box on the cheap. You can also try outpost.com (Fry's) as they sometimes have really good deals also. One advantage to the ECS mobo is it can use either sdram or ddr.