So, here is my situation.
I have a Geforce GTX 550 Ti in my main rig. I want to upgrade it to a GTX 660 or a GTx 660 Ti, and take my 550 Ti and put it in my mothers computer which she leaves on 24/7. This would be running the stock app as I am not there a lot and it can update by its self. I am left with a 9800 GTX+ and a 9800 GT that are not being used. I was thinking of putting together a cheap system and putting them both in that just to crunch with. I would need to buy the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and power supply. I have an older unused ATX case I would re-use. Would this be worth it?

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Why worry about whether or BOINC auto updates ?

It's really not a problem and the Lunatics apps are so much faster and much more reliable. V6.10 is now 3 to 4 years old with no update in that time. The BOINC version is also pretty irrelevant and has to be updated manually anyway. I would go with Lunatics apps because they are so superior to the stock app. With cards of that vintage you wouldn't need to updating the Nvidia drivers that often either.

A 9800 GTX+ is the equivalent of a GTS250, the 9800 is a bit slower.

Rather than spending a lot of money on components I'd buy 2nd hand bits of EBAY.
With the 2 cards and a Core 2 duo or quad, such a machine should be good for around a 20k RAC and as you would only need a 500W power supply, you could throw a rig together for less than $200.

T.A.

With an old compute capability 1.1 card, there's very little difference in speed between v6.10 stock - with is what you'll probably get, with a new enough driver and assuming 512MB RAM on the cards - and the Lunatics apps. The main actual "optimisation" (as opposed to hardening against errors) has only happened very recently, and only makes a big difference with Fermi cards and above (and for CPU tasks, of course).

On the other hand, at some unspecified and unpredictable moment between 18 months ago and, perhaps, 18 months into the future, sah_v6 is going to be replaced by sah_v7 - possibly, at short notice. On current plans, the current stock app would be replaced by an optimised v7 application automatically, whereas people running opimised v6 would have to upgrade manually, and would be able to do no work (except the usual dribble of resends) in the meantime.

Edit - I'd recommend Windows XP for an old 'bitsa' machine like that. (Bits of this, bits of that...)

I guess I did not realize the Lunatics apps haven't ben updated in so long

I would need an Lunatics SETI @home for dummies book here. I have never been able to get then to work properly, because I can not find a step by step guide to install them. Help!

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I guess I did not realize the Lunatics apps haven't ben updated in so long

No, the Stock apps haven't been updated in that long, the Lunatics apps are in almost constant development.

Setiathome Applications

Claggy

I'm running a GT 9800 - GPU only, x41zc cuda 3.2. You'll see much less throughput with stock of course.

So a GT 9800 can still get a decent amount of work done. whether it's worth it cost wise probably depends on much you can and want to spend on putting a system together to house those two cards.

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A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. (Mark Twain)

Depending on what you spend on a "cheap system" it could be a platform to rotate cards into as you upgrade your main system(s). You could probably spend ~$250-$350 putting together a dual PCIe x16 slot i3 or AMD equivalent. The added cost of running the older cards may not be be worth it to you depending on the worth you place in it.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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I can tell you that I really miss my old E6300, a 9800 GTX+ and 2 low power 9800GT's (those 3 cards combined are the equivalent to 3 regular 9800GT's) which cuts about 24000 off my RAC ATM.

So yes they are worth it if you are willing to pay the extra power costs.

Cheers.

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I can tell you that I really miss my old E6300, a 9800 GTX+ and 2 low power 9800GT's (those 3 cards combined are the equivalent to 3 regular 9800GT's) which cuts about 24000 off my RAC ATM.

So yes they are worth it if you are willing to pay the extra power costs.

Cheers.

It is funny you said that because I just bought a E8400 with mobo, ram, psu and case off of Kijiji. There is a local pc parts store here that has a 30GB SSD for $50, and I have an old DVD drive laying around. So looks like my old cards will get to crunch again after all!

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