I am considering building a new SETI cruncher from scratch in order to dramatically increase my processing power, but I have been out of the loop on PC hardware for a long time.

Are multiple GPU's now more important than CPU's with lots of core and threads?

How do I get the most credit/RAC Per $1/£1 Spent?

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Metal Detecting

If you are comfortable with Linux (or even if you aren't) that will be your best bet for best production for your machine. With running that, you can build a machine with fewer GPUs that will out product even the largest windows machine. The special cuda app is significantly faster than SoG currently.

A single machine with 2 mid level GPUs will fly.

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My experience with Linux is very limited, but I am absolutely open to it if that is what will provide the best results. Can you recommend a Linux distro? How do I get the special cuda app?

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Metal Detecting

Ubuntu 18.04 seems to be the best one I've found. Only issue is with EVGA boards. I find Gigabyte and ASUS take it well without any problems.

I like to use TBar's all in one installer. Hopefully one of the others will link you to the site. Any Nvidia 20x0s cards will need Nvidia driver of at least 418 to run.

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My experience with Linux is very limited, but I am absolutely open to it if that is what will provide the best results. Can you recommend a Linux distro? How do I get the special cuda app?

I was also a bit of a Linux "noob" but I now have 3 machines running the special app and the results have been amazing, even on the older GXT750ti's I am completing a work unit every 5 minutes and the 1060's around 2.5 minutes. I am running 2 GPU's per machine

My RAC has gone from around 30k to 140k in a couple of weeks.

The special app is available here;

http://www.arkayn.us/lunatics/BOINC.7z

It is a "fully working" install and only requires you unzip it into the folder of your choice. I use the Home folder

I recommend getting a machine up and running with Linux, play around a bit, install the graphics drivers, this was the only thing I originally has trouble with as it seems the syntax of the command changed in Ubuntu 18.04.

However if you have any problems ask here I guarantee someone will know the answer .

... install the graphics drivers, this was the only thing I originally has trouble with as it seems the syntax of the command changed in Ubuntu 18.04.

You don't even need that... click the start menu, then start typing "driver" and either Drivers or Driver Manager will appear, launch it and they can be installed in two clicks.

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I'll throw my $0.02 in. Go with Ubuntu 18.04 distro for Linux. Get the AIO from the link earlier. Look at Shaggie76's chart for most productive gpus per watt and make a selection from the Nvidia cards.
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=81962&postid=1997116

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

... install the graphics drivers, this was the only thing I originally has trouble with as it seems the syntax of the command changed in Ubuntu 18.04.

You don't even need that... click the start menu, then start typing "driver" and either Drivers or Driver Manager will appear, launch it and they can be installed in two clicks.

. . There's a 'start menu' in Linux??

. . FWIT for my money if buying new I would be checking out a Ryzen 5 or 7 as your base unit and maybe a pair of those GTX1660ti cards or if second hand then an i5 or i7 with maybe GTX970s or GTX1060s, or even 1050tis. It all depends on how much grunt you are after and how tight your budget. And of course Linux/Cuda90.

Stephen

? ?

Try pressing the Windows key :D

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Try pressing the Windows key :D

Ha ha LOL. I shouldn't laugh I guess since the Linux desktop manager is mostly foreign to someone coming from ingrained Windows UI. I still find new things to learn. A good place to start is some of the beginner's tips and tricks at:
https://itsfoss.com/ and
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I'll throw my $0.02 in. Go with Ubuntu 18.04 distro for Linux. Get the AIO from the link earlier. Look at Shaggie76's chart for most productive gpus per watt and make a selection from the Nvidia cards.
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=81962&postid=1997116

From a price, performance, power usage point of view, you can't do much better than an RTX 2060.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I have been looking around on eBay and found that older Xeon servers can be had surprisingly cheaply, although they all seem to be supplied without drives or caddies, would these make good crunchers or is it all about GPU's?

Would the type of hard drive used in a new SETI cruncher have much of an effect on results, or can I pretty much use any old drive?

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Metal Detecting

Old Xeon servers can be useful for supporting gpus. Gpus will always have the performance per watt metric won. It doesn't matter what kind of drive you run except for some projects with astronomical storage requirements. Seti is not one of them. Spinning iron or the latest solid state storage makes no difference. Old servers may not have the kind of power supply connections conducive to supporting multiple gpus. The one thing they bring to the calculation is a lot of cheap cpu cores.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I'll throw my $0.02 in. Go with Ubuntu 18.04 distro for Linux. Get the AIO from the link earlier. Look at Shaggie76's chart for most productive gpus per watt and make a selection from the Nvidia cards.
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=81962&postid=1997116

+1

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The one thing they bring to the calculation is a lot of cheap cpu cores.

But the unfortunate part about old servers, is they require a lot of power for their rather modest clock speeds.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I'll throw my $0.02 in. Go with Ubuntu 18.04 distro for Linux. Get the AIO from the link earlier. Look at Shaggie76's chart for most productive gpus per watt and make a selection from the Nvidia cards.
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=81962&postid=1997116

+1

Honestly other than a few bugs setup wise with Linux Mint 19.1 I'm very happy with it instead of Ubuntu, but each to their own (though I now do have a lot of people here on Mint that I have to support if problems hit).

Cheers.

That's good to know Wiggo. I have nothing against Mint other than it gave me issues when I first attempted Linux and my first attempt with Ubuntu was a success. I don't have any preference for UI or Desktop Manager so if you are the defacto Mint expert now for the project, that's a good thing in my opinion.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Old Xeon servers can be useful for supporting gpus. Gpus will always have the performance per watt metric won. It doesn't matter what kind of drive you run except for some projects with astronomical storage requirements. Seti is not one of them. Spinning iron or the latest solid state storage makes no difference. Old servers may not have the kind of power supply connections conducive to supporting multiple gpus. The one thing they bring to the calculation is a lot of cheap cpu cores.

And those cheap cores appear to process Seti apps slower than something like a AMD Ryzen 7 2700 does (8c/16t). It is cheaper than the 2700x and still processes quite robustly.

I have an "older" Xeon server here: https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=8676008 It is running an elderly Supermicro server MB (20c/40t). It can, with the help of an expander riser card, drive 7 gpu's reliably. I am currently spliting the cpu threads between Seti and World Community Grid.

Unfortunately for it (the Xeon), I found a 9 gpu solution running an Amd 7 2700 that has been quite reliable. Here https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=8684146

I believe nearly any newer cpus will pretty much run more tasks faster using less energy than older cpus. This assumes core counts and cpu speeds are similar.

The top performing Seti system is using that older Intel Xeon technology and driving 10-11 Nvidia cpus. The MB has 11 pcie slots. Yes, the MB is rare and pretty expensive. But if you already have the cpus and ram, the upgrade is not quite as expensive. I am talking about LGA 2011 (version 1 or 2) sockets here. With DDR3-1600 ram.
You may have to buy "narrow" cpu heatsink and fans which are much less common. And make sure you get the quieter version(s) or it will chase you out of the room by howling!

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

Try pressing the Windows key :D

On Linux that doesn't always work. Fortunately I can still "see" a Linux start button in the lower lefthand corner....

:)

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

I do have a "Moonshot" AMD Ryzen 7 2600 (6c/12t) running 4 gtx 1060 3GB's and 1 gtx 750ti that has just cracked 106,000+ RAC and is currently ranked 51. Its using a fairly cheap 350 type MB I think.

There are several people tinkering with pretty small/old cpus/mb's (both Intel and Amd) using Linux/Tbar's All-in-One and getting very respectable RAC results when they hang at least two gtx 1060's off them.

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).