Building A Better SETI@Home: Hardware Donations

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Message 1205601 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 0:19:38 UTC - in response to Message 1205566.  

We'll be building SETI a few new workstations once we can nail down specifics.

Being a GPUUG donation the workstations should be outfitted with decent GPU crunchers. :)


You may jest, but it's actually a very good point. AFAIK, they don't even have in-house hardware suitable for developing - or even testing - GPU apps. Even if they haven't got the spare manpower hours to develop CUDA, OpenCL, or any other flavour of coprocessor apps, they need to be able to test/verify contributed code, and to reproduce reported problems.

I'm quite serious actually. Mandatory GPU should be a condition for getting the donations. The trademark of the GPUUG if you will. A funny and nice gesture at the same time. And if they actually have a use for them in their work other than crunching, that's great.

Obviously I'm not in a position to make the rules, but that's my suggestion to the GPUUG.


Except, of course where the GPUUG project is to supply a server, where it would be inappropriate to expect that system to provide crunch resource for the S@H work as well as the database, networking or other task it is expected to do.

In my experience, trying to get a database server to also to crunching-type work leads to considerable issues with tuning and server set-up such that it tends to do neither task well.

Let us supply the servers that S@H need, not a system that has hardware that cannot be sensibly used.

Of course, if we are supplying a workstation for a project staff member to use for their day-to-day work, then a GPU would make sense, and if it can be used for S@H crunch as well, then all the better.

Just my 2 pennyworth.

+1

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Message 1205619 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 1:01:55 UTC - in response to Message 1205581.  

We provide the SAH guys with exactly what they ask for. They've asked for basic workstations this round so that's what we will provide. I'd rather get them simple work stations and use the remainder for future projects vs getting them equipment that isn't needed.

This practice helps us stretch our donors funds. If down the road they ask us for a machine that would make member Speedbump blush, we will provide that as well. Until then we will continue to donate items that match their exact specs.

With people upgrading to the latest and greatest hardware perhaps some would donate their old GPU's for test/dev resources. While last years hardware might not be the best performer. It can be invaluable for test/dev purposes.

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Message 1205620 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 1:04:51 UTC

When the original CUDA applications were being developed at nVidia the project did get at least one GPU for testing, IIRC a Quadro FX 3700. I haven't heard of more recent acquisitions, but note that the GPUUG member named Eric Korpela has a system with a 2GB GTX 560 Ti.

I fully agree that the staff should not be constrained by lack of equipment to test with, but they are already severely constrained by lack of time to do non-essentials. Encouraging them to consider asking for a top end GPU makes sense, requiring them to have a physically large enough box to give it decent air flow may not. 4 years ago or so they did have workstations for Matt and Jeff on the requested hardware list, with an indication they wanted small and nearly silent systems. Somebody did donate Shuttle systems to fulfill that, but the time may be approaching when upgrades will be needed.
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Message 1205722 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 10:08:00 UTC - in response to Message 1205620.  

Lads there's no need in the office at present for a high end GPU or high end system. I tried to get them to agree to both, but they said such systems weren't needed.

The focus is on small, quiet and efficient work stations currently. So, that's what we'll provide.

Hopefully one day they'll ask us for a beast of a machine, that'd be fun to build.


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Message 1205725 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 10:11:51 UTC - in response to Message 1205722.  

Lads there's no need in the office at present for a high end GPU or high end system. I tried to get them to agree to both, but they said such systems weren't needed.

The focus is on small, quiet and efficient work stations currently. So, that's what we'll provide.

Hopefully one day they'll ask us for a beast of a machine, that'd be fun to build.

Fair enough, but I would still suggest that they might consider the usefulness of a test/development machine with a more modern - Fermi or Kepler class, but low end - GPU, or the ATI equivalent.
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Message 1205774 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 14:15:49 UTC - in response to Message 1205722.  

Lads there's no need in the office at present for a high end GPU or high end system. I tried to get them to agree to both, but they said such systems weren't needed.

The focus is on small, quiet and efficient work stations currently. So, that's what we'll provide.

In other words, Everybody shut up about it! (Right?)

(BTW, I was right about GPUUG being able to do workstations with funds on hand and not having to start a new campaign.)

Hopefully one day they'll ask us for a beast of a machine, that'd be fun to build.

At least you sympathize. :-)

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Message 1205800 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 15:59:45 UTC - in response to Message 1205581.  

We provide the SAH guys with exactly what they ask for. They've asked for basic workstations this round so that's what we will provide. I'd rather get them simple work stations and use the remainder for future projects vs getting them equipment that isn't needed.

This practice helps us stretch our donors funds. If down the road they ask us for a machine that would make member Speedbump blush, we will provide that as well. Until then we will continue to donate items that match their exact specs.


Thank you Slavac . . . for doing so much where needed Sir!

with Respect,

joanne & richard
[ps - joined gpuug - Thanks again my friend]

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Science Status Page . . .
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Message 1205824 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 16:43:45 UTC - in response to Message 1205774.  
Last modified: 14 Mar 2012, 16:45:03 UTC

Lads there's no need in the office at present for a high end GPU or high end system. I tried to get them to agree to both, but they said such systems weren't needed.

The focus is on small, quiet and efficient work stations currently. So, that's what we'll provide.

In other words, Everybody shut up about it! (Right?)

(BTW, I was right about GPUUG being able to do workstations with funds on hand and not having to start a new campaign.)

Hopefully one day they'll ask us for a beast of a machine, that'd be fun to build.

At least you sympathize. :-)


I'm all for discussion, this is a discussion forum after all but in the end we strive to provide components to their specs, not our ideal specs. Can you imagine the heat in the lab if all of the scientists had massive crunching towers? Nevermind the noise.

Right now we're supplying 2 units. We may be providing more depending on how many they ultimately want. Pending this we may or may not have to start a new fundraiser. I'll be sure to let everyone know something as soon as I know something.

ETA thanks again for the kind words everyone :)


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Message 1205842 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 17:26:41 UTC - in response to Message 1205824.  

Lads there's no need in the office at present for a high end GPU or high end system. I tried to get them to agree to both, but they said such systems weren't needed.

The focus is on small, quiet and efficient work stations currently. So, that's what we'll provide.

In other words, Everybody shut up about it! (Right?)

(BTW, I was right about GPUUG being able to do workstations with funds on hand and not having to start a new campaign.)

Hopefully one day they'll ask us for a beast of a machine, that'd be fun to build.

At least you sympathize. :-)


I'm all for discussion, this is a discussion forum after all but in the end we strive to provide components to their specs, not our ideal specs. Can you imagine the heat in the lab if all of the scientists had massive crunching towers? Nevermind the noise.

Right now we're supplying 2 units. We may be providing more depending on how many they ultimately want. Pending this we may or may not have to start a new fundraiser. I'll be sure to let everyone know something as soon as I know something.

ETA thanks again for the kind words everyone :)

By all means, get the boyz what they want....not what somebody else thinks they should have.

Great efforts by yourself and all others who have contributed!

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message 1205959 - Posted: 14 Mar 2012, 23:26:27 UTC

I would love them to get one Mac Mini class Mac so they can do some dev work for that undervalued platform. No CUDA,CAL,Open CL support for GPUs on the project. No AP CPU support on the project for OSX never mind AP for for GPU.
The reason I suggest the Mac mini is it is the cheapest way to get a discreet GPU in a Mac in this case a AMD Radeon HD 6630. I just checked this GPU has Open CL support built in to the OS so they could do some Open CL app dev for ATI GPUs. the entry price would be $799. The 2011 system uses a Max of 85 watts all up and running so It would be small and quite for the office.
Also the Mac system makes it easy to use a triple boot dev box as Win7 and Linux booting are supported officially by Apple out of the box with Boot Camp software. This is a set of drive tools to none destructively repartition the HD and has all the drivers to support Windows and Most common Linux distros on the System installer for OSX. So the team could do development for all three OS types on one machine a useful thing to consider.
Apples Tech spec page for all 2011 Mac Minis http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html

I have the 2010 edition with a Nvidia GPU and even under max load the system is almost silent and also uses a max of 85W.
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Message 1205996 - Posted: 15 Mar 2012, 1:59:33 UTC

One of the things I've always liked about S@H, and BOINC projects in general, is the sharing of knowledge and tasks between an assortment of people. Let the Berkley science guys do the science stuff, with the machines they need. If we need cutting edge new hardware implementations, I though that was what the Lunatics (and others) were for.

Just a wild-a$$ed idea - should GPUUG be talking to Lunatics (and others) about their hardware needs?

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Message 1206030 - Posted: 15 Mar 2012, 5:05:13 UTC - in response to Message 1205581.  

We provide the SAH guys with exactly what they ask for. They've asked for basic workstations this round so that's what we will provide.


Wow. That could be hard for them to spec. There are so danged many choices that unless you just have a prejudice caused by some prior experience (that may or may not have current validity) you could make yourself nuts just looking thru the processor choices these days. ...and that doesn't even take into account all the "office machines" that can be had for little of nothing; replace the power supplies and go about your business.

I'd rather get them simple work stations and use the remainder for future projects vs getting them equipment that isn't needed.

This practice helps us stretch our donors funds.


And I appreciate that.

If down the road they ask us for a machine that would make member Speedbump blush, we will provide that as well.


... don't even think it. We'd never hear from them again. They'd be playing DOOM 666 projected on the side of their building all night.

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Message 1206039 - Posted: 15 Mar 2012, 5:53:06 UTC - in response to Message 1206030.  

We provide the SAH guys with exactly what they ask for. They've asked for basic workstations this round so that's what we will provide.


Wow. That could be hard for them to spec. There are so danged many choices that unless you just have a prejudice caused by some prior experience (that may or may not have current validity) you could make yourself nuts just looking thru the processor choices these days. ...and that doesn't even take into account all the "office machines" that can be had for little of nothing; replace the power supplies and go about your business.

I'd rather get them simple work stations and use the remainder for future projects vs getting them equipment that isn't needed.

This practice helps us stretch our donors funds.


And I appreciate that.

If down the road they ask us for a machine that would make member Speedbump blush, we will provide that as well.


... don't even think it. We'd never hear from them again. They'd be playing DOOM 666 projected on the side of their building all night.


LOL....no video projectors, then.

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message 1206317 - Posted: 15 Mar 2012, 23:25:21 UTC - in response to Message 1206039.  

A bit of good news and some less than good news:

The bad:

5 of the JBOD drives were dead on arrival. Whether this was caused by poor quality control due to the Thailand flooding, or transport we don't know. What we do know is A) 5 drives are dead and will need replacement and B) we will have to keep an eye on the remaining drives.

The good news about the above is we have a full replacement warranty on the drives which we will be utilizing so we can replace them soon(ish).

Due to the dead drives, I'm considering doing a fundraiser for at least 5 additional drives for backups. Feel free to leave me your thoughts on this in a reply.

The good news:

GeorgeM and the JBOD have been mounted in the server racks and the JBOD's internal cabling has been sorted out to SAH's liking.

We'll be providing 2 total work stations for SETI. Once we settle on a final configuration we'll order them. Deltoid will be putting them together for us then will ship them back to SETI. I'll keep everyone apprised on the status of the work stations as things progress.

The Ugly News:

Well, I don't really have anything for this section, I just wanted to make an old Clint Eastwood movie reference. Lend me your thoughts on the backup drives for the JBOD if you feel like it. Thanks everyone.


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Message 1206324 - Posted: 16 Mar 2012, 0:29:44 UTC

My recent case / mainboard / CPU / RAM upgrade from Newegg.

FULL Tower with front USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports Lots of airflow, and it's quiet because the fans are large and low rpm rather than smaller high RPM fans. Heat sink mounts at the bottom. Comes with casters to roll around on if you want to install them. If the system's going to sit on the floor, you might want a power supply that top or back pulls air, not bottom pulls. Mine sits on a cabinet with the back 6 inches suspended in the air so it gets plenty of airflow, and no janitors with wet mops or brooms to kick water or dirt into the power supply.

Excellent drive mounting for internal and external drives. took me 30 seconds to install each internal drive, and less for the DVD player.

Case has ESATA port in front, and mainboard has it in rear, and a mainboard connector to support it. Same with USB 3.0. Overall the mainboard supports SATA 3, and matches up almost perfectly with the capabilities of the case.


Cost is a bit less than $800 with the pricing a week ago. It came with a free SATA optical drive - I've not even bothered to see what exactly the drive will do because I have a external optical writer that does all I need it to.

I had purchased a new video card and power supply and HDD over the last six months, but the machine has onboard video, and this is a office machine.

A 700 watt power supply is handling the needs of this system with 3 SATA drives and a GX560.

I fully expect this rig to last me for years. LOTS of room to grow. If I go to SLI I will need to get a bigger power supply, but that's not happening soon, and it shouldn't matter for the SETI folks.



Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price
1 COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced Blue Edition RC-932-KKN3-GP ATX Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0, Black Interior and Four Blue LED Fans-1x 230mm front 1x 230mm top 1x 230mm side and 1x 140mm rear
Item #: N82E16811119213
$139.99

1 ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813157250
$174.99

1 Intel Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623i72700K
Item #: N82E16819115095
$339.99

1 CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
Item #: N82E16820233143
99.99


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Message 1206329 - Posted: 16 Mar 2012, 0:39:38 UTC - in response to Message 1206324.  
Last modified: 16 Mar 2012, 0:41:05 UTC

We've got the specs for the workstations nailed down, but thanks for the post :)


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Message 1206337 - Posted: 16 Mar 2012, 0:56:48 UTC - in response to Message 1206317.  
Last modified: 16 Mar 2012, 0:57:59 UTC

5 of the JBOD drives were dead on arrival.

Ouch! Hi ratio...assume they can at least get the science database running - recall some earlier disussion that there would be room for it and some more stuff with all drives functioning.

The good news about the above is we have a full replacement warranty on the drives which we will be utilizing so we can replace them soon(ish).


If you hit a snag, publish the vendor's name and we'll let them know what we think of their ancestry. :=)

Due to the dead drives, I'm considering doing a fundraiser for at least 5 additional drives for backups. Feel free to leave me your thoughts on this in a reply.


I will participate if you and the project want to proceed. Might ask if they want a few spare or additional transport drives while we're at it. Think we bought 8. Hope that's proving adequate and they don't get damaged in transport.

Glad you didn't run into the ugly stuff. Thanks again for all the hard work you, Deltoid and others have put into this effort.
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Message 1206460 - Posted: 16 Mar 2012, 5:59:38 UTC - in response to Message 1206317.  

The high ratio of DOA drives has me a bit concerned....
I had a few years ago purchased 3 drives that all failed either upon installation or very shortly thereafter. Turned out to be a firmware bug, I believe. What is the model number of the drives? May want to research if there is an ongoing issue.
And what IS the warranty on those drives?

I would support the idea of getting some spares available to swap in on short notice if future failures become an issue. You can never have too many spares....LOL.
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Message 1206555 - Posted: 16 Mar 2012, 12:01:26 UTC - in response to Message 1206460.  

The high ratio of DOA drives has me a bit concerned....
I had a few years ago purchased 3 drives that all failed either upon installation or very shortly thereafter. Turned out to be a firmware bug, I believe. What is the model number of the drives? May want to research if there is an ongoing issue.
And what IS the warranty on those drives?

I would support the idea of getting some spares available to swap in on short notice if future failures become an issue. You can never have too many spares....LOL.

Besides the rather high prices that concern has put me off buying new drives recently. The "enterprise" class drives normally come with 5 year warranties vs the 1 to 3 year you get with standard hardware.
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Message 1206558 - Posted: 16 Mar 2012, 12:31:50 UTC

Talking to one of my local PC suppliers, well, more like mutual moaning - there are a lot of DOAs coming round just now. We surmise that they are "marginals" coming out from the supply chain after the floods in Thailand upset production so badly.
(I helped repack a box of about 50 "new" drives, the first ten of which all failed, so the whole case load was being rejected...)
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