Info needed from anyone folding with a celeron 433 or p3 700 ish

[jonnyw]

I've got some parts to make a box that will probably be a server (for educational rather than practical purposes), and also dedicated folding box.

The system i can make will be a 433 Mhz Celeron with 128 MB ram.

I'm considering updating the processor (the motherboard documentation says it will support up to 800Mhz P3 or Celeron processors).

Now I'm gussing if I'm paying out for a replacement processor, it's probably not worth upgrading from a celeron 433 to a celeron 800, and so am basically considering a p3 from 600 Mhz up (preferably 7-800 Mhz).

Am also considering sticking in another 128Mb (or 256Mb) of ram

And now for the question...

Could anyone running a celeron 433, or p3 (between 5 and 800 Mhz) please post approx how many points their machine generates a day on the current protein(and if you can remember on the old, fast protein too).

Could you please post any other details too (e.g 0S, amount of RAM, and whether the client is set to use extra ram).

Any benchies would be cool too (if you can be bothered), although its the points i'm really bothered about

I just want to be able to compare the difference to see if it's worth it or not

All info will be greatly appreciated

[FoBoT]

i run DF on celeron 600 and pentium III 733 Mhz boxen, both with 128 MB of RAM
i'll stick dfGUI onto them and get you some info

i don't have a slower celeron, sorry

i can run some numbers for you at 128MB and 256MB

this will be on WinXP

[jonnyw]

Originally posted by FoBoT
i run DF on celeron 600 and pentium III 733 Mhz boxen, both with 128 MB of RAM
i'll stick dfGUI onto them and get you some info

i don't have a slower celeron, sorry

i can run some numbers for you at 128MB and 256MB

this will be on WinXP

that would be most helpful.

Thankyou

[FoBoT]

D'oh!

i had the pIII running not using extra RAM , the celeron was using extra RAM and putting out about twice as much

i got them both set to -rt now and will check it later

[jonnyw]

thanks for this. 'tis appreciated

[MerePeer]

@jonnyw
Just wondering if you considered saving up a bit more for an AMD setup, meaning ~$50 mobo + $50 processor (maybe + power supply and/or case if not ATX ). The slowest XP outperforms the fastest celeron as seen in this 18 pg article "Clash of the 'rons" test after test: http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1927&p=4

[jonnyw]

i am considering it. the thing is, it will cost me about £50 to upgrade my current spare machine to a P3 733Mhz with 512 MB

To go with the xp route i think i'd need a new motherboard, processor, ddr ram and prob a new power supply(as the current one is only 220 W), which would prob cost about £150.

Cheers for the article though, I will bear it in mind

[FoBoT]

celeron 600 with -rt , 128 MB

------------------------------------------------------------
Distributed Folding Windows dfGUI v3.2 Benchmark

Current Generation: 39
Sample Size : 40 structures over 2019 seconds.
Protein Size: 131AA

Structures Per Hour  : 71
Structures Per Day   : 1712

OS : Windows XP    MHz: 597
CPU: GenuineIntel x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 3 
------------------------------------------------------------ 

[jonnyw]

cheers, i'm guessing that's 40 gens over 24 hours, so probably six days per complete set. Does that sound about right?

[MerePeer]

fyi - May entry-system component guide from anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=2053&p=9

[FoBoT]

dang i am slow

------------------------------------------------------------
Distributed Folding Windows dfGUI v3.2 Benchmark

Current Generation: 236
Sample Size : 90 structures over 2124 seconds.
Protein Size: 131AA

Structures Per Hour  : 154
Structures Per Day   : 3703

OS : Windows XP    MHz: 730
CPU: GenuineIntel x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6 
------------------------------------------------------------ 

this is the same Compaq Deskpro EN 128 MB RAM, same I810 motherboard chipset, only difference is the CPU, the pentium 733 vs. the Celeron 600

same OS , Windows XP pro , both on same protein using the extra RAM switch

twice as fast for only a small Mhz increase

[jonnyw]

that's spot on. Cheers mate.

so it seems definitly worth it to pay £20 to get a p3 7-800 in comparison to a celeron 433 then.

Thanks for your time Fobot, and cheers for the alternative ideas MerePere, i am still looking into a cheap system too

[tpdooley]

When we were beta testing the Phase II client, I had one machine which finished the first batch of 250 gens in around 3 days. The second set of 250 gens on the same hardware took close to 7 days.

So when quoting production rates from live runs - keep in mind that even with the exact same hardware you can at least get production rates that are vastly different. (twice or half as much..).

Regardless... stay away from Intel Celery and AMD Durons..