Hello Everyone:

Here's a new thread to keep everyone updated on our current projects.

The Basics

How To Donate
Please visit http://www.gpuug.org/catalog. From there, you will be able to donate to our current projects using Paypal, check or money order.

What We Do With Your Money
As we are a 100% volunteer funded and supported organization, we are able to allocated 100% of all donated funds (minus Paypal fees) toward projects which directly benefit SETI at Home.

501c3 Recognized Entity
The GPU Users Group Inc. is a recognized 501c3 organization in the United States. This means that your donations may be tax deductible on your federal income taxes. Our EIN for tax purposes is 45-2969708.

Sponsors
Thanks to our corporate sponsor NKOL http://www.nkol.net/, we are able to build items such as servers at a steep discount allowing us to stretch our donor's dollars.

Direct SETI Donations
We now offer the ability to donate directly to SETI at Home via the Paypal service. If you would like to donate directly to SETI at Home please visit http://www.gpuug.org/donatecash.

Hardware Donations
You can also donate hardware directly to the project. Please visit http://www.gpuug.org/donatehardware and browse our list of currently needed hardware.

Our Past Projects
Since our inception, through the generosity of our donors we have donated:
1) QTY 1, 4 Drive SATA Dock which has slots to utilize 3TB SATA drives for Astropulse data transportation.
2. QTY 6 3TB Hard Drives for Astropulse data transportation.
3. QTY 4, 2TB SATA Hard Drives (Donated by member Deltoid) for data transportation.
4. QTY 45, 2TB Seagate Hard Drives for:
5. QTY 1, SuperMicro JBOD Array which will house the science database along with other future throughput improvements for SETI at Home. To read more on this please visit: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=66635
6. $4450USD in cash via donors that utilized our direct to SETI Paypal feature.
7. QTY 1: PaddyM Server (Upload/Download Server)
8. QTY 1: GeorgeM Server (Astropulse/NTPCKR Server)
9. QTY 1: Battery Backup for GeorgeM's 3ware 9750-4i4e
10. QTY 5: JBOD Backup Hard Drives
11. QTY 2: SETI at Home Desktop Workstation
12. 3 Logitech Mice and Keyboards
13. QTY 4 24" Asus Monitors
14. Raid card with battery backup for PaddyM
15. QTY 10 Hotswap/Transport hard drive for the JBOD
16. Mini SAS Controller
17. KVM for Eric Korpela
18. Keyboard for Matt Lebofsky
19. UPS Systems for lab workstations
20. High capacity power strips for lab
21. GPU for Eric's workstation.
22. 2 Synergy replacement drives.
23. 4 Turtle HD transport cases.
24. RAID battery backup.
25. 1 closet and 1 10GbE switch.

Useful Links
How to Donate: http://www.gpuug.org/catalog
Past Purchases for SETI with Tracking Info: http://www.gpuug.org/purchases
Payments Paid to SETI at Home for Direct SETI Donations http://www.gpuug.org/donationreports/payments
About Paypal Donations: http://www.gpuug.org/content/about-paypal-donations
About Direct SETI Donations: http://www.gpuug.org/content/direct-donations-setihome
Tax Exempt Status: http://www.gpuug.org/content/tax-exemption-status-information
Forums: http://www.gpuug.org/forum
About Us: http://www.gpuug.org/content/about-gpu-users-group-inc
Staff: http://www.gpuug.org/content/about-gpu-users-group-inc
Mission: http://www.gpuug.org/content/our-mission

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Current Projects

1. We're raising money for 20 transport hard drives for the SETI at Home project. These will be 2TB Seagate hard drives which will be used to transfer data between the Greenbank Observatory and the SETI at Home lab. You can donate to this project by visiting: http://www.gpuug.org/content/setihome-green-bank-data-transport-package

Upcoming projects

1. We are currently waiting for the Lab team to test our donated 10GbE switch donated by Terabit Systems. Once testing is completed we will begin the procurement process for another 10GbE switch which will be a mirror of the donated model however likely with 26+ ports.

2. We'll be announcing a new partnership soonish once we get a few more ducks in a row.

3. We're also working on a few new hardware donation projects which are directly related to the infrastructure of the lab. For more on our first big step please see the below post about our most recent hardware donation.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Here's a cut and paste from our most recent newsletter detailing our most recent project. http://www.gpuug.org/content/aug-14-2012-update-big-news-inside

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We were approached by Terabit Systems http://www.terabitsystems.com who were interested in donating hardware to the SETI @ Home project. After much back and forth between the GPUUG staff, SETI @ Home scientists and Terabit Systems, we were able to procure a donation for the following items:

1. Brocade TurboIron 24X switch with 24P 10GBE/1GBE,SFP+. 1RU. Supports dual power (RPS11).

2. FastIron Workgroup X488 includes 48 ports 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet with four combination RJ45/SFP Gigabit ethernet for copper or fiber uplink connectivity. One 600 watt AC power supply. Redundant 600Watt AC power for FESX448 and POE switches included.

What this means for the science processors of SETI @ Home is that we will soon be installing a new closet switch which should greatly help throughput between the lab and the end user. The 10GbE switch will also be pushed into service shortly.

These switches were donated and paid for in full by Terabit systems and represent a significant monetary value in hardware.

The switches were donated on Monday Aug 13, and delivered to the lab on Aug 14, 2012. Those interested can view the tracking information by clicking this link: http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?language=english&cntry_code=us&tracknumbers=947894415015085
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To add a cherry onto the top of today's cake, on Aug 15, 2012 we will petition Paypal for reduced Paypal transaction fees. Paypal has a feature which allows registered 501c3 entities to submit their 501c3 charter documents for approval. Upon receiving this, we will receive significantly reduced Paypal transactional fees for incoming donations which means we can stretch our donors monetary contributions even further.

We should hear back from Paypal in a week or so on the above. Once we get approval I will post another newsletter.

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Lastly I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to:

- Terabit Systems, specifically Mr. Charles Hurbert for his help in procuring the switch donations for SETI @ Home.

- The SETI scientific team of Eric Korpela, Jeff Cobb, Dan Werthimer and Matt Lebofsky for their quick responses in helping bring this donation to fruition.

- The GPUUG team of Jason Groothius and Phil Horney for their hard work in evaluating components and generally working hard behind the scenes.

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That's all I have for now, thank you everyone for your continued interest and support.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

- Terabit Systems, specifically Mr. Charles Hurbert for his help in procuring the switch donations for SETI @ Home.

That's great news.
I don't know what the present situation in the Lab is, but i suspect with the new hardware the big choke points these days would be shifting data between the various systems.

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Grant
Darwin NT

- Terabit Systems, specifically Mr. Charles Hurbert for his help in procuring the switch donations for SETI @ Home.

That's great news.
I don't know what the present situation in the Lab is, but i suspect with the new hardware the big choke points these days would be shifting data between the various systems.

Our current closet switch is grossly overloaded. The new closet switch is a beast and should help things significantly once implemented.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Finally got a proper scan and upload of our documents I'm overly proud of.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Since i've bought myself a new GPU, here's $30 to the cause:

Your order is complete! Your order number is 577.

Claggy

Since i've bought myself a new GPU, here's $30 to the cause:

Your order is complete! Your order number is 577.

Claggy

Thank you!

I should also sincerely thank Chris S who just donated 3, 2TB drives as well as Mark J for a very generous donation to our general operating fund, Christoff and all of our donors to SETI Direct.

Just FYI guys we're working on a new project which should reduce the operating costs of S&H quite a bit. Just waiting on one particular before we kick off.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Given this donated networking gear is 10Gbit, does that mean the various servers are going to need 10Gbit network cards or do they already support 10Gbit?

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BOINC blog

New Project


Synopsis: We will be providing 40 inexpensive hard drives to the SETI @ Home Project for both the Hydrogen Survey and to upgrade the S&H data storage size as well as reduce the overall cost per gigabyte of stored data.

This project will serve two purposes.

1. It will provide 16 internal SATA drives for Eric's Hydrogen Survey. These drives will be placed 16 internal slots at 3GBPS which allows us the opportunity to purchase lesser cost drives for this project. For more on the Hydrogen survey please visit http://www.naic.edu/~igalfa/

2. Secondly the remaining 24 drives will be placed into 24 external expansion drive slots at 1.5GBPS. These drives will be used to both upgrade data storage for SETI at Home and more importantly, reduce the cost of this data storage. Current data storage for S&H is costing the project around $0.21/Gig. With the addition of these new drives, we can reduce this cost to around $0.09/Gig. This represents a significant savings to the project.

The specifics:

Hardware: 40 Hitachi GST Deskstar 7k1000.c OF10383 1TB drives. These drives are 7200RPM at 32MB Cache SATA internal 3.5" drives. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145304
Cost per drive: $69.99
Quantity needed in total: 40pcs
Time to completion: Ideally 1 month from today.

How to Donate

Phil has set us up two different ways to donate these drives.

1. Our first is via our traditional fundraising tracker. This is our general pool donation system where interested parties can donate however much they'd like and once we reach our goal, we'll purchase the drives in mass. You can donate via this medium by visiting http://www.gpuug.org/content/setihome-hydrogen-survey-seti-storage-array-hard-drives.

2. Given the relative low cost of these drives, I'm hoping this option will be more attractive. Through our Donate - A - Drive system, interested parties can visit http://www.gpuug.org/content/cash-4-drive-hitachi-gst-deskstar-7k1000c and purchase whatever quantity of drives they'd like for the project. Once the donor purchases a drive through this feature, we will simply go to the lowest cost vendor and purchase/ship these drives to SETI, usually on the same day the donation occurs.

As drives are purchased through this feature, we will be reducing the total goal amount from the main fundraiser until we reach the required 40 drives for this project.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Somehow in the time it took to write the above, the price dropped to $69.99 per drive. Now's the time to pick up a few of these for the project if you're interested in donating. Give me a few minutes to update the totals here and on the GPUUG website to reflect the lower cost of these drives.

ETA all fixed to reflect lower prices.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Given this donated networking gear is 10Gbit, does that mean the various servers are going to need 10Gbit network cards or do they already support 10Gbit?

I'll have to ask Jeff today and will get back to you once I hear something.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Chris S. has generously agreed to let us purchase 5 of the Hydrogen / SETI Storage drives for the project instead of 3 2TB transport drives he originally donated through our Hardware Donation feature. The Hydrogen/Storage drives are more mission critical at this point, so a big thanks to Chris!

We purchased 5 of these drives today for $375.32. This gives us a remainder on his original donation of $14.78. I'll remove $14.78 from the main pool donation for the remaining 35 drives.

You can view this purchase by visiting http://www.gpuug.org/purchases I'll follow up with tracking information today once I receive it.

Thanks again Chris!

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

This is going well, keep it up everyone.

At this point we're at:

1. 5 drives ordered today.
2. 2 Donations of $130 total which puts us $10 short full funding 2 drives.

Running total: 6.8 drives paid for, 33.2 to go.

Big thanks to our donors, you guys and girls are awesome.

ETA a very generous donor just contributed another 5 drives to the project. Will update totals after I get these ordered. This puts us at 11.8 drives paid for with 28.2 drives to go.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Update with totals:

Total drives needed: 40
Drives funded: 11.8
Ordered drive: 5
Shipped drives: 5

Pool total: Raised: $120 / Goal: $ 2085.00 : $1,965 to go

To help us out with this project you can:

1. Donate a drive itself by visiting http://www.gpuug.org/content/cash-4-drive-hitachi-gst-deskstar-7k1000c

2. Or you can donate to our general pool for this fundraiser by visiting http://www.gpuug.org/content/setihome-hydrogen-survey-seti-storage-array-hard-drives

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Given this donated networking gear is 10Gbit, does that mean the various servers are going to need 10Gbit network cards or do they already support 10Gbit?

Just heard back from Jeff, he thinks they're good to go for now on NIC's, but if anything pops up they'll let us know.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

5 more drives donated...

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BOINC blog

Update with totals:

Total drives needed: 40
Drives funded: 16.8
Ordered drives: 5
Shipped drives: 5

Pool total: Raised: $120 / Goal: $ 1735.00 : $1,615 to go

To help us out with this project you can:

1. Donate a drive itself by visiting http://www.gpuug.org/content/cash-4-drive-hitachi-gst-deskstar-7k1000c

2. Or you can donate to our general pool for this fundraiser by visiting http://www.gpuug.org/content/setihome-hydrogen-survey-seti-storage-array-hard-drives

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Thank you Mark! Phil also extends his thanks for your testing of our new quantity system in the store. He set it up so that if someone wants to donate, for example, 10 drives, they can simply add that quantity into their cart vs. having to do the math as to what $70 x (number of drives) is.

Big thank you to all of our donors thus far, I really appreciate each of you helping fund this project so quickly.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

I sure hope you are going through GoodSearch when you are making all these purchases, especially from NewEgg. It means extra money for Seti@Home.

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I sure hope you are going through GoodSearch when you are making all these purchases, especially from NewEgg. It means extra money for Seti@Home.

I always try to where applicable. I'm all about getting more money for SETI.

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Executive Director GPU Users Group Inc. -
brad@gpuug.org

Just a daft question. "The 10Gbit switch will become part of a very high speed SETI spectrometer to be deployed at the Greenbank Telescope." I assume that this helps SETI@Home in some way? Because there is no explanation as to what this does.

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