Say your current system is rather old, a Pentium !!!, which can surf the Internet, chat and email perfectly fine. To upgrade to a Q6600, many parts other than the CPU will need upgrading as well.

Would you still upgrade to a Q6600 PC just to (or largely because) crunch workunits much more rapidly on SETI@Home?

This off course is a personal question.

I do upgrade my PC every one or two years.

Mike

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Personally I only upgrade computers for my own requirements, not Seti.
But with a P3 there has to come a time when has to question how much longer is it going to keep going. And would it be more economical and reliable to upgrade. I used to run dual P3 that used over 150W when cpu's were at 100%, I now run desktop Pent M that uses less than 80W and as a bonus is three times faster than the old computer crunching Seti units.

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No - not in a million years would considerations for project crunching influence my hardware buying...

But of course, the answer to that question is a personal one.

If you want new hardware, it's up to you to decide what factors are important.

No - not in a million years would considerations for project crunching influence my hardware buying...

I upgrade when I need to; mainly for games, and some science work I do. However, I do also factor in BOINC stuff a little bit once I do actually upgrade; it means I probably get something a tad more powerful than I really need, like my q6600. But is was so cheap! : )
Otherwise a dual-core would have been alright I'm sure, but I was looking at e6600s, then heard about the q6600 price drop... so just waited then bought.

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Crunching SETI@Home as a member of the Whirlpool BOINC Teams

Yes, I did a couple of times. BOINC was an influencing factor, but I'm a power junkie anyway and have do a lot cpu intensive things simultaneously and quickly.

With the low cost of multicore chips now, anyone with less than a P4 is wasting an incalculable amount of precious time just waiting for things to happen on the machine. ie, installing software, waiting for a web page, compiling, loading apps.
Productivity increases, and over a short time this more than offsets the few hundred dollars of a new machine.
A side effect is that you can crunch stuff more than 10x faster...

Yep, I've done it twice this year now :-)

One was a 2.4GHz Celeron, but the other one was an E6600 that is now my media centre box (Still running SETI...)

The only reason they went quad-core was for SETI.

No justification for it, other than it seemed like a good idea at the time.

A dual-core would be a huge step up from a PIII, but a quad would be even bigger!

Check the prices, and make your choice. And have fun, whatever you decide!

Alan Woodford

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The Greying Lensman

I'd love to, but It would cost Me nearly $500 total as I'd have to get a beefier psu to go with the Q6600 (Or double that If I were even able to afford to upgrade both E4300 PCs right now, and that's impossible right now), So right now It's out as I have more important things to do, As My Wish List mentions, So right now I'd have to pass, Besides I'm pulling an older slower PC out of production for a Year and a half or so until My income rises some(It will and then the PCs will be back, Maybe even upgraded, maybe). :D

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I'd love to, but It would cost Me nearly $500 total as I'd have to get a beefier psu to go with the Q6600 (Or double that If I were even able to afford to upgrade both E4300 PCs right now, and that's impossible right now), So right now It's out as I have more important things to do, As My Wish List mentions, So right now I'd have to pass, Besides I'm pulling an older slower PC out of production for a Year and a half or so until My income rises some(It will and then the PCs will be back, Maybe even upgraded, maybe). :D

Hang in there Batman. My budget is pretty much toast these days too. I may see if the kitties can set aside a little kibble to spend for one of the more modest Penryn quads after the first of the year if they have one down in the $300.00 range. Just to compare to my 3.9ghz OCd Q6600. But I think I'm gonna sit tight 'till then and see what the overclocking forums have to say about how they OC once they hit the street.

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

[quote]Hang in there Batman. My budget is pretty much toast these days too. I may see if the kitties can set aside a little kibble to spend for one of the more modest Penryn quads after the first of the year if they have one down in the $300.00 range. Just to compare to my 3.9ghz OCd Q6600. But I think I'm gonna sit tight 'till then and see what the overclocking forums have to say about how they OC once they hit the street.[/quoted]

What motherboard do you have?

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What motherboard do you have?

Right now, the Q6600 is on an Asus P5K Deluxe. And if you are wondering about the OC, don't forget that it is also on phase cooling, runs at about -28c with full 4 core Seti crunching load.

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

Right now, the Q6600 is on an Asus P5K Deluxe. And if you are wondering about the OC, don't forget that it is also on phase cooling, runs at about -28c with full 4 core Seti crunching load.

nice!! how munch RAC have you from this Q6600?

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Right now, the Q6600 is on an Asus P5K Deluxe. And if you are wondering about the OC, don't forget that it is also on phase cooling, runs at about -28c with full 4 core Seti crunching load.

nice!! how munch RAC have you from this Q6600?

Right now it's struggling with the poor mix of ARs in the MB WUs, this morning it was around 3880 or so. A few days ago it was over 4000.
You can look at the stats of all of my computers if you wish, they are not hidden.

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

Right now, the Q6600 is on an Asus P5K Deluxe. And if you are wondering about the OC, don't forget that it is also on phase cooling, runs at about -28c with full 4 core Seti crunching load.

nice!! how munch RAC have you from this Q6600?

Right now it's struggling with the poor mix of ARs in the MB WUs, this morning it was around 3880 or so. A few days ago it was over 4000.
You can look at the stats of all of my computers if you wish, they are not hidden.

Well that's better than My best quad which got as high as 3500 or so. :D It's at 3,452.53 right now. :o

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Just started to put my Q6600 together. A little bit at a time each night after Gecko Jr. goes to bed and dad can spread parts over the kitchen table ; > )

Yeah, it will be Seti-only and likely house a back-up archive of all our digital music & photos.
Wife knows this is a cheaper hobby than motorcycle stuff, so she's been good w/ it.

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Yeah, it will be Seti-only and likely house a back-up archive of all our digital music & photos.
Wife knows this is a cheaper hobby than motorcycle stuff, so she's been good w/ it.

I'd likle to buy a Q6600 to run Seti, but as my budget is quite low right now, i will have to wait until the new quad penryn is release

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I have a q6600 build in the works, but its bit by bit... I have a car that needs an engine rebuild first. Only reason is to give my laptop a break :)

But this build is being done with SETI in mind since the main thing I do is just internet/chat/email

Say your current system is rather old, a Pentium !!!, which can surf the Internet, chat and email perfectly fine. To upgrade to a Q6600, many parts other than the CPU will need upgrading as well.

Would you still upgrade to a Q6600 PC just to (or largely because) crunch workunits much more rapidly on SETI@Home?

Just for SETI?
Nope.

I still have dual-P3's that do everything you listed just fine. They also make great platforms for home servers.

For gaming, I have an XBox360 (and HDTV).

Not just for SETI.

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Would you still upgrade to a Q6600 PC just to (or largely because) crunch workunits much more rapidly on SETI@Home?

Not just for SETI, no. But I want one for my museum anyway. Then, as long as I have all that power in my museum, I might as well put it to use doing something important like science.

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