OK, so I have the new HP DL380 G7 in hand and have been crunching for two days now. For 270 watts I got 93 results (70,083 points) on the first day and 97 results (70,083 points) the next. Still early days. I know this doesn't keep pace with the engineering samples, however still a solid result compared to any crunching I have done in the past.

After doing this work with dedicated crunching hardware, I find myself wondering what hardware people are running to get ranked highly....In the ranks I am currently at around 16000 overall for points, that's still along way from the top.

I’ve run BOINC/WCG on a 7" RCA Voyager 2 tablet ( $45 at Wal Mart ) for 6 months now. It’s a quad core processor and crunches pretty good. I let it run 24/7 as the power draw is so small. Anyone can put up one or two of these easily.

Any one with wifi should set up one just for WCG. You rarely have to mess with it once it starts running. I check on mine every couple of days when I think about it. But so far I haven’t had to mess with them again ( I have 2 on WCG ).

If I want to add more tablets, this “set up” is both cheap and easy to do so.

@phishbonz:

I had a few minutes, so typed up my thoughts on building a crunching farm. It does not take every aspect into consideration, but I hope they are helpful.

1. Determine the location of the crunching farm/rack, ideally somewhere that can provide sufficient electricity and cooling (also not sitting on the floor of a basement that is prone to flooding, etc).
2. Calculate the wattage that is safely available to you on the electrical circuit in that location.
a. Determine voltage and amperage of the circuit (usually by looking in the breaker box) that you will be using. In the United States, house circuits are typically 120v and 15 or 20 amps.
b. Calculate maximum wattage and safe wattage for the circuit. 120 volts x 15 amps = 1800 watts maximum. For longer periods, 80% of the maximum wattage should be your top limit, which is 1440 watts. (If the circuit is rated at 20 amps, then there will be a higher limit.) See: https://www.familyhandyman.com/electrical/bre...it-breakers-work/view-all
c. Calculate wattage already on the circuit (include anything that you anticipate to add to the circuit).
d. The remainder is available for your crunching farm/rack. (As you add a new computer, use a wattage meter to measure how many watts are being used while crunching. Record this, and stay within the safe wattage limit determined above.)
e. Also realize that crunching + cooling will dramatically increase your monthly electrical usage and bill.
3. Determine a cooling solution. A farm will put off substantial heat. My primary crunching rack is in the basement where it stays cool, raised 8” from the ground in case of flooding, and is situated near a window with a fan for venting. (The window has a cover to prevent rain from splashing in.) Add a thermometer to the rack to monitor temperature.
4. Set up a sturdy rack, power management, and networking.
a. Rack: A sturdy, well ventilated rack. (I have an open-air shop shelving until from Wal-Mart that works well.)
b. Power management: At least good power-strips with surge-suppressors. I have added UPS batteries that will not allow the systems to run for very long, but will protect against sudden power drops and brownouts.
c. Networking: 12-24 port fast-Ethernet (100-Mbps) switches are fairly inexpensive (for the type of network communications on WCG you will not need a Gigabit switch) and Ethernet cables.
d. Cable management: Keep cables managed in the rack so that 1) it is easy to trace cables when you need to repair/maintain a system, and 2) it looks nice!
5. Start collecting computers. This will very likely be limited by your budget. I typically research computers by looking at 1) thread count, 2) performance benchmark, and 3) power consumption. (1 GB of RAM per thread is also a basic rule of thumb.) Since the electrical circuit will become a limiting factor, you will want to balance performance and power consumption. There are some powerful crunchers out there that are not very energy efficient, and will lead to less overall work in a given power circuit when compared to loading the circuit with efficient systems.
a. Ebay is a great place to find deals on older but powerful systems.
b. I suggest loading Linux on all systems since the current work units are running more efficiently under that OS.
c. Run the systems headless (without video), using something like Tightvnc to connect to them from your main system.
6. Maintain the computers for longevity. Regularly clean the dust out of the systems using something like the (METRO DataVac Electric Duster), and monitor the CPU temperatures (depends on the OS you are using) – taking steps to reduce temperatures as needed.

I’m sure that I am forgetting things that others will suggest.

This is quite a complex question.

If your goal is efficiency, v4 Xeons are your best bet. Buying prebuilt servers with v4 Xeons will cost you an arm and a leg though. You can get cheap Xeon v4s on ebay, starting from 120$ or so, but you will have to build the rigs yourself.

You can build a farm with a bunch of Pine64 boards or Android TV boxes as well. These are efficient and low power but net you less points overall.

Ryzen R7 is a good value now, not as efficient as v4 Xeons but you can buy these new, if ebaying isn't your kind of tea.

Buying older used servers is a possibility. I bought used 12/24 core Opteron servers for 70/120$. The 24 core uses 300W at the wall, much less efficient than modern rigs.

With older servers, be prepared for the noise, heat and a whole lot of money spent on electricity.

It's all a balancing game. Older hardware is cheap but will net you much less points (5 or 6 times even!) for the same power usage. What you gain on the price of hardware, you will lose out on the electricity bill.