PPD per watt home server upgrade

[frontier204]

Hi all,

This build will replace the second (butchered Pentium 4) computer in my sig. A few numbers convinced me:

P4 rig's power consumption from wall: 123W PPD: 105.94
= 0.86 PPD / W

That's right... LESS than 1 folding PPD per watt. Given that my laptop can produce 1700PPD while consuming 63W (Linux SMP), the P4 rig is so inefficient that I'm retiring it from folding after the contest.

As per sticky:
1. PURPOSE: NAS + Bittorrent + Subversion + Folding :P
I don't need any specialized RAID card, and I have very low requirements for file transfer speed (e.g. I'm still using 10/100 and don't mind)
2. BUDGET: <=$500 *NOT INCLUDING THE HARD DRIVES*
** I am also enforcing a WATTAGE BUDGET: < 150W estimated. If I go over 150W, I will stop folding on the CPU of my main rig to compensate.
3. WHERE TO BUY: Canada, case from Ottawa
4. FANBOY: *none*
5a. REUSING CURRENT PARTS: SATA DVD-ROM, 250GB SATA and 250GB IDE HDD; I may throw in my 120 GB mobile HDD for the OS if it's strange enough
5b. I have access to free MSDNAA Windows - any Windows (business/desktop or server) from 2000 to 7 when it comes out, or I can use Linux if the rig will fold on CPU only
6. Looked in SIMILAR THREADS? ...not really
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Actually, I plan to UNDERVOLT. Recommendations for good undervolters are appreciated.
8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
In the next 30 days...

Current idea for parts:
MOBO NCIX.com - Buy Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AMD785G mATX AM3 PCI-E DDR3 Video Sound GLAN CrossFireX HDMI Motherboard - GA-MA785GMT-UD2H In Canada.
CPU AMD Athlon II X2 240 Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 2.8GHZ 2MB Cache 65W Retail Box - DirectCanada
Memory <RAM of the Week>
Case Antec-NSK-4480 Super Mini Tower with high efficiency 380w Power supply
Everbest Computer

I know a DDR3 motherboard is overkill, but I like new tech and DDR3 theoretically takes up less energy

• If you really think a AMD + DDR2 platform will be best, I'll use the M3A78-T from my main as the mobo and upgrade my gaming rig to a DDR3-based platform. (3 out of 4 desktops in my place have DDR2; I'm sick of it )

[bissa]

I'm pretty sure watts are per hour not per day. so most major folding rigs would have to be making at least 30000 PPD in order to be around 1 point per watt

[frontier204]

Hence my very strange "measure" of Points Per Day Per Watt.
Watts IIRC are Joules Per Second; I think you may be confusing yourself with kWh (Kilowatt hour). To get 1 point per watt would mean you would have a system producing 86400 F@H Points per day while drawing less power than a cell phone while you are talking on it. That's not what I'm aiming for, at least not yet
By that time, those researchers had better received all the data they needed!

My goal with the build is just to get something better than 106 PPD with a rig that consumes about as much as my current home server, which I think any dual core would achieve. *note that I refuse to keep a computer on 24/7 if it doesn't have F@H on it*

EDIT: It looks like one of the HWC folders is getting close to 1 point per second , although I'm sure that farm is consuming a lot more than 1 watt (congrats to whoever that is at #1 in 54196 PPD)

[bissa]

ya, I was mistaking it and my calculations were based on a 1000 watt PSU to power multiple GPUs

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by bissa

I'm pretty sure watts are per hour not per day. so most major folding rigs would have to be making at least 30000 PPD in order to be around 1 point per watt

Watts are a measure of power and do not depend on a time interval, so the measurement of PPD/W is a valid one since the power consumption is constant while folding. kWh is a measurement of energy, not power, and is something different.

[JD]

I think to achieve what you want to do, you'd have to grab a very low power CPU then throw in a decent NVIDIA GPU to fold on. CPUs kind of suck for folding IMO. Though you'd probably end up over 150W, but at the same time you'd be having a far higher PPD.