what

motherboard/CPU/memory/video/harddrive/OS

combination would one reccomend to someone who wanted an inexpensive but robust crunching only machine for $500(US) or under

the only thing i think i have decided on is the e6300 intel core 2 duo for the processor, unless someone else has another suggestion for good bang for the buck

thx in advance

peace-

what

motherboard/CPU/memory/video/harddrive/OS

combination would one reccomend to someone who wanted an inexpensive but robust crunching only machine for $500(US) or under

the only thing i think i have decided on is the e6300 intel core 2 duo for the processor, unless someone else has another suggestion for good bang for the buck

thx in advance

peace-

Overclock CPU or not?

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yep, most likely will be overclocked to squeeze as much juice as possible for the money

yep, most likely will be overclocked to squeeze as much juice as possible for the money

Let see what we have here in BG (I think that in western Europe and USA, may have good discounts)...
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 - 134
Core 2 E6300 BOX - 207.5
RAM Corsair 2x512 DDRII800 - 150
Some cheap PCIE Video like ASUS EN6200LE - 35
HDD Hitachi 80GB/8MB cache - 45
And some Linux free distro
Well for case, dont know, here we have very cheap but really crappy cases...
571.5 USD w/out VAT, its little more, but have a chance to overclock better

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811145047
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144701
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814121538
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820141424
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E1681910358
for a cuncher its good, good processor could use more ram or better video card but for $511 you cant beat it for crunch times

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yep, most likely will be overclocked to squeeze as much juice as possible for the money

Let see what we have here in BG (I think that in western Europe and USA, may have good discounts)...
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 - 134
Core 2 E6300 BOX - 207.5
RAM Corsair 2x512 DDRII800 - 150
Some cheap PCIE Video like ASUS EN6200LE - 35
HDD Hitachi 80GB/8MB cache - 45
And some Linux free distro
Well for case, dont know, here we have very cheap but really crappy cases...
571.5 USD w/out VAT, its little more, but have a chance to overclock better

How about a mobo with 965G chipset, like Asus P5PE-VM or Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775, with inbuilt graphics and forget the graphics card.
Don't know US $ prices but they are both under £35 here, that should be less that $70 at present exchange rate.
edit] I just built cheapish system for friend on Tuesday and paid £89, thats approx $170 for 2*512 DDR2-800 corsair twinX (their cheapest) so going by that US prices are still cheaper. [/edit

How about a mobo with 965G chipset, like Asus P5PE-VM or Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775, with inbuilt graphics and forget the graphics card.
Don't know US $ prices but they are both under £35 here, that should be less that $70 at present exchange rate.
edit] I just built cheapish system for friend on Tuesday and paid £89, thats approx $170 for 2*512 DDR2-800 corsair twinX (their cheapest) so going by that US prices are still cheaper. [/edit

Avoid the "G" version if possible. The memory bandwidth will be used (even if only a small amount) on graphics. You can get a really cheap graphics card instead.

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Dublin, California
Team: SETI.USA

How about a mobo with 965G chipset, like Asus P5PE-VM or Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775, with inbuilt graphics and forget the graphics card.
Don't know US $ prices but they are both under £35 here, that should be less that $70 at present exchange rate.
edit] I just built cheapish system for friend on Tuesday and paid £89, thats approx $170 for 2*512 DDR2-800 corsair twinX (their cheapest) so going by that US prices are still cheaper. [/edit

Avoid the "G" version if possible. The memory bandwidth will be used (even if only a small amount) on graphics. You can get a really cheap graphics card instead.

True, but if to be used as a cruncher only, one assumes the graphics do not need to be on.

True, but if to be used as a cruncher only, one assumes the graphics do not need to be on.

Ah. You assume running headless. Fair enough. But if that is the case, you could still get the non "G", and skip the cost of a graphics card.

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Dublin, California
Team: SETI.USA

will the mobo boot without graphics?
I know older boards with 440bx chipset woul not. For my server I got a 512kb ISA card (you cannot really call this one graphics) to make it boot..

Avoid the "G" version if possible. The memory bandwidth will be used (even if only a small amount) on graphics. You can get a really cheap graphics card instead.

Good catch there that is often overlooked.

Something that I've never checked: Can the embedded/integrated graphics on those things be completely disabled so that they are not active and do not use any memory bandwidth/allocation?


Happy crunchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

How about a mobo with 965G chipset, like Asus P5PE-VM or Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775, with inbuilt graphics and forget the graphics card.
Don't know US $ prices but they are both under £35 here, that should be less that $70 at present exchange rate.
edit] I just built cheapish system for friend on Tuesday and paid £89, thats approx $170 for 2*512 DDR2-800 corsair twinX (their cheapest) so going by that US prices are still cheaper. [/edit

Avoid the "G" version if possible. The memory bandwidth will be used (even if only a small amount) on graphics. You can get a really cheap graphics card instead.

The 945/65G boards I've seen do not have a PCI lock on them. So OC will be limited to 340fsb or so, and even then, your pci bus will be running pretty high. In my experience, not a good thing for a dedicated cruncher.

I'd also stay away from the 63, since the multi is low, you'll need some really fast ram to get a decent OC. Now, I'm not sure how far you'd like to go with the OC, a lot will depend on this. All my Conroes are running 3200-3350 Mhz. They start needing a bit more vcore at that point, which I'm hesitant to do for a 24/7 cruncher. The 63 needed some good binned fatbody d9's to run 470 Mhz to get there, the 64 , 420, the pair of 66's 370fsb. I'm running them all on Gigabyte's 965P S3's or DS3's, both boards perform the same for me.

Getting away from the 500 price tag a bit, but there is a lot of potential in the Conroe's, quite a few of our team members wish they would have spent a bit more on cpu and ram once it's all said and done....

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Team Starfire World BOINC
IRC- irc//irc.teamstarfire.net:6667/team_starfire

I'll be brave and jump in and support AMD for a cheap cruncher, just don't rip my head off to quickly you Conroe fanboys...LOL.

Here's the price rundown of my X2 4200 that's presently pumping out a RAC of 1350 and and climbing.

$170CDN......X2 4200
$60CDN......Asrock Dual Sata II mobo
$60CDN......OCZ PC 3500 LE BH-5 2x256MB
$30CDN......Samsung SpinPoint 80GB Sata II HDD
$15CDN......Cheap AGP Vid Card
$20CDN......Case
$50CDN......OCZ 420W PowerStream PSU
$35CDN......Fans and Heatsink
_________________
$440CDN = $375 US

All these parts were purchased used over the internet. Now that's a cheap dedicated Cruncher with a not to bad RAC.

My X2 3800 rig is the exact same machine except for the CPU and 1GB of Corsair BH-5 ram since it's my daily use machine.

OK....let'er rip, but be gentle....LOL.

GO AMD !!!!!!!!!!!!

Avoid the "G" version if possible. The memory bandwidth will be used (even if only a small amount) on graphics. You can get a really cheap graphics card instead.

Good catch there that is often overlooked.

Something that I've never checked: Can the embedded/integrated graphics on those things be completely disabled so that they are not active and do not use any memory bandwidth/allocation?


Happy crunchin',
Martin

On the two computers I have worked on recently that have integrated graphics they can be disabled in the BIOS. But we did have a celery on integrated graphics mobo that couldn't be disabled but that was circa 2003 and it was a cheap mobo, Asrock if I remember. It didn't survive a lightning strike that took out the mains power. Moral, don't but cheap components, all the other computers and electronics survived.

Something that I've never checked: Can the embedded/integrated graphics on those things be completely disabled so that they are not active and do not use any memory bandwidth/allocation?


Happy crunchin',
Martin

On most recent boards, yes. Some older Intel 810 or some 815 chipset boards couldn't. I have a board with a VIA Apollo PLE133 chipset (roughly an Intel 810 equivalent) that I cannot disable onboard graphics.

Quite a few boards these days will also detect if you've inserted a separate graphics card and automatically disable the onboard too. Once the onboard has been disabled, the function in the BIOS ROM is blocked, hence they cannot/do not use memory bandwidth or any RAM allocation.

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I'll be brave and jump in and support AMD for a cheap cruncher, just don't rip my head off to quickly you Conroe fanboys...LOL.

Here's the price rundown of my X2 4200 that's presently pumping out a RAC of 1350 and and climbing.

$170CDN......X2 4200
$60CDN......Asrock Dual Sata II mobo
$60CDN......OCZ PC 3500 LE BH-5 2x256MB
$30CDN......Samsung SpinPoint 80GB Sata II HDD
$15CDN......Cheap AGP Vid Card
$20CDN......Case
$50CDN......OCZ 420W PowerStream PSU
$35CDN......Fans and Heatsink
_________________
$440CDN = $375 US

All these parts were purchased used over the internet. Now that's a cheap dedicated Cruncher with a not to bad RAC.

My X2 3800 rig is the exact same machine except for the CPU and 1GB of Corsair BH-5 ram since it's my daily use machine.

OK....let'er rip, but be gentle....LOL.

GO AMD !!!!!!!!!!!!

No need to rip that box, LOL!

Looks like it would be a decent backup if you ever have a problem with your daily driver. ;-)

You certainly can't complain about the price. :-)

Alinator

I'll be brave and jump in and support AMD for a cheap cruncher, just don't rip my head off to quickly you Conroe fanboys...LOL.

Here's the price rundown of my X2 4200 that's presently pumping out a RAC of 1350 and and climbing.

$170CDN......X2 4200
$60CDN......Asrock Dual Sata II mobo
$60CDN......OCZ PC 3500 LE BH-5 2x256MB
$30CDN......Samsung SpinPoint 80GB Sata II HDD
$15CDN......Cheap AGP Vid Card
$20CDN......Case
$50CDN......OCZ 420W PowerStream PSU
$35CDN......Fans and Heatsink
_________________
$440CDN = $375 US

All these parts were purchased used over the internet. Now that's a cheap dedicated Cruncher with a not to bad RAC.

My X2 3800 rig is the exact same machine except for the CPU and 1GB of Corsair BH-5 ram since it's my daily use machine.

OK....let'er rip, but be gentle....LOL.

GO AMD !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd say it's a decent machine too! Cheap but powerful.

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thanks for all the suggestions, much appreciated =) got some decisions to make now

<snip>... Asrock if I remember. It didn't survive a lightning strike that took out the mains power. Moral, don't but cheap components, all the other computers and electronics survived.

LOL......well, these Asrock Dual Sata II mobo's I have are pretty scary look'n now. To supply enough voltage to the CPU and BH-5 ram I've had to do volt-mods on top of volt-mods. I also had to buy PSU's that had variable voltage pots on them so I could really crank it up. On the X2 4200 I have to run the 3.3V system at 3.8V and directly feed that to the BH-5 ram which is running at 246Mhz (DDR 492) at 2-2-2-5 1T. I think these things could survive any lightning strike now...LOL.

Edit... One of these day's I fully expect it to go up in flames. "If it ain't smoke'n, it ain't overclocked"

i'm also going to lend my support to a cheap amd dual core cruncher. my x2 3800+ overclocked to 2.6ghz is now up to almost 700RAC and still climbing.
also, if you're looking for a cheap intel dual core i hear that the pentium D 820's are starting to go for dirt cheap these days. match that up with some oem micron ram and you'll be crusin'. not as good as a c2d, but definately nothing to be sneezed at.

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