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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Buying the best hardware |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 16
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hello.
----------------------------------------I have a few laptops working on the World Community Grid. Maybe I will buy a non-portable computer just for this purpose. I already got an old VGA screen, keyboard and mouse. But I don't have the computer itself. I will not buy a cheap, slow computer. But I don't have an ocean of money either. I was thinking Intel i7 processor or better. I see that the most expensive i7 is not a quad-core like the others. It actually has 6 cores. Xeon could also be an option. I'm not saying I will definitely buy it. But I would like to know what hardware is best. Also, I see that there are many projects to choose from. I prefer just choosing "World community grid" to help fight stuff like cancer and HIV, and helping development on solar cells. I don't even believe in space aliens, so SETI is not for me. Will the tasks that I care about be able to use a high-powered graphics-card, or do they only use CPU? I will not buy an expensive graphics card if it can't do anything against cancer. And, is there any difference between AMD and Intel, ATI or nVidia? If it's all the same, I prefer the coldest one. AMD rund very hot, i've heard. I'm just trying to educate myself in hardware, to find which hardware is best for fighting disease. Not sure if I'll buy anything yet, but I might, if the price is right. Hope this is not the wrong forum category or something. I'm new to the forum. Thank you for helping :-) EDIT: I will probably use Debian Linux or Ubuntu, using BOINC Manager. I have an old WinXP licence, but I will only use it if it gives MORE performance. [Edit 3 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 9, 2011 4:43:22 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
i'm waiting for ivy bridge Should be in Q2 2012
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Is Ivy Bridge A LOT more powerful than Sandy Bridge?
Q2 is a long wait. |
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macusen
Advanced Cruncher Germany Joined: Mar 31, 2009 Post Count: 59 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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The information I read say that Ivy Bribge should be much more efficient (using less power), bring "new features" (whatever that may mean) and most likely between 10 and 20 percent more performance.
----------------------------------------Of course it's mostly speculation, but shouldn't be much different.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
How is Xeon versus i7 6 core?
----------------------------------------I will use it only for World Community Grid, and I want BOINC to run as fast as possible. And, how much RAM is the best? I want to use enough RAM, but not install an un-necessary, costly amount. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 9, 2011 1:31:33 PM] |
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mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 826 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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How is Xeon versus i7 6 core? I will use it only for World Community Grid, and I want BOINC to run as fast as possible. And, how much RAM is the best? I want to use enough RAM, but not install an un-necessary, costly amount. That is variable based on what each Project deems important in HOW they use your cpu. Here is a link to Seti, the starting point for things Boinc, that shows the top pc's: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/top_hosts.php The top 3 are using Intel i7's but #4 is using an AMD 6 core. The list is sorted by RECENT average credit, so pc's could be moving up or down the list over time. ALOT of people also run several Projects at once so the numbers should not be taken too literally. Basically an Intel i7 and an AMD 6 core ard both VERY fast and you would probably be happy with either one.   |
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krakatuk
Advanced Cruncher Germany Joined: Oct 3, 2008 Post Count: 141 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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How is Xeon versus i7 6 core? I will use it only for World Community Grid, and I want BOINC to run as fast as possible. And, how much RAM is the best? I want to use enough RAM, but not install an un-necessary, costly amount. Xeon only makes sence if you want to build a box with multiple CPUs. But the hardware would be pretty expensive and not overclockable (in most cases). I would wait for Sandy Bridge E, which should come next days or weeks (very soon!) and take the new Core i7-3960. I'm pretty sure it will be stronger than anything else available on the market.  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
How is Xeon versus i7 6 core? Xeon is oriented towards business servers: Xeon supports RAM with error correction, does not support overclocking, the motherboards often come with remote management features. Apart from that it's the same CPU, so performance will be the same for the same clock speed and number of cores. I wouldn't buy an i7 six-core (i.e. i7 970, 980X or 990X) now; as krakatuk says there will be a new six-core model, Sandy Bridge E, in a week or two, which will presumably become the new king of the performance hill. And, how much RAM is the best? It depends on which projects you are runnning. In my case, an i7 2600 with 8 WCG threads and nothing much else running uses 1-3 GB RAM actively, ~4 GB committed (in total, including the OS and miscellaneous system services). I want to use enough RAM, but not install an un-necessary, costly amount. For a 6-core, 12-thread CPU I would go with 8 GB RAM, which also leaves spare capacity for other use and for larger projects in the future. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 9, 2011 8:15:55 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I have never used the GPU until now.
----------------------------------------It was about time, because my laptop has a virtually unused GeForce GTX 460M Cuda 1,5GB. I connected my BOINC client to http://www.gpugrid.net in addition to World Community Grid. It now runs both WCG and GPUgrid. Will GPUgrid ONLY use GPU, and not make WCG any slower? It seems to run well. I might equip my next computer with a powerful graphics card so it can run GPUgrid as well as WCG. Any great suggestions on graphics cards? Is nVidia or ATI best for this purpose? GPUgrid seems to be for nVidia only, so i'll probably buy nVidia. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 10, 2011 3:56:52 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Take a look at this: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,31894_offset,0
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