Ressucitate rig or build new one to run Folding@home ?
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:23 am
Hi,
I have and old socket 478 motherboard with a P4 at 2,4GHz, 768Mo of RAM, a 6800GS AGP GPU (it replaced the MX420 that was there originally which you could almost run without a heatsink !!), and a 400W PSU. It's just packed in a storage box for now.
I'm in a building frenzy and I'm thinking of putting it all back together in a small homemade hackbox and use it mostly as a folding box (also a file server / media player (will be plugged on my TV)), to be on 24/7, and to not be more than 9cm high (my design so far). It will run windows XP Home. I want to be able to do some folding with it (and make it before the deadline). Since this is SPCR, I won't even mention that it has to be quiet.
My plan is to change the PSU fan with something quiet and add a slow moving fan as exhaust. I'd love to keep it to those 2 92mm fan !
HOWEVER, I can't just put it back together ; I need :
- an AGP riser card, because the AGP card is a full-size card and it does'nt fit in my design (around 15€ including shipping)
- some kind of hack to get that GPU to run passive. The current heatsink has one of those small whinny fans on it.
- a new socket 478 retention clip (the one I have now is broken, costs around 10€ including shipping)
total cost around 25€
My questions are :
Is it worth it to spend those 25€ and put all this back together to fold ? I'm not sure the PPD/Watt will be worth it...
Should I invest in a more modern cheap board / CPU / RAM combination of some kind, and use the 8600GS card I have (it's cool and runs passive)? If yes, any suggestions ? I'm thinking E5300 on cheap mobo and 1Gb RAM, to keep the price to a minimum (I have no experience with AMD but I'm open to suggestions)
Should I add to the previous question a decent low profile passive GPU to fold with (price must be below 100€) ? I'm thinking 9600/9800GT
Thank you for your comments !
I have and old socket 478 motherboard with a P4 at 2,4GHz, 768Mo of RAM, a 6800GS AGP GPU (it replaced the MX420 that was there originally which you could almost run without a heatsink !!), and a 400W PSU. It's just packed in a storage box for now.
I'm in a building frenzy and I'm thinking of putting it all back together in a small homemade hackbox and use it mostly as a folding box (also a file server / media player (will be plugged on my TV)), to be on 24/7, and to not be more than 9cm high (my design so far). It will run windows XP Home. I want to be able to do some folding with it (and make it before the deadline). Since this is SPCR, I won't even mention that it has to be quiet.
My plan is to change the PSU fan with something quiet and add a slow moving fan as exhaust. I'd love to keep it to those 2 92mm fan !
HOWEVER, I can't just put it back together ; I need :
- an AGP riser card, because the AGP card is a full-size card and it does'nt fit in my design (around 15€ including shipping)
- some kind of hack to get that GPU to run passive. The current heatsink has one of those small whinny fans on it.
- a new socket 478 retention clip (the one I have now is broken, costs around 10€ including shipping)
total cost around 25€
My questions are :
Is it worth it to spend those 25€ and put all this back together to fold ? I'm not sure the PPD/Watt will be worth it...
Should I invest in a more modern cheap board / CPU / RAM combination of some kind, and use the 8600GS card I have (it's cool and runs passive)? If yes, any suggestions ? I'm thinking E5300 on cheap mobo and 1Gb RAM, to keep the price to a minimum (I have no experience with AMD but I'm open to suggestions)
Should I add to the previous question a decent low profile passive GPU to fold with (price must be below 100€) ? I'm thinking 9600/9800GT
Thank you for your comments !