I had a perfectly adequate home built computer running an EVGA GeForce 210 video card and Intel E8500 dual core processor until I started running SETI @Home
I have now learned a bit more about Intel processors and fitted a LGA771 Xeon quad core X5460 into LGA775 motherboard.
It was so simple I thought I had done something wrong, just cut locating pins off 775 socket and fit a sticker (off eBay) onto CPU. Fit 'new' (to me) CPU and run everything probably 3~4 times faster than previously.
I've also over clocked CPU slightly, won't go too far as I don't want it overheating running all 4 cores
While I was at it I also fitted a 'new' video card about 3 times faster than the EVGA 210 I had been using.
I noticed my updates now run in blocks of 5,000 instead of 2,000 (LOL :o) )

Is this 'normal behavior' when you start running SETI?
Will I go broke (well more broke than I am now) updating and upgrading?

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I'm not a complete idiot, but, I'm working on it.
I have an opinion and I'm not afraid to use it

FYI - A Xeon CPU isn't inherently more powerful than a 'standard' CPU. In fact, they're the same exact processor:

Xeon X5460:
Intel Xeon X5460 - EU80574KJ087N / AT80574KJ087N (BX80574X5460A)

Core 2 Duo E8500:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 EU80570PJ0876M / AT80570PJ0876M (BX80570E8500)

Same clock speed. Same Front Side Bus speed. Same instruction set architecture. Same Intel Core microarchitecture. The only difference is the Xeon has extra logic to work in multi-socket configurations (e.g. keeping the two chip's caches sync'd, etc.).

The only speed-up you're getting is from the two extra cores, which only helps when running heavily multi-threaded applications, or running extra science apps. But they're not running 3-4 times faster unless your overclock is 3-4 times faster than the original 3.16GHz.

So....Where's the Video card?
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=7326952

As OzzFan stated the Xeons of this era were the same chips with a few different things enabled. Fitted in a 775 board it doesn't really matter. I was looking to upgrade my C2D E8400 to a C2Q Q9650, but found the Xeon X5450 771 to 775 conversion chips on ebay were actually cheaper. I never ended up buying one to upgrade that board. Instead I upgraded the processor and board to newer more efficient hardware.

So... yes, You have embarked upon a potentially expensive hobby. Either in buying hardware, paying for electric bills to run it, or your time in tweaking it to get everything you can out of the hardware. You don't have to be crazy to be here, but it helps :)

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

I know the feeling. My current number cruncher machine is a home build. It has 4GB memory, Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 motherboard and a AMD FX 4170 cpu. I am looking at buying a video card sometime in the future. Not sure which one yet.

Regular seti@home v7 files are done 4 at a time in the 5 hour range and I do not notice any system lag.
Running a AstroPulse takes around 30 hours and puts a severe lag on gpu response time. Any ideas as to which card you like. But will not break the bank account.

I originally posted in Cafe Seti as I was really tongue in cheek about 'upgrades'
Moderator moved it here, obviously thought I was serious.
When I check, Xeon is running all 4 cores at 100%
GeForce 8800GTS has 96 CUDA cores, no ides what that really means but I believe Boinc is optimised to use as much and many processors as possible?
I know something is faster as the statistics graph angle has changed.
I really should have done all this before I was laid off, being unemployed and using a lot more electricity probably isn't the smartest thing to do

Welcome PJ to the crazy world of seti . When i see your badge change to silver or gold then you can say your a real seti nutter , that is spending to many dollars on upgrades and new systems to keep your R.A.C up.

So until then your not.

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Will I go broke (well more broke than I am now) updating and upgrading?

Yes, if you let yourself get sucked into that vortex the sky is the limit on how much you can spend.

Now, personally I've blown the next couple of years spare budget on a fancy hot hatchback car, so no state of the art crunchers here. I'm strictly in the bottom feeder part of the market. Also it's spring here, weather is warmer and I'll be doing less crunching as I don't need to keep the house warm much longer.

I did pick up a fully functioning Core2 Duo machine today though. Cleaning out a customers dead PC cupboard for "recycling" ;)

But one piece of advice, is to look into the optimised apps. To get your better graphics card working under Linux and Boinc you will need to install the non-open source drivers, and optimised apps. The folks here will be able to help you with that. Then your RAC will be more dependant on how good a graphics card (and how many) you can cram into the machine.

So for a budget cruncher you could run a dumpster dived Core 2 and something like a GT750ti graphics card that will run off a standard ~400w PSU and PCI-e bus power.

Thanks, actually I am having an issue with installing NVidia drivers in Linux.
I had no problems with the 210 card but the 'new' (eBay) 8800GTS is giving me problems. I'm a Win XP 'refugee' so need to 'have my hand held' with Linux (Mint 16 Petra)I've tried manual install through terminal but nothing has worked so far
Couple of people on Mint forum are helping out, posting scripts I can just cut and paste into terminal

Thanks, actually I am having an issue with installing NVidia drivers in Linux.
I had no problems with the 210 card but the 'new' (eBay) 8800GTS is giving me problems. I'm a Win XP 'refugee' so need to 'have my hand held' with Linux (Mint 16 Petra)I've tried manual install through terminal but nothing has worked so far
Couple of people on Mint forum are helping out, posting scripts I can just cut and paste into terminal

Um... Have you lost your mind? What kind of silly person buys 8800GTS in the year of our Lord 2014?

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An unemployed one who got it cheap on eBay It isn't NEW new, just new to me
Not everyone can afford to get the latest and greatest systems
Your post is the sort of elitist crap that makes people leave these projects

An unemployed one who got it cheap on eBay It isn't NEW new, just new to me
Not everyone can afford to get the latest and greatest systems
Your post is the sort of elitist crap that makes people leave these projects

I think he was being "tongue in cheek".

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Reality Internet Personality

Well, I hope that 8800GTS was at least cheap. Problem with those older cards is they gulp up a lot of electricity per credit.

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Thanks, actually I am having an issue with installing NVidia drivers in Linux.
I had no problems with the 210 card but the 'new' (eBay) 8800GTS is giving me problems. I'm a Win XP 'refugee' so need to 'have my hand held' with Linux (Mint 16 Petra)I've tried manual install through terminal but nothing has worked so far
Couple of people on Mint forum are helping out, posting scripts I can just cut and paste into terminal

You might want to consider switching to Ubuntu for SETI work. BOINC has worked to make Ubuntu installs fairly simple. Also, in Ubuntu installing a workable driver is as simple as going to the System Setting/Additional Drivers and selecting a driver to install. I have 2 machines running Ubuntu and after a few tweaks they run SETI better than Windows or OSX.

An unemployed one who got it cheap on eBay It isn't NEW new, just new to me
Not everyone can afford to get the latest and greatest systems
Your post is the sort of elitist crap that makes people leave these projects

I understand unemployed. When I was unemployed a few years ago, I bought nVidia 8400 for 15 USD, delivered. But 8400 is a little card, it takes a little power, and I can play my games on it still.

On the other hand 8800GTS is big and power hungry. I hope you paid less than 30 USD.

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I think it was $12.99, free shipping :o)

I think it was $12.99, free shipping :o)

Ok. I take back calling you silly. You are not silly, just desperate.
☺7

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Thanks, actually I am having an issue with installing NVidia drivers in Linux.
I had no problems with the 210 card but the 'new' (eBay) 8800GTS is giving me problems. I'm a Win XP 'refugee' so need to 'have my hand held' with Linux (Mint 16 Petra)I've tried manual install through terminal but nothing has worked so far
Couple of people on Mint forum are helping out, posting scripts I can just cut and paste into terminal

a) Using Firefox/Chrome, go to www.nvidia.com, find their driver download area and download the latest qualified driver for your flavour (32/64-bit) Unix.
b) Make sure your system is up-to-date - sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade.
c) reboot -- sudo reboot
d) If b) loaded new kernels, you may find error messages. Select the option to drop into a command-line terminal, or if (limited) graphics go there with Ctrl-Alt-F[1|2] (probably 2)
e) sudo telinit 2
f) sudo service stop mdm; sudo pkill -9 X -- (to be sure, to be sure)
g) cd to where you downloaded NVIDIA...run (insert proper filename here et seq.)
h) sudo chmod +x NVIDIA...run
i) sudo ./NVIDIA...run -- in general take default options
j) sudo reboot
k) report problems here in case my memory's faulty!

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You video card users are making me jelous. All I have is on board graphics with 512MB shared memory. A AstroPulse puts a heavy system lag time on this number cruncher machine. Just glad it only takes 30 hours (approx.) to do one.

Its not what you have the fact is you are doing it with what you have. all the little inputs still count don't be put off by the super pcs.my old Q8300 with ati hd5550 still going