I regularly ask the SETI@Home team if they have any hardware requirements to ensure the project has what it needs to keep going, and finally a requirement has emerged, so we have our rumored fundraiser... the SETI@Home team requires funds for:

26 x Seagate 16TB Exos X16 7200 RPM SATA 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drives



There will be 22 for storage and 2 for filesystem in a 24-drive NAS bay, plus 2 spares in the unlikely case of failures. The team already has the bay; we only need supply the drives. This request may be "not very sexy" as Jeff Cobb put it, but it's one of those essential requirements that keeps SETI@Home running properly, and more importantly efficiently, for the long term.


What is the fundraising goal?

The best cost I could find for these drives is $419 each (from Amazon) so the goal is 26 x $419 = $10,894. This doesn't include tax and shipping, and the cost may change in the interim (they are on sale), so any overage will still probably be required.

I will be providing updates on the total contibutions through the SETI@home Donation History, and for those donating via PayPal, the GPUUG Donation Tracker.


Why is this required?

First: too many spindles! SETI@Home's data is currently spread out over 120+ 2TB drives in UC Berkeley's Co-Location datacenter. Since the project has to pay UC Berkeley per drive for this storage, it's gotten to the point where it's costing the project far too much money, something that unfortunately is always in short supply. As well, it's a waste of electricity (which the SETI@Home project also has to pay for) to keep 120+ spindles spinning where 24 of the same power would do.

Second: Reliability. The 2TB drives currently used are getting near end-of-life and are becoming unreliable and failing. With 2.5M hrs. MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) all of these new drives should last for decades or as long as they are required. But, we'll get a couple of spares just in case!


What's the timeframe?

This fundraiser will run for two weeks until Jan. 13th. In my experience, it won't take nearly that long to reach the goal.


How do we contribute?

Simply make your donation as normal through the UC Berkeley Donate to SETI@home portal, or if you are donating via Paypal, via the GPU Users Group's Donation directly to SETI@Home option. You won't need to do anything but donate normally as any donation during this timeframe is going to be applied to this fundraiser.

Please feel free to post your confirmation number or other record of your confirmation here! It's excellent to see the generosity. All donations large and small are much appreciated and thank you!


Will there be a matching donation?

I don't have the funds to do a matching donation, but if I see things are going well by Dec. 31st and we're at or close to the halfway point, I'm kicking in one thousand dollars! So the earlier you can donate, the better!

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That's an excellent start to the campaign, John, and thank you! :^)

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You gave $100.00

to SETI@home

on December 30, 2019

via Visa
Your confirmation number is 503060

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Wow... the first two posted donations are GPUUG members each dropping a C-note. Awesome and thank you!

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Let's get this thing kick started....cue the Ramones!!

You gave $2,000.00

to SETI@home

on December 30, 2019

via Visa
Your confirmation number is 503073

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Long time lurker, first time poster. Donated $100 to the cause!

You gave $100.00

to SETI@home

on December 30, 2019

via Visa
Your confirmation number is 503082

Zalster... well I don't know what to say, so as a picture is worth a thousand words I'll have to reuse the same one from the last time you donated!



Can't thank you enough for your amazing generosity!

And thank you LoneTree!

Edit: As of 13h37 Berkeley/21h37 UTC we are already at just shy of $3500 thanks to Zalster's amazing donation! Can we make it to the halfway mark and get my grand today?

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Donated $100 via the GPUUG page.

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Seti@Home classic workunits: 29,492 CPU time: 134,419 hours

OK, to clear up the confusion of donating to GPUUG. I have donated directly to SETI@home.

You gave to: SETI@home

We received your gift of $500.00

via Visa on 12/30/2019.

Your confirmation number is 503830.

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

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

You gave $100.00

to SETI@home

on December 30, 2019

via Mastercard
Your confirmation number is 503929

Its been awhile so Im kinda making up for lost time.....

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Thank you daysteppr for your contribution to the cause.

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

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

You gave $250.00
to SETI@home
on December 31, 2019

You gave $100.00
to SETI@home
on December 31, 2019
via Visa

...and my company will match it for $200 total.

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Thank you Ian, daysteppr, RueiKe and Freewill and especially Keith, the second GPUUG member to match or exceed what I was planning on donating!

We had a fantastic first day, collecting $5370 through UCB and $758 (including the $500 donation to GPUUG that is going to be redirected to SETI@Home) through GPUUG for a total of $6088. And we've collected a further $270 through GPUUG and $1895 through UCB today for a grand total of $8253!

Yes, we may possibly consider this campaign complete after only two days... I still have to put my promised thousand in. I am at work right now, so when I am home this evening I will do that.

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You gave $250.00

to SETI@home

on December 31, 2019

via Mastercard
Your confirmation number is 505450

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

You gave $100.00

to SETI@home

on December 31, 2019

via Discover
Your confirmation number is 505649 

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As promised at the beginning:

You gave $1,000.00

to SETI@home

on December 31, 2019

via Visa
Your confirmation number is 505647



Grand total so far is thus $11,648

Goal is reached in less than two days!

Dr. Korpela indicated wanted this to run the full two weeks but it's done... any more funds will be for general use now. Thank you all for your amazing generosity... I knew it would only take a couple of days as these hardware fundraisers always do.

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Dr. Korpela indicated wanted this to run the full two weeks but it's done... any more funds will be for general use now. Thank you all for your amazing generosity... I knew it would only take a couple of days as these hardware fundraisers always do.

Great work everyone. Why not keep the fundraiser open for the remainder of the two week period for any other hardware items that are needed?

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