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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Hardware Chat Room
Thread: Free or cheap used PC's for WCG - worth it? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 44
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hey everyone
I just started with WCG and somehow I don't feel great leaving my gamer PC on 24/7. I would be willing to let 1-2 dedicated machines run for WCG though. Is it worth it to check for cheap used PC's and let them crunch or should I not even bother? I'm pretty sure I could find free onces from companies that sorted them out. I want to get some points for the money I pay in electricity, so if I don't help anyone and pay lots of money for it, that's not worth it in my book. What's the opinion on that? |
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SekeRob
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 7, 2013 Post Count: 2741 Status: Offline |
The idea is to volunteer crunch with what you have, not go buy more comps [nobody is objecting though]. Gamer machines will do perfectly fine at 100% 24/24. Newer is of course much better than old. E.g. My old P4 at about 2Ghz, single core uses 200 Watts/Hr, my I7-3770K octo at 3.7Ghz uses about 110W/Hr and does about 35+ times more work [in points]. The P4 has not been on since about 10 Years, neither is the Q6600, also 200W/hr except for testing OSses and beta apps.
----------------------------------------[Edit 1 times, last edit by SekeRob* at Feb 26, 2016 2:55:10 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
So in other words - don't do it, use your gamer pc and if ever buy a good dedicated cruncher... ? :) I can live with that. The other option just seemed more convenient :)
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SekeRob
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 7, 2013 Post Count: 2741 Status: Offline |
Yes... get yourself into the crunching move for a while and then if addiction strikes... in about 3 months tops, you may want to go out and 'augment' your efforts / investment if you want to with lower power consuming devices.
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nanoprobe
Master Cruncher Classified Joined: Aug 29, 2008 Post Count: 2998 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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IMHO you will do no harm running your gaming PC 24/7/365. Just watch the temps and don't push it hard. Constantly turning computers off and on wears them out quicker than just leaving them on. I say all that with the knowledge that comes from almost 20 years of building computers.
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AMuthig
Advanced Cruncher USA Joined: Nov 30, 2013 Post Count: 59 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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You can usually find used systems with second generation Core i3 processors (like an i3-2120) for pretty cheap, and they will run four threads at 100% while staying quite cool. Used but working systems can be found for under $100 each. (Ebay has a few for sub-$100 right now.)
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Kasey Domer
Cruncher United States Joined: Jul 24, 2013 Post Count: 44 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Hi, Manuelz,
----------------------------------------To expand on AMuthig's comments, there are a few decent routes you can take when buying used systems, depending on your budget. The sub-$100 Sandy Bridge i3 is an option, but there are also sub-$200 i5 and sub-$300 i7 options as well, all of which offer a great price-to-performance ratio. Or, if you're a little more hardware-inclined, you could buy used parts from eBay and assemble something yourself. I actually just did something in the middle. I found a desktop for $50 on Amazon with a Pentium E5300, 4GB RAM, and Windows 7 Pro. Then, I went to eBay and found a Core 2 Quad Q6600 for $20, and replaced the Pentium with it. For about $80 after tax and shipping, I've got a quad-core cruncher that works well.   Crunchers: 1: Xeon E5-2695 v3 @ 2.5GHz turbo (14C/28T) 2: Xeon E5-2658 v3 @ 2.3GHz turbo (12C/24T) 3: Ryzen 7 1700 @ 3.675GHz OC (8C/16T) 4: Core i7-4700MQ @ 3.2GHz cTDP up (4C/8T) |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Prozessor: 1x Intel Xeon E5620 Quad Core 2.40GHz 8GB RAM Harddisk: 4x 1000GB SAS 3.5" - 450 bucks
----------------------------------------IBM x3200 M3 TOWER Server Intel Xeon X3430 Quad Core 2.40GHz / 4GB DDR3 RAM L_ECC / 500GB SATA / DVD-Brenner - 180 bucks Those are both in a server tower.. are those any good, or better the used i7 route? [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 27, 2016 3:21:25 PM] |
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enels
Senior Cruncher Joined: Apr 25, 2008 Post Count: 286 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I wouldn't invest in the Xeon X3430. It has a 15 watt higher TDP and that could result in $100 or much more in electricity over 10 years. For $450 you may be able to find a newer i7 that uses even less electricity and has more performance than the 80 watt TDP Xeon E5620. Note that neither of these Xeons support AVX institutions.
----------------------------------------[Edit 1 times, last edit by enels at Feb 27, 2016 9:03:45 PM] |
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Kasey Domer
Cruncher United States Joined: Jul 24, 2013 Post Count: 44 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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If you're going the Xeon route, you can find E5-2670 (Sandy Bridge-EP) units on eBay for less than $100 apiece, and a last-generation LGA2011 motherboard for fairly cheap, too. You'll be getting 8 modern, hyperthreading cores (for 16 threads) at 2.6GHz, emitting 115W of power. Pretty good deal, if you ask me.
----------------------------------------Crunchers: 1: Xeon E5-2695 v3 @ 2.5GHz turbo (14C/28T) 2: Xeon E5-2658 v3 @ 2.3GHz turbo (12C/24T) 3: Ryzen 7 1700 @ 3.675GHz OC (8C/16T) 4: Core i7-4700MQ @ 3.2GHz cTDP up (4C/8T) |
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