Call me old fashioned but...

mark128

mark128

mark128

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I've decided i like athlon XP processors :). So a quick search on an internet auction site found me a motherboard for only £25 including delivery. I got a 2800XP processor for around £30 and an arctic cooling fan and heatsink for a few pounds. I already had some high performance ram lying about along with the graphics card, soundcard and heatsink.

So whats my point your wondering???

Well I run distributed.net on my computer and acheive a rate of 8.5 million keys per second using this machine. I know its not the best computer available but it also didn't cost the world to build. I'm not sure how it would peform against some of the latest 64 bit 4800 dual core athlons but anyone wanting a high performance budget computer this seems to be a gd setup.

I'd be interested to see the keyrate of distributed.net on higher spec machines to see how it compares.

I am now using this as my main machine to replace my aging pentium 4 2.6ghz machine. I am very happy with its stability and i'm sure it could run anything i throw at it.
 
yep there's nothing wrong with XP processors at all - I have these:

XP1700@2200
XP1700@2100
Barton XP2500+
XP2400+
XP2100+

All running folding 24/7 in the house at the moment, plus my dad's XP1900+ at home which is o** a little too much for my liking :o

XP's are starting to show their age a little for Folding but it's just a case of influencing what work you can receive to keep them producing as much PPD as possible
 
Nothing wrong with Athlon XPs - solid little processors. Folding-wise, yes they're a bit long-in-the-tooth for newer WUs which need SSE2, but for some old units evidence suggests they're actually faster than A64s clock-for-clock.

I have one in the next room kicking out 260ppd on a 364-point unit.

I'd be interested to see the keyrate of distributed.net on higher spec machines to see how it compares.
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All this is new to me - I just tried it out. Which core are we talking? My benchmarks ranged from 4.5m/sec to 10m/sec depending on the core. On the throughput graph thing I averaged about 9.1m/sec (A64 at 2.4)

*wanders back to folding*
 
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Athlon XPs and Durons still make up most of my farm. It made it easier to build up a farm when everything was on a common socket.

3000XP @ 2.4 GHz
2600XP @ 2.3 GHz (Barton core)
1.6 GHz Duron @ 2.4 GHz T-Bred :D (my favourite chip I think, cost me £20)
1.6 GHz Duron @ 2.3 GHz
1.6 GHz Duron @ 2 GHz (this one disappoints me!)
1.3 GHz Duron @ 1.4 GHz
900 MHz Duron @ 1.1 GHz
2000XP @ stock (overclocking laptops is tricky)
Pentium-M 750 @ stock (even trickier to overclock a Pentium-M lappy)
300 MHz P2 @ stock

I've also got a Sempron 2800 sitting boxed. As soon as some new RAM arrives, it's getting majorly overclocked and I sell the 3000XP to pay for Sempron and motherboard. Then the NF7-S replaces the dying KG7 I have... meaning somehow I ought to come out with more power and a replacement motherboard without costing me anything...
 
Mattus said:
I have one in the next room kicking out 260ppd on a 364-point unit.
Click to expand...

I have a 2800XP running a 364 pointer right now and baring in mind that it is also running BOINC BBC Climate 24/7 it is still getting 204.62 ppd!

Saying that my Intel 1.7 740 Laptop puts it in it's place with a speedy 9mn 29s - 552.72 ppd :cool:

So the XP is quick but not as quick as some others..
 
I think as far as raw speed goes, processors havn't actually got any faster in the last 4 years. Thats why, when runnin distributed.net i can match the latest processors. However newer processors seem to achieve better results for boinc and folding etc using other methods such as larger cache or maybe dual cores or 64 bitness. It will be interesting to see where processors go next. Will they be able to squees anymore mhz outta them or will multiple processors be the way forward. Maybe in 5 years time we'll see 128 bit processors. Sorry dunno if that made sence was just letting my mind wander
 
MajorPart said:
Saying that my Intel 1.7 740 Laptop puts it in it's place with a speedy 9mn 29s - 552.72 ppd :cool:
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Those are awesome for those particular WUs but nothing special for anything else. It's quite strange - I think it's the large cache.

Multiple cores are definitely the way forward. In the autumn when Intel's Conroe comes out it will be a dual-core part only, and AMD will follow. From then I think only value CPUs will be single-core. Then in 2007-8 Intel and AMD will introduce the first quad-core processors. Once games developers get a better idea of how to develop for multi-core CPUs there'll be no reason for anybody to buy a single-core CPU.

We'll probably see 128-bit at some point in the future, but right now I think even 64-bit is more of a marketing feature than an actual performance boost. Once we need more than 4GB of RAM for day-to-day stuff we'll have to go 64-bit as that's the most RAM a 32-bit system can address.

Conroe is basically an improved version of the Pentium-M with 4MB L2 cache. That should give some awesome PPD on those 364-pointers. :cool:
 
Mattus said:
In the autumn when Intel's Conroe comes out it will be a dual-core part only, and AMD will follow.
Click to expand...

You have also got to remember that at the end of this month P4 D's will have thier prices slashed. I feel this will lead to a huge intake of Dual core in general as AMD will have to cut thier prices also. It is deffinatly the way forward as the heat / speed issue is proving hard to overcome.

I'm also sure that conroe will also see AMD bring something out of thier sleeves.

Can't wait lol

Pretty much the fastest processor i've seen in terms of ppd is the opteron 848 that my work has two of. I'm trying to get folding on these beasts but my work is funny about these sort of things, my boss says yes, IT manager says no.
 
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