Folding Forum

Hi, I'm looking to help this project and I want to know what would be the best computer to use to help the project.

Can you show me the best computer configuration based on those criteria ?

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 Folding@Home and/or other similar project 24/24.

Do you have an idea of what would be the best computer to buy ?

Thank you

ZeXr0 wrote:Hi, I'm looking to help this project and I want to know what would be the best computer to use to help the project.

Something with an Intel Core2 Quad in it. The faster the CPU and the greater the cache, the better.

You probably want 2 GB of RAM in it.

F@H doesn't use much disk space (in fact, some people run it off of USB memory sticks... I've done that from time to time when I wanted to reconfigure my machine).

As far as cost, you need to consider productivity. You can buy cheap, but you can do better if you buy for PPD efficiency and buy fewer more expensive machines that fold with greater effect. Also note, that what works best, may not be best in the future.

with that in mind:

currently, it is hard to beat an OC'ed low-power 45nm quad (9300, 9450) running SMP + an ATI 3870 running the GPU2 client using a consumer level motherboard such as a GA-P35-DS3L.

Linux is fine, if you don't want to invest in the ATI 3870 (the GPU2 client requires Windows) and then you use a motherboard with onboard video.

If you are not interested in over clocking, then a dual processor Xeon MB (with two L5420 Xeon processors) that uses an Intel 5100 chipset; registered DDR2 ram; and PCI-E x16 (for an ATI 3870). is the most efficient especially PPD/watt. Whatever you do, don't go for a motherboard that uses FB-RAM. Here you can easily run two SMP clients + the GPU client (30% more PPD) for the same wattage as the above (non OC'ed 9300 or 9450) but the upfront costs are significantly higher because of the server components. In this case, because of the lower power usage, you have to look at the long-term to payback the higher upfront costs. Like before, if you are not interested in the GPU2 client, you can skip the video card; the PCI-E X16 requirement; and run Linux.

Note, that this is all assuming you are going to build your own machine(s) because high performance machines typically cost big bucks premade but are not nearly as dear when you build them yourself.

Well it's a personnal projet, so for the moment I'm looking for something cheap and then I'll be upgrading (by buying new components or new computer). I can't spend like 1000$ on a computer on the start. I'll try to end up on something like this, but for the beggining I need something ok to do the job.

That's why power consumption is really a concern. If the project I want to start works, I'll be able to buy more powerful computer to do this.

Do you want to build your own or buy something off the shelf?

I'd recommend building something on your own. You'll need a G33 motherboard (integrated graphics are great if you want to go low-power); Core 2 Quad (Q6600 is cheaper but not as energy efficient; Q9450 would be better but maybe it will be over your budget; Q9300 is a butchered chip, avoid it) 2GB DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 memory (there are a few signs that newer SMP projects might require even faster memory, but DDR3 is just waaay too expensive now), a good PSU (approx 350W) and a case (don't have anything to recommend, I like my PCs LARGE. ). If you are going to run only FAH, then you won't need HDD, you can boot from USB-memory and run the notfred folding image from it. If noise is a problem then an aftermarket cooler might come in handy, especially if you go Q6600, overclock it and stick it into a small cramped case.

If you want to start slow then you could buy a Core 2 Duo first and then swap it to a Q9450 (or something better) once it comes down in price. Currently a 45nm Core 2 chip is best when you need low power consumption and high performance.

I believe a quad running 2x SMP will give more ppd than quad + GPU2.

If you are just going to use this computer for folding you might want to look at:

viewtopic.php?p=6880#p6880

There are other suggestions in the same thread if you are going to use the computer for other tasks while folding.

Oh I'll take a look, I didn't saw this thread.

Thank You

You can install an OS on a usb drive and make it act as a solid state drive?
I take it that you just turn it on and it works and then just turn it off and on again and it works by itself?

Yes, as long as the mother support booting from a USB Drive. I don't know if it always work for Windows, but it works on linux.

ZeXr0 wrote:Yes, as long as the mother support booting from a USB Drive. I don't know if it always work for Windows, but it works on linux.

That's pretty neat. How's the transfer rate compared to a HD? Since most people don't put much on Linux anyway, can you get a large USB drive and use it as a computer? i.e. It can handle the # of R/W's without failing faster than normal HDs? I'm sure you can run some basic XP system too with the size of the flash drives these days. Maybe you can even have your "portable computer system" on a microSD with adapter!

There's a folding Linux USB image project all ready done and it works perfectly. notfred is the developer, he hangs out on techreport.com forums. Here's his link: http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/

I use his diskless boot over the network from my Linux server, works like a champ day and night.

Ericson_Mar wrote:

ZeXr0 wrote:Yes, as long as the mother support booting from a USB Drive. I don't know if it always work for Windows, but it works on linux.

That's pretty neat. How's the transfer rate compared to a HD? Since most people don't put much on Linux anyway, can you get a large USB drive and use it as a computer? i.e. It can handle the # of R/W's without failing faster than normal HDs? I'm sure you can run some basic XP system too with the size of the flash drives these days. Maybe you can even have your "portable computer system" on a microSD with adapter!

Transfer rates vary and reads are much faster than writes, on high-end sticks you can get ~20+MB/s reads and ~10MB/s writes. For folding the speed doesn't really matter everything gets loaded into RAM and only checkpoints and backups are written which have almost no impact on folding speed,

Yes you can use a microSD card. I have notfred's Linux installed on my BlackBerry and I can plug it into a USB port and start folding. After it starts folding I can unplug it and let it run truly diskless ...but I prefer to have a $15 USB stick in each machine.

It takes some hacking but you can run XP off a USB stick. Google PE Builder

For low power consumption, buy the cheapest dual-core laptop you can find. Examples at

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rchInDesc=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rchInDesc=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rchInDesc=

A $650 laptop may turn out to be cheaper than a $500 desktop, once you consider adding monitors and other peripherals, plus electricity...