Rebuild-QX6700 or Fresh Dedi?

[Completed] Fresh 24/7 Folding Build

I have a old QX6700-based system that has been unused for ages and I could rebuild it. What the typical weekly points total of a Q6600 without any GPUs being used at all to be run as a dedicate FAH PC?

I've been running the system in my sig whenever I can [energy-sapping combo of CPU+GPU+GPU running flatout = 550W] getting 114k-140k a week and is why I'm wondering if it's worth doing. I really want to get a combined total of 240k a week. Now I'm typing it, the QX6700 would find that impossible even with a couple new GPUs due to the bottleneck.

There is the small issue of the QX6700s TDP of a huge 130W compared to a more efficient 3570K of 77W that did cross my mind when thinking about energy consumption vs PPD. There's the additional heat when I'd be sticking it away under the stairs, it would keep the hallway warm in the winter but you don't get bonus points for that.

Bought, delivered, ready to build!!
Intel Core i5-3570K - OEM [to be de-lidded]
Artic Silver 5 3.5 grams
Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra [replacement TIM]
Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler
Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case
Corsair 140mm Air Series AF140 QE
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155)
Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular

To reuse
500GB SATA1 7,200RPM HDD (Backup Image only)
120SSD Vertex 2e SATA-II (Ubuntu 64-bit and Folding)
Sata cable/s
USB thumbdrive for Linux

First image of the entire order - first posted here


CPU cleaned with good old ArcticClean - first posted here


Z77 Extreme4 looks good and well-specced - link above


Completed!! - first posted here


Latest: Finished build + now running Folding 24/7

i say fire it up and see, at the moment ocuk are number 29 , teamrage3d arnt very far behind .... and then ocuk will be number 30 again.

I would have thought a QX6700 would give around 8k PPD. An overclocked 3570K should give around 25k PPD for half the power consumption. No contest really.

Snapshot said:

I would have thought a QX6700 would give around 8k PPD. An overclocked 3570K should give around 25k PPD for half the power consumption. No contest really.

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Wow, that is quite the difference!

I'll have a think about the rest of the system. Probably use spare 4x4GB 1866MHz RAM to cut costs, spare 500GB HDD, need to buy a 500W 80% eff PSU, micro-ATX mobo + case, and cooling. I'm trying to keep this build under £500 and the two areas I don't want to sacrifice much is the mobo+PSU due to reliability concerns by running it 24/7.

A little update on the core of the build so far - I'm using existing 1866MHz RAM to cut costs and also need to try ubuntu:




The Corsair PSU isn't out yet and looks ideal, has 85% eff. The Corsair 100i I know has issues with the firmware but update is available, added replacement fans to reduce noise to a minimum. Because I want a micro-ATX cube case I'm stuck at the final hurdle of finding a case to fit the Corsair 100i as most cases are single 120mm or the front of the case doesn't have much room. Has anyone come a case that would do the job because my search has been fruitless, thanks?

you had paid for this lot or is this what your buying?

ozaudio said:

you had paid for this lot or is this what your buying?

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Not yet. I would have ordered everything but the PSU isn't in stock until around the 29th December and I'd need that to verify components work 100% - plus the little issue of needing a micro-cube case and having nothing to show for my research unless there is nothing.

Nice discount on the 3570K currently but shame I know I can get the mobo £10 cheaper elsewhere. Since this is a folding rig for OcUK it would be good if there was a discount like you get for bundles because this build is going to costing me more than I wanted (£500 max). I'm not moaning btw and will look forward to continued contribution for good causes at a time of goodwill

EDIT: I had another look on OcUK and found a budget mini-cube that would appear to tightly fit a Corsair H100i. It was the BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case for £64.99 - seems a lot for a plasticy case - rather pay a bit more for better build quality and design. I wanted to also see if I could find a mobo with more power phases than the 4+1+1 on the ASRock and found a 6+2 phase on the Asus P8Z77-M Pro Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) £116.99.
Asus is pricey as the ASRock has more features, Asus is very familiar but which is more robust for 24/7 use?

But that's a mini-ITX case and you specced a M-ATX mobo. Are you going to fold the mobo to make it fit or just cut off the extra three slots?.

I don't think you need an H100i for a 3570k so you could save £50 by just speccing a good air cooler. My 3570 (no K) at 3.8GHz runs at 40C with passive cooling in a Silverstone TJ-08.

Snapshot said:

But that's a mini-ITX case and you specced a M-ATX mobo. Are you going to fold the mobo to make it fit or just cut off the extra three slots?.

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Thanks for correcting me Of course your right, I was gulping caffeine to stay awake that early and affected my judgement. Guess I was grasping at straws to find one lol.

Snapshot said:

I don't think you need an H100i for a 3570k so you could save £50 by just speccing a good air cooler. My 3570 (no K) at 3.8GHz runs at 40C with passive cooling in a Silverstone TJ-08.

Click to expand...

I thought about that and the alternative is the impressive Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler £69.98 but I didn't mention it because I'm unsure about clearance in a micro-ATX case and will check mini-tower cases no taller than 42cms; Lian Li PC-V354B springs to mind so something non-aluminium to cut costs below £100.

UPDATE Finalised what I will order for early next week to finish my Folding rig - this month hopefully:

Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155)
Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler
Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular

is that along side a 3570k?

ozaudio said:

is that along side a 3570k?

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Yes the 3570K OEM, bought that in the TO special for £156.99

Ordered everthing as of today for delivery on Wednesday!

Managed to hunt through my boxes of components spares and find a 500GB Sata1 HDD which is exactly the size I needed saving myself £45. Smaller capacity drives were only IDE. Using my spare thumbdrive for Linux - no idea yet on going about installing OS or setting up Folding on ubuntu which will delay the build log a bit. A bit of guidance on that would be great

FMTopfan said:

Wow, that is quite the difference!

I'll have a think about the rest of the system. Probably use spare 4x4GB 1866MHz RAM to cut costs, spare 500GB HDD, need to buy a 500W 80% eff PSU, micro-ATX mobo + case, and cooling. I'm trying to keep this build under £500 and the two areas I don't want to sacrifice much is the mobo+PSU due to reliability concerns by running it 24/7.

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Are you sure? My 3570K @ 4.4GHz is currently getting 6.5K PPD. I may just quit this whole folding process, it seems pretty pointless for such a low PPD.

Edit.. Make that 6K ppd and dropping.

Then you're doing something badly wrong. I get between 17k and 20k from my two 3570s at a max of 3.8GHz. Do you have a passcode entered in the client and have you completed ten WUs? Have you checked task manager to make sure all the cores are in use?

All cores are in use, I am currently in the OCuK team and I am using a password. I haven't done 10 units, but I think I've done about 6? It used to get me 17-20K PPD, but now it doesn't and I'm sure I seen someone else comment this also. It's definitely using 100% CPU and I haven't noticed a performance decrease in any aspect of my computer, so it's not a failing chip.

some work units are jusr rubbish, i had 4500ppd for a couple of units the other day, same cpu as you, once you hit 10 work units you will get a massive points boost

A couple weeks back was bad where I was awarded only 2k for CPU SMP on my gaming rig in spec because of bad WUs. It has picked up again to 15k PPD for CPU recently but that was with GTX680-SLI using the CPU too. With bonus and everything else running for 12 hours min a day I see the estimate for FAHControl showing 110k PPD. F@H stats shows it's actually 50~55K PPD in total.

I'll also make a quick post when I get my gear on Wednesday. And while I'm posting I did notice that my OEM 3570K surface isn't clean as it appears to me considering I've never touch it and maybe had thermal paste on at some point - I took this photo as RAW format and only increased exposure - otherwise what are these lines?

illuz said:

All cores are in use, I am currently in the OCuK team and I am using a password. I haven't done 10 units, but I think I've done about 6? It used to get me 17-20K PPD, but now it doesn't and I'm sure I seen someone else comment this also. It's definitely using 100% CPU and I haven't noticed a performance decrease in any aspect of my computer, so it's not a failing chip.

Click to expand...

The PPD isn't accurate until you've completed your ten WUs. You'll need to look at the EOC or Kakao stats to see what you were actually credited with. 17-20k is the value you'll get once you start getting the bonuses but you won't actually have been getting that yet. Having said that, ozaudio is right in that there are some really poor WUs about, especially if using FAHControl, so you just have to work through them.

Your PPD on ExtremeOverclocking.com's stats will lag behind what you are really doing. That is an average of your real output over a few days, perhaps a couple of weeks? But by clicking your user name you will get details of the points you have accumulated over the last hours/days/weeks, so you can see what you are actually achieving. It updates every three hours.