Questions from a returner to folding

[YCDCN22]

Hi,

I have a number of bits of hardware that i want to get setup in to a folding farm but not sure the best way of doing this so any advice would be fantastic.

1. I have four Core 2 Quad computer with Q9550 processors
two Core 2 Duo computers with unknown at this stage processors
Two GSO 9600 GPU's
Two CoolerMaster Stacker cases

2. Is there any other hardware worth purchasing (through Ebay) for rigs?

3. how do people power these, ie. are people running these from single sockets or spread out on different circuits?

4. any other advice would be great.

[JimboPalmer]

You can omit the 9600 GSO cards, as they will do no folding.
Introduced in May of 2008, they are first generation Tesla GPUs and the last WUs they could fold was core_11, which was EOL in 2013 and the last WUs completed were in 2015.
The Core 2 Quad will do fine on core_a4 WUs.

[YCDCN22]

hi,
@JimboPalmer

That's great info, what GPU is the best bang per buck or PPD? There used to be lists of these things but they haven't been updated in years.

do you have any suggestions as what i could do with the two coolermaster cases?

[ChristianVirtual]

right now GTX 1060, 1070 or 1080 are making quite some PPD/watt ratio (disclaimer: I'm heavily biased with the green side of folding; don't know the red side)

1060: Thermal Design Power (TDP) 120 Watts
1070 around 150 Watts

Or even a 750Ti still get quite some work done with < 80W (approx)

[foldy]

With AMD GPU it is RX 460, 470 and 480. Depending on how much money you can spend all GPUs with higher number are faster and take more watt but have a better PPD per watt ratio.
So it might be more efficient for ppd/watt to build 2 machines with expensive fast gpus than 4 machines with cheap slow gpus. But do as you like.

[bruce]

While every contribution is valuable, a single GPU can outproduce all the CPUs combined. You'll have to figure out how many slots will hold GPUs and what your budget is to fill them.

Each GPU will require the services of one CPU leaving one CPU to fold on the Core2Duos or 3 on the Core2Quads or all CPUs on a machine with no GPU (or maybe even with an unsupported 9600 if you want one system dedicated to the internet, etc. although the Quads will probably do a good job of that.