Best bang for buck question(now that Intel has made things interesting!!!)

[jasong]

Assuming they're diskless Linux nodes, what are good ideas for cpu, motherboard, RAM combos? Best bang for buck.

(I'm forcing myself to go to bed right now, so that I can work tomorrow. :) )

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

Pentium D 805 + 2x512mb cheap DDR2 + cheap 915 board + 300watt FSP supply = ~300 bucks
shame is the power draw/heat output of em.

[jasong]

Sounds about right, Bloody Sorcerer, although I'll add that if you're into overclocking, best bang for buck is a Pentium D 820(please confirm this with research if you actually intend to buy. I'm pretty sure it's 8xx, but I'm NOT sure about the second two numbers)

The starting GHz of best bang for buck is 2.66, and it'll go to 4.1, I'm positive about that info, or at least I'm positive that's what I read.(They could've been lying, it's been known to happen on the web)

[jasong]

Could you guys please recommend a case? Not necessarily a cheap one. Something less likely to frustrate a novice.

[tnerual]

what do you want to do with a case ...

a case is made to keep heat next to the processor. except if you pay a lot ...

tthe best bang for bucks is the "no case" solution, very heat compliant and very helpfull to start a conversation with friends.

for my part the best bang for bucks is the amd 64x2 3800 +

you have two core, one psu, one mobo (everything included), ram and hd for something like 500$ and you will be able to overclock it without any problem

[jasong]

what do you want to do with a case ...

a case is made to keep heat next to the processor. except if you pay a lot ...

Sorry for the late response, I had temporarily forgotten about this thread.

The reason I want a case is that I'll need a hard drive to store my stuff, hard drives vibrate, and vibrations can make things do unfavorable things, like fall off of stuff.

Okay, in addition to the case question, since I mentioned the second thing, what's a good hard drive for a system that's going to have caseless nodes added about every 1-4 1/2 months?

Edit: I'm exploring my options at www.tigerdirect.com , so if you guys want to post a link from there for me to look at, I'll gladly check your choice out.

[jasong]

Okay, back to caseless node idea.

What if I wanted a Linux node without a case. How would I go about using an external hard drive to run it? Possible?

[tnerual]

just look here

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Gentoo_Diskless_Install

i never tried it but it could not be difficult :bang:

laurent

[jasong]

just look here

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Gentoo_Diskless_Install

i never tried it but it could not be difficult :bang:

laurent
Bookmarked. thanks.

[jasong]

That website says it requires a network interface card.

If the computer can connect to a local area network, does that mean it has a network interface card? It's a 500MHz AMD K7 which I discussed in another thread. As I said in the thread, I'm not going to use it to run DC, I'm going to use it to serve projects to diskless nodes.(since I don't think the electricity draw would be worthwhile if it ran full-bore)

[Digital Parasite]

NIC = Ethernet Card so yes if you can connect to a LAN, that is the same thing

[jasong]

Here's a question that should interest people:

If the electric bill is 3 1/3rd cents per KWH(It's actually about twice that, but since I don't pay for it, I'm only going to figure that in as half the actual amount) what would you guys recommend as a cruncher, just figuring cpu/MB/RAM draw for 2 years?(That's 17,520 hours)

Don't think too hard, I do intend to do my own research, but I'd like a starting point ;) )

Additionally, has anyone ever attempted to figure out how much the air-conditioning bill is affected by these "little heaters?" That 0.75 watt Intel chip might be best bang for buck if you factor in air-conditioning.

[jasong]

Here's a question that should interest people:

If the electric bill is 3 1/3rd cents per KWH(It's actually about twice that, but since I don't pay for it, I'm only going to figure that in as half the actual amount) what would you guys recommend as a cruncher, just figuring cpu/MB/RAM draw for 2 years?(That's 17,520 hours)

Don't think too hard, I do intend to do my own research, but I'd like a starting point ;) )

Additionally, has anyone ever attempted to figure out how much the air-conditioning bill is affected by these "little heaters?" That 0.75 watt Intel chip might be best bang for buck if you factor in air-conditioning.
I guess it's time to resurrect an old thread. :)

I remember reading about a company(I want to say Google) who ran a bunch of diskless nodes in a building. According to them, 50% of the cost was air-conditioning. Unfortunately, I don't remember if it was 50% of total cost, or 50% of the cost to run the nodes, which would make it about 1/3rd of total cost.(They had so much heat coming off their stuff, the air above the computers tended to shimmer. Now that's a lot of heat)

Anyway, since I'm thinking that I don't need a laptop, I'm thinking of how to expand my fleet(of one at the moment ;) ) I have a Pentium-D, and I want a computer that overcomes the weaknesses of the Pentium-D. Heat is a definite concern, since it will be in my small bedroom with a window air-conditioner.

The purchase will probably be made sometime in November, and it will most definitely run Linux. Basically, I'm looking to spend from $400-$600 on a motherboard, cpu and RAM(minimum 1 Gig of RAM, will be upgraded later).

I'm hoping you guys can point me in the right direction.