Well I did have a better PC lined up to buy..but the seller backed out at the last minute, and I looked around some more and I eventually found one on eBay in my price range for using it as a dedicated BONIC cruncher ..

Computer: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=190311749297

(Pictures are at bottom of page)

I'm wondering if I can fit/power..using the stock PSU. A 9400GT and have it stay cool enough to use it as a Cuda cruncher?

Unless that 9400GT is an AGP or PCI card, I doubt it'll fit in.

A Dell Pentium 4 2.8Ghz usually doesn't have a PCIe slot. The advert also only speaks of PCI expansion slots. The "Crisp 3D graphics" that it'll show will be through an onboard (embedded on the motherboard) videochip. I can't even figure out if that chip is really called Crisp 3D or that it's just a word joke.

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Its a regular PCI slot card..I'm just asking if anyone knows of these computers and think it should fit and power okay using the stock psu and have enough cooling for using stock parts.

If it's a regular PCI card (and do double check that), you should be able to see on its box or site what the minimum requirement is for the PSU. Another thing worrying me though is the actual size of the card. Do I see a cover with fan over the slots bay?

But, it's a Dell... brrrr. ;-) (personal opinion speaking there... "40 Gigabyte Hard Drive: Tons of storage space. This is more than 99% of all users need." .. yeah right. :-))

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But, it's a Dell... brrrr. ;-) (personal opinion speaking there... "40 Gigabyte Hard Drive: Tons of storage space. This is more than 99% of all users need." .. yeah right. :-))

Yea..I lol'd at that to..but I don't believe Dell is behind this powerseller..I believe he just resells them.

I know the computer isn't much, but its alot better than my current 500mhz 192ram one, that takes 30+ hours for 1 WU.

(I actually have another one just like it) but it only has 64ram and no hdd ..I do have an extra hdd though, but no sense putting it in there when I got this new Dell coming.

Nothing wrong with Dell - their 7-year old 2.0GHz P4 that's warming my feet as I type has a 40GB hard disk and that's been plenty. But...

I would be very, very wary about that machine as a SETI/Cuda host.

It's described as a 'Dell GX280 Desktop' - that's their Optiplex range, designed and sold for business. Solid, boring, unadventurous but reliable.

But the photograph seems to be of a SFF (Small Form Factor) case. I worked for a call centre once that had about 40 of those. After a couple of years, they started popping hard disks about once a week: there just wasn't enough cooling through the small case.

And the ones I was responsible for - SFF GX50 and GX60 - used low profile PCI cards. I managed to source some standard graphics cards (we wanted to run dual monitors on some of them - cheap PCI plus onboard graphics worked OK for 2D business text output), but I very much doubt you could get a low profile CUDA card: and if you could get one, you wouldn't be able to keep it cool.

The whole advert reeks of marketing jargon and is very short of hard technical detail. If you want a basic machine to run the accounts in your office - it'll be fine. But as a CUDA cruncher - no.

A GX50/60 is pretty old compared to a GX280..

But anyway, that's why I'm asking..even if I can't use a Cuda card in it I can use the CPU as a cruncher.

Hell, maybe I can find another computer that isn't small form factor with just a PCI slot and put a 9400GT in that.

....Would my 500mhz work with a 9400GT? Its a regular sized tower and has 2 fans on it. The crunching should be offloaded to the gpu, right?

Well I did have a better PC lined up to buy..but the seller backed out at the last minute, and I looked around some more and I eventually found one on eBay in my price range for using it as a dedicated BONIC cruncher ..

Computer: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=190311749297

(Pictures are at bottom of page)

I'm wondering if I can fit/power..using the stock PSU. A 9400GT and have it stay cool enough to use it as a Cuda cruncher?

If you REALLY just want a cheap number cruncher... I just did a quick price out and for right around $155 you could build a dual core AMD dedicated 'basket' cruncher out of all new parts off of newegg (except the basket from walmart, and a used HDD I'd give ya for the shipping). What I spec'd out would run a CUDA card up thru about an 8800GT / 9600GT. Substituting in a used PSU (Goodwill computer store, craig's list) or some used RAM could drop another $10~$20 bucks off of that. Could also run the thing off of a 4GB USB stick (Dotsch/UX) and forget the HDD.

I think my sig here has a 'Crunchers' pic link in it. If not here's a link to pics of the 2004 versions I built while in Beijing.

PS: Cooling is usually NOT an issue using my advanced design 'tupper cluster' technology... LOL.

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- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."

or look at this..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=190315987677

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- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."