You may still want used desktops instead: Much easier to shove around places and doesn't take a shelf, easier to maintain, generally faster, can be quieter under load, and lasts longer than laptops. My last laptop gave out after barely more than 3 years after throwing random artifacts at random times for 2 years. Though that probably had more to do with its gfx chip affected by Nvidia's 8x00/9x00 bonding glitch, and my current one is doing fine in its 5th.

The only pitfall is, they might consume more power and generate more heat. Though that shouldn't be a problem if electricity's cheap, and heat is not really a bad thing for winters at least.

You might want to purchase 6 used video cards with decent GPU's and a motherboard with 6 PCIe slots and an 8 core processor to fit the board if possible, or a 4 core. Purchase one of these kits (link below) and then hook them up. You will get a lot more units done from the GPU's and an 8 core CPU than a bunch of used laptops.

You get a MB with 6 PCIe slots.
You get 2 Power Supplies 600W +
Purchase this http://amzn.to/2j2il0Z

Plug those into the PCIe slots, power up the video cards and the computer. Make sure the OS detects the GPU's (and make sure they are ones that get good rates for BOINC) and then attach to SETI@HOME and away you go!

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You might want to purchase 6 used video cards with decent GPU's and a motherboard with 6 PCIe slots and an 8 core processor to fit the board if possible, or a 4 core. Purchase one of these kits (link below) and then hook them up. You will get a lot more units done from the GPU's and an 8 core CPU than a bunch of used laptops.

You get a MB with 6 PCIe slots.
You get 2 Power Supplies 600W +
Purchase this http://amzn.to/2j2il0Z

Plug those into the PCIe slots, power up the video cards and the computer. Make sure the OS detects the GPU's (and make sure they are ones that get good rates for BOINC) and then attach to SETI@HOME and away you go!

Can you tell me what is the use of a 'SATA 15pin Male to MOLEX 4pin power cable' ?
Where do you connect the SATA 15pin Male ?

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Can you tell me what is the use of a 'SATA 15pin Male to MOLEX 4pin power cable' ?
Where do you connect the SATA 15pin Male ?

You could plug it into one of these . And then you'd probably want to accessorise that with one of these.

It's the same as a SATA power connector on an HDD. The female connector comes from the PSU - just be careful of the power draw.

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The SATA-to-Molex cables are to power the card through the PCIe x16 connector, like the MB would if it were plugged directly to the MB. The male SATA connecter gets plugged into one of the SATA female plugs on the power supply's SATA connector cables. Spread them out on as many SATA cables as possible, they draw up to 75 watts each.

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The SATA-to-Molex cables are to power the card through the PCIe x16 connector, like the MB would if it were plugged directly to the MB. The male SATA connecter gets plugged into one of the SATA female plugs on the power supply's SATA connector cables. Spread them out on as many SATA cables as possible, they draw up to 75 watts each.

According to this site the power rating for SATA would be borderline at best.

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Can you tell me what is the use of a 'SATA 15pin Male to MOLEX 4pin power cable' ?
Where do you connect the SATA 15pin Male ?

You could plug it into one of these . And then you'd probably want to accessorise that with one of these.

It's the same as a SATA power connector on an HDD. The female connector comes from the PSU - just be careful of the power draw.

Thanks for the accessorie :)
Powering the GPU with the 8pin from the alimentation is not enough ? I have a 800 Watts alimentation...

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GPUs take power from the 6 or 8 pin power cables (if GPU has them) plus up to 75 Watts from the PCI bus.

That why when you use PCIe extender cables they require (most of them) the additional power to be supplied from either a 4 pin Molex (HD power plug) or SATA power plug. The included SATA to 4 pin Molex adaptor is just to make sure you have an available power source.

GPUs take power from the 6 or 8 pin power cables (if GPU has them) plus up to 75 Watts from the PCI bus.

That why when you use PCIe extender cables they require (most of them) the additional power to be supplied from either a 4 pin Molex (HD power plug) or SATA power plug. The included SATA to 4 pin Molex adaptor is just to make sure you have an available power source.

I imagine they do that because most new PSUs have more SATA power connectors than 4-pin molex. At least that is the case with all of the PSUs I've bought in the past several years.

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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'd vote for some old desktops. Stack them up "headless", that is with no screen or keyboard, and set each one up for Remote Desktop using RDP or VNC etc.

You can use whatever OS you like, and if it's an older PC with only an XP licence that's OK if it's only being used for BOINC. Doesn't need updates, it's behind a firewall, and not being used for surfing or email so it's pretty much zero security risk. Or you can play around with various versions of Linux at your leisure. Once you have a couple of spare PCs and some time this is much less daunting. If you mess up, wipe the disk and start again. But getting BOINC to run on a Mint Linux machine is pretty straight forward, like run the setup, install BOINC from the linux software library and get started. It just works.

I've got a motley assortment of PCs here that I basically use as space heaters when it's cold. Old Xeon servers, Core 2 duos, some i3s etc that I have basically "salvaged" from the work recycle heap. Most were DOA, but in my experience, if you can collect 3 dead PCs, on average you can make 2 working ones. Some will have lost power supplies, some hard disks, some system boards, and some will just be old. Figure out which ones will be repairable, and strip the others for any good parts. If you are just going to install an OS and run Seti, you can re-use an old 40gb hdd. If it dies, too bad, find another one etc.

Locally it costs about $20 to drop in a PC at the transfer station. That means if I offer to "take it away for recycling" for free, I usually get it, and I undertake to run DBAN over any working hard disk as part of the deal. If the data is super sensitive, leave the HDD behind and tell the owner to hammer it before they dump it. The PCs I can't rebuild get stripped and the scrap metal sold for a few cents. (Random plastic bits can go in the trash) so I don't have to shell out the $20 dump charge.

So now you can set up a "farm", for pretty much zero budget. Heck you can even use any old hub to connect them, they can connect on 10 mb if that's what you have. As you have said you are on welfare, I assume time isn't an issue (but money is?)

So ask around for some old desktops. You might get lucky.

Now if you get a budget to work with, then you can probably slot some GPU cards into the boxes you have collected. But that costs money, which is probably better spent on paying other bills.

The power you use can be offset against you heating bills. 1000W used by PCs gives you the same heating as a 1000W fan heater and will warm a room noticeably. I generally only run my "farm" when it's cold and it's allegedly summer here. But today it's a bit non-summer so things are humming away and we are a nice 9C above the outside temp.

You can see my "farm" and out daily drivers under my profile. RAC is way down because I've been away for 3 weeks and things have been off, but you get the idea of what I have, for pretty much zero dollars spent.