AMD or Centrino Laptop for BOINC?

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Pilgrim
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Message 73571 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 2:55:57 UTC

The AMD laptops that are coming out now are cheap, especially the XP 2800 to the XP 3200 cpus.

However, I am worried about the heat factor since it will be crunching 24/7.

Would a 1.4 ghz centrino be better?

I am thinking about a Dell 1.4 centrino.....any comments on the Dell centrino laptops? Should I just wait for the new AMD laptop chips>

Thanks!
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Profile mikey
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Message 73613 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 5:39:39 UTC - in response to Message 73571.  

> The AMD laptops that are coming out now are cheap, especially the XP 2800 to
> the XP 3200 cpus.
>
> However, I am worried about the heat factor since it will be crunching 24/7.
>
> Would a 1.4 ghz centrino be better?
>
> I am thinking about a Dell 1.4 centrino.....any comments on the Dell centrino
> laptops? Should I just wait for the new AMD laptop chips>
>
> Thanks!
>
Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS! It has a 2 meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64 3200+ did!
AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just over 2 hours EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
My 3200+ does Classic units in about 2 hours and 10 to 15 minutes each, one at a time.
The only problem I have noticed with my Toshiba laptop is that the hard drive NEVER spins down! It is running Classic, and will unitl they close itdown, they it is off of Seti. It has been running Seti for over 3 years, 24/7/365 non-stop, and needs a break.
I tried one ofthose panles with the fans in it, and the fans got too noisy too leave on! Now it is just elevated at about a 20 degree angle, back up.

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Hans Dorn
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Message 73621 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 6:05:05 UTC - in response to Message 73613.  
Last modified: 24 Jan 2005, 6:07:34 UTC

> Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS! It has a 2
> meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64 3200+ did!

[Edit]
Agreed.
[/Edit]

> AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just over 2 hours
> EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!

That's 1800 seconds per WU. Give me a break :-p

Regards Hans


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Profile Borgholio
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Message 73639 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 7:26:12 UTC - in response to Message 73613.  

> > The AMD laptops that are coming out now are cheap, especially the XP 2800
> to
> > the XP 3200 cpus.
> >
> > However, I am worried about the heat factor since it will be crunching
> 24/7.
> >
> > Would a 1.4 ghz centrino be better?
> >
> > I am thinking about a Dell 1.4 centrino.....any comments on the Dell
> centrino
> > laptops? Should I just wait for the new AMD laptop chips>
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS! It has a 2
> meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64 3200+ did!
> AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just over 2 hours
> EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
> My 3200+ does Classic units in about 2 hours and 10 to 15 minutes each, one at
> a time.

What's her account name so that we can examine this "Extreme Machine"?
You will be assimilated...bunghole!

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virex
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Message 73693 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 14:04:23 UTC

in a serious note... my ThinkPad T41, has 1meg l2 cache, 1.6ghz pentium m
and it does a seti work unit in 2.5 hours. not too shabby
and with the new ones having 2meg L2 cache, i'm sure they scream.

heat isn't really a factor as long as you keep it propped up a lil, or get the coolpad with the fans in it, i think it's from targus now.
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Profile mikey
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Message 73713 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 15:33:56 UTC - in response to Message 73639.  

> > > The AMD laptops that are coming out now are cheap, especially the XP
> 2800
> > to
> > > the XP 3200 cpus.
> > >
> > > However, I am worried about the heat factor since it will be
> crunching
> > 24/7.
> > >
> > > Would a 1.4 ghz centrino be better?
> > >
> > > I am thinking about a Dell 1.4 centrino.....any comments on the
> Dell
> > centrino
> > > laptops? Should I just wait for the new AMD laptop chips>
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS! It
> has a 2
> > meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64 3200+
> did!
> > AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just over 2
> hours
> > EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
> > My 3200+ does Classic units in about 2 hours and 10 to 15 minutes each,
> one at
> > a time.
>
> What's her account name so that we can examine this "Extreme Machine"?
>
Are you kidding? I put it under my own account!
Why create a new account for a machine that since Christmas has not crunched a single unit and probably never will again.

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Profile Borgholio
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Message 73743 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 17:38:05 UTC - in response to Message 73713.  

> > > > The AMD laptops that are coming out now are cheap, especially
> the XP
> > 2800
> > > to
> > > > the XP 3200 cpus.
> > > >
> > > > However, I am worried about the heat factor since it will be
> > crunching
> > > 24/7.
> > > >
> > > > Would a 1.4 ghz centrino be better?
> > > >
> > > > I am thinking about a Dell 1.4 centrino.....any comments on
> the
> > Dell
> > > centrino
> > > > laptops? Should I just wait for the new AMD laptop chips>
> > > >
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS!
> It
> > has a 2
> > > meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64
> 3200+
> > did!
> > > AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just
> over 2
> > hours
> > > EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
> > > My 3200+ does Classic units in about 2 hours and 10 to 15 minutes
> each,
> > one at
> > > a time.
> >
> > What's her account name so that we can examine this "Extreme Machine"?
> >
> Are you kidding? I put it under my own account!
> Why create a new account for a machine that since Christmas has not crunched a
> single unit and probably never will again.
>
>

Ah so there's no way to check and see if the system really is this fast, or if it has a serious flaw. :)
You will be assimilated...bunghole!

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wrzwaldo
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Message 73751 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 18:38:25 UTC - in response to Message 73613.  

> Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS! It has a 2
> meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64 3200+ did!
> AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just over 2 hours
> EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
> ...


This story seems a little stretched. What model # was this super laptop?
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Profile mikey
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Message 73778 - Posted: 24 Jan 2005, 20:02:29 UTC - in response to Message 73751.  

> > Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS! It
> has a 2
> > meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64 3200+
> did!
> > AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just over 2
> hours
> > EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
> > ...
>
>
> This story seems a little stretched. What model # was this super laptop?
>
Can't answer that right now, she is out of town for a few days and did not take the laptop with her.

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atotos
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Message 78437 - Posted: 11 Feb 2005, 16:36:06 UTC

I'll probably be getting soon a P4 3.2 HT laptop. Any idea of how long it will take to process a WU? I don't think I'll leave it on 24/7, but I can fairly say it will be on 12-14 hrs. a day :-)
WinXP Home, P4 3.2GHz HT, 512Mb RAM. Running SETI, Predictor, Prime Grid, SIMAP, Folding
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Simba-OS
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Message 78492 - Posted: 11 Feb 2005, 20:04:49 UTC - in response to Message 78437.  

> I'll probably be getting soon a P4 3.2 HT laptop. Any idea of how long it will
> take to process a WU? I don't think I'll leave it on 24/7, but I can fairly
> say it will be on 12-14 hrs. a day :-)
>
My P4 3.2 HT is not a laptop, but a deskop computer. Anyway, because of HT technology, it always work on 2 WU's at the same time. Times of my last two processed WU's are: 2:29:28 and 1:34:50.


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Profile Benher
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Message 78494 - Posted: 11 Feb 2005, 20:08:46 UTC

Throughput per day should be the measuring stick...

An AMD will crunch each WU faster at same Mhz "P" rating as a Pentium HT, even if the HT is running in single CPU mode...but the HT will have more daily throughput.


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atotos
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Message 78571 - Posted: 11 Feb 2005, 22:44:39 UTC

It's going to be a Dell Inspiron 9100. It's a "desktop-replacement" :-D but it's really replacing my PIII 900MHZ 4-yrs old laptop who died on me just last week. It will surely be quite a difference! :-)
WinXP Home, P4 3.2GHz HT, 512Mb RAM. Running SETI, Predictor, Prime Grid, SIMAP, Folding
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Message 78573 - Posted: 11 Feb 2005, 22:45:16 UTC - in response to Message 73778.  

> > > Got my mom a new Gateway 1.6 Centrino for Christmas and it SCREAMS!
> It
> > has a 2
> > > meg L2 cache! It was doing Classic units faster than my AMD 64
> 3200+
> > did!
> > > AND because of the HUGE L2 cache it did then 4 at a time!!! Just
> over 2
> > hours
> > > EACH! Yes, in just over 2 hours it did 4 units!
> > > ...
> >
> >
> > This story seems a little stretched. What model # was this super
> laptop?
> >
> Can't answer that right now, she is out of town for a few days and did not
> take the laptop with her.
>
>


Whilst it is perfectly possibly that any machine could have complete 4 classic wu's in under 2 hours , it could only happen if some of the wu's were "very short" wu's . i.e with lots of interference so that they terminate very quickly. This would not be something that would happen on a regular basis though. (from memory I think it was very unusual for any one machine to get more than one of those very short wu's in any one day anyway as they were not very common).

Considering that dothan processors do not have hyperthreading ability , then there should be no advantage in running 2 let alone 4 wu's at once ? (the size of the level 2 cache would be not be relevant here)

As a comparison a 1.6 dothan running at stock on a desktop board(memory was set to 1:1 so the memory was also at 100mhz) did the old ocuk classic benchmark wu in 7272 seconds or 2.02 hours. The same machine running at 2.688 ghz with the memory at 3:4 (224mhz) did the same unit in 4256 seconds or 1.18 hours.

Shady




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Message boards : Number crunching : AMD or Centrino Laptop for BOINC?


 
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