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World Community Grid Forums
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Forum: Hardware Chat Room
Thread: Gaming vs Standard PCs for WCG? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 13
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yoro42
Ace Cruncher United States Joined: Feb 19, 2011 Post Count: 8979 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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What would be the Pros & Cons of Gaming PCs being used for WCG crunching? Obviously I'm not a gamer but might consider it if it excelled at crunching.
----------------------------------------I guess they would do well with GPU if/when we get WU that use that hardware. Still learning PC in general, Thanks  |
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noderaser
Senior Cruncher United States Joined: Jun 6, 2006 Post Count: 297 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Are you asking about a computer you already have, or are you considering a new one? Gaming PCs usually have strong CPUs and lots of RAM, which can always help grid computing, and obviously a strong GPU is good also. However, gaming machines can get pretty pricey, there are probably more cost-effective options if you don't need the extra firepower for gaming yourself.
----------------------------------------If looking for strong CPU and lots of RAM, look at a used or refurbished professional workstation. If looking for GPU power, you can do with a decent but inexpensive motherboard and some mid-range GPU cards. Which option you're looking for depends on the particular project you want to power through. Since WCG doesn't have any GPU projects currently, that won't help you here. But, you don't really need to spend any money on a new machine if it works fine for everything else you're doing. BOINC and WCG are designed to make use of the unused resources of nearly any machine, even those approaching ten years old. So, if all of this stuff is new to you, you might want to hold out and learn a bit more about your options before taking the plunge. |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Gaming computers do a A+ GPU jobs...but they can be used for a B+ CPU jobs!
----------------------------------------Servers do a A+ CPU jobs... Normal computer do C GPU or CPU jobs! hope it helps out...  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
If you are looking to build a system (not sure of your level of expertise), Look for a good quality CPU and motherboard, and work from there. Intel I5 or I7 is usually the preferred CPU, but they can be pricey. AMD is a little more budget friendly, but a bit less of a powerhouse. Also look for an efficient power supply. An 80+ rating is a good start.
If you are looking for GPU computing, there are other projects (IIRC) that are currently available to do GPU computing. NVIDIAs Maxwell architecture is very strong right now and very power efficient - that would be the current GTX 970, 980, 980Ti, or if you dont have budget issues, the TitanX. If you want to hold off a while, the new Pascal chipset from NVIDIA should be out later in 2016 and is supposed to blow away the Maxwell stuff thats out now (very excited to see what Pascal can do :) ) A word of caution on GPU computing though... If you do decide to use GPUs for computing, be sure your case has very good airflow. And look for a reference design card. A reference design card has one fan toward the back of the card with an enclosed shroud. It blows the air across the card, then out the back of the case. If you get the kind of card that has the two monster fans, they are only going to blow the air all over the inside of the case, making your other components hotter. |
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vlado101
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jul 23, 2013 Post Count: 226 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I am actually in the same position. I am planning on buying a gaming laptop, but my budge will be between 1000 and 1200 so I am saving up for it. Right now my top two contenders would be Lenovo Y series laptops or Alienware 15. Not sure which one I will go to, but the main decision of getting a laptop was the flexibility of being able to move it around and use it for my tv with the hdmi cable.
----------------------------------------If cooling is an issue is it better to buy one of those cooling pads (the ones with the fans under the laptop) or better to buy those fans that attach to the side of the laptop?  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I have had good luck with the cooling pads. I have one that has fans that you can move around to position them where you want, and I have a different one that has one huge (I think around 200mm) fan on it, so it basically blows air over the whole bottom of the laptop. Both are USB powered. Just be careful to watch the temps on laptops while crunching though, as they can overheat much easier than a desktop which has more air flow.
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vlado101
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jul 23, 2013 Post Count: 226 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi joneill003, thanks for the advice. Do you have the name or maybe the amazon page of the ones that you have used? I would be interested on making sure I either buy those ones or ones like it.
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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if you are choosing a new PC, I'd guide myself by:
----------------------------------------- newest chip-set MBO - at the expense of slower CPU, even i3 why? within a year, you can easily upgrade to BEST or faster CPU...even after 2-3y you can upgrade your CPU with newest MBO chip-set! I am actually in the same position. I am planning on buying a gaming laptop, but my budge will be between 1000 and 1200 so I am saving up for it. Right now my top two contenders would be Lenovo Y series laptops or Alienware 15. Not sure which one I will go to, but the main decision of getting a laptop was the flexibility of being able to move it around and use it for my tv with the hdmi cable. If cooling is an issue is it better to buy one of those cooling pads (the ones with the fans under the laptop) or better to buy those fans that attach to the side of the laptop? I'd vote for Alienware 15...'cause of the dual heat-sinks with fans! so if CPU is heated, GPU is cool...  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi joneill003, thanks for the advice. Do you have the name or maybe the amazon page of the ones that you have used? I would be interested on making sure I either buy those ones or ones like it. The one with the one big fan is several years old so I doubt it is a current model, but it looks similar to this: http://smile.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Massive23...mp;keywords=laptop+cooler The one with the relocatable fans I can't seem to find at the moment. For cooling, the main things to look at are: - CFMs. How much air do the fans move? - dBAs. How loud are the fans at maximum speed? - Bearing life. How long is the fan supposed to last before it gives up? Usually, the larger the fan, the more air it can push at a lower RPM, which means less noise. That is not always the case though. I saw several designs that look like they would do a better job of cooling, due to the placement of the fans. What you want to do is look at the bottom of your laptop, and find where the air intakes are at. Then match that up with a laptop cooler that has fans in those specific areas. That way the cool air goes directly into the intake vents. I have an old acer laptop with a dual core pentium running linux mint and has one large access panel that covers probably 3/4 of the bottom to access RAM, HDD, and CPU heatsink/fan. I removed that access panel since the laptop never moves, and positioned fans to blow directly onto the CPU heatsink and RAM. Temps dropped dramatically when I did that, although the laptop was never near the temp limits while crunching 24/7. Most laptops I have seen do not have that option though. |
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Bearcat
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 6, 2007 Post Count: 2803 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Try to find someone thats put together allot of computers. PC's made by Dell, HP, etc are not to greatest built to stay on 24/7. A home built PC built right would handle WCG and other grid computing projects with ease.
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Crunching for humanity since 2007!
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