HOWDY YA ALL

IF YOU WERE GOING TO BUILD A CRUNCHING MACHINE, EITHER STAND ALONE OR AS A NORMAL USE CRUNCHING COMPUTER,
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ULTIMATE BOX ? NO COST LIMITS.
DUAL QUADS ? GPU CARDS ? MOTHER BOARDS AND MEMORY ? WHATS HOT RIGHT NOW?
NOW THINK ABOUT IF YOU WERE ON A MORE RESTRICTED BUDGET. WHAT WOULD GIVE THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK ?
I WELCOME COMMENTS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE.

for the no restricted cost option...I'd wait for the X6's with a dual socket mobo (12 cores...drooling already) & 32gb, possibly 64gb ram.

for the low budget cost option, that depends on the budget, X2's are cheap now, but would go for an X4, with either 1, also 4gb ram.

At this moment, i am looking into Intel's X6, the i7 980X Extreme Edition 6 cores 3.33ghz, but at the last time of looking, it was £841 just for the cpu.

still doing reserach, so will give you a better component list when it's done. I'll also research a budget machine. it's difficult for me as i'm constantly buiding different machines with different specs.....normally in the region of £450($675 US) & £850($1275 US).

I like the cost is a minor concern. Sirius is right on about the X6, a very nice chip. For now if I were to build a super cruncher in one box it would be a evga x58 classified mobo with the 4 way Crossfire, SLI. The 980x 6 core with 4 ATI 5970's, 2 Corsair hx1000 power supplies to run the downstairs heater. Put 20+ gig of ram with a real quick HD (can't bring myself to go SSD), and put the whole works in a coolmaster Cosmos full tower atx case. Then once it's all put in and running, rip her all apart and add liquid cooling and play with the overclocks on the CPU, and GPU's. Once you get that done, you have to get to your 2'nd job, cuz the computer just put you back just over $5000.00 CDN. without a mouse keyboard or any monitors.

HEY SIRIUS
I AGREE WITH YOU ON THE X6. IT REALLY DOES LOOK HOT BUT HERE THEY GO FOR ABOUT $1200
I ADDED UP A SYSTEM WITH DUAL XEON 3.33 AND A COUPLE OF NVIDIA GTX 480. WITH 12G RAM AND A COUPLE OF 1000 WATT PSU'S AND IT RUNG IN AT JUST OVER 6000. THE XEON ARE WORTH ABOUT $2200 EACH.
HEY PHILZIE
LONG TIME NO SEE.
I REALLY NEED TO EXPLORE THE ATI 5970'S. SCRATCH THAT, I JUST WENT LOOKING. I'M STILL WIPING UP THE DROOL. 3200 SPU'S ??? HOLY POOP.
WAY BETTER THAN THE NVIDIA STUFF. DECENT PRICING ON THEM TOO CONSIDERING THE NUMBER OF PROCESSORS.

MY BROTHER IS BUILDING 2 SYSTEMS RIGHT NOW, ONE FOR HIM AND ONE FOR HIS WIFE. AMD 2.50 GHZ QUAD, NVIDIA GTX 128 CORE VID CARD AND 42" MONITOR FOR EACH BOX. THE 42" SURE MAKES ME DROOL. GAMING SURE WOULD BE A BLAST. THE BOXES COST ABOUT $600 EACH WITHOUT THE MONITORS. THEY WOULD MAKE A PRETTY FAIR LOW END CRUNCHER BOX.

THANKS FOR THE INPUT GUYS.

I love the way the gpu stuff is going, in January I did a build with a I7 920 and a couple of 5870's with a few other goodies in there. That one computer has done more work than all the rest of my computers since 2002, and it's only 4 months old. I have retired all my duel and quad core's, just cuz these things can plow thru the work. Once there is a uniform gpu matrix out there for the programmers of all these projects, their science will benefit leaps and bounds when the average guy can contribute with one cpu and gpu what a couple of thousand people did five years ago. Ok I know a little off topic, now I gotta think about how I would build a super cruncher on a reduced amount of cash. Get back to ya.

I AGREE PHILZIE, I'VE BEEN WATCHING YOU AND A COUPLE OF OTHERS IN HERE AND THE LEAPS MADE SINCE ADDING A GPU SETUP IS ASTOUNDING.
I DID A LOOK IN A COUPLE OF THE PROJECT SITES AT THE TOP USERS AND WHAT THEY ARE USING. NOT SURPRISING THAT 6 AND 8 5970'S PER COMPUTER ARE GETTING TO BE THE STANDARD UP TOP.
DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY IDEA HOW THAT MANY CAN BE HOOKED UP ?
ALL THE MOTHER BOARDS I'VE LOOKED AT LATELY HAVE NO MORE THAN 2 PCI EXPRESS-2 SLOTS.

HEY PHILZIE, WITH A QUAD AND A VID CARD, DOES THAT MEANS YOU CAN RUN TWO DIFFERENT PROJECTS AT ONCE ? ONE FOR THE GPU AND A STANDARD BOINC PROJECT FOR THE QUAD ?
THE WORLD OF QUADS IS STILL PRETTY NEW TO ME. I'M STILL RUNNING P4'S BUT A QUAD IS IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
DUE TO BUDGET RESTRAINTS I AM CONSIDERING BUILDING A SLOWER AND CHEAPER QUAD AND SPENDING THE REAL MONEY ON A VID CARD LIKE A 5870. I'D LIKE TO GO WITH A 5970 BUT AT $700 I'LL BE WAITING AWHILE FOR ONE OF THOSE. A 5870 IS JUST OVER HALF THAT AND STILL HAS PLENTY OF CORES TO HELP THE RAC.

i'd hold off on the quad for now Zapp, once the X6's become mainstream in the market place, I'm pretty sure that the cost will come down for quads. originally, I'd paid £135 for my Phenom 9950 & it can be picked now for around £85/£90.

It's like their new X6's, £165 for the 1055T's & £235 for the 1090T's. I'll wait at least a month & should get a 1055T for approx £130/£135, possibly less.

Good choice, I run a couple of those in one box and they run the gpu projects, while my cpu run only cpu projects. It's a good mix. You have to have up to date boinc client tho, as the older client's don't help out the gpu to work on debt load. If you get one of those cards, you won't be dissipointed. If your in it for some credits, a 5870 with a slight overclock gets 210 credits every minute and a half on milkyway,collatz, and dnetc.

On the good side my crunching room now heats the whole basement, not sure why I wasted electricty going thru a baseboard heater before, this is way more fun.

WELL IT SURE LOOKS LIKE I'LL BE GOING WITH AN AMD X6. HERE I CAN GET AN INTEL HEX-CORE $1200 WHILE A PHENOM II 1090T IS $320 AND A 1055T IS $220
MUCH BETTER PRICING THAN I EXPECTED. I SAW THE PRICE OF THE INTEL AND DIDN'T LOOK AT THE AMD'S. I CAN REMEMBER PAYING 220 FOR A P4 A FEW YEARS BACK

Well I started a thread at S@H to let the AMD users know about the X6's. I personally cannot justify the cost in building an Intel system when for the same price of 1 Intel system, I can build 2 AMD systems & have change to pay for lunch.

I think seti & all other forums are obsessed with my toy is bigger than your toy. There's a worldwide economic crisis & I feel that most computer users/purchasers want value for their money.

If you are going to go with an AMD X6, I'd hold off for at a least a month (giving you time to increase finances) & I'm sure those prices will come down £20/£30

I've already ordered & paid for (don't believe in 30/60/90 day credit, even though I have business accounts with several suppliers, & because of that cash belief, I get some very good discounted deals), 8x 1055T's & 2x 1090T's (retail total was £1790) but I got a fair chunk off of that....lol

At the moment, we have gone back to the old days here, cash is king...flash the old readies about & you'd be surprised what kind of deals one can get.

As well as the cpu's also ordered 6 mobos so the total retail cost was £2640. Total cost to me was £2400 that's an average of £15 discount per item.

it's an old clique, but a true one, patience is a virtue. I had to order in as 6 of my network rigs have been sold to regular customers as 2nd user systems at reasonable costs so I need to rebuild network, so why not with X6's...lol

BTW Zapp, have been hectic here all week, so will get back to you shortly.

THANKS SIRIUS B
ITS LOOKING LIKE SUMMER BEFORE I START ON THIS PROJECT.
BUT I ALREADY KNOW AMD IS WHAT I'LL BE AIMING FOR. AFTER LOOKING OVER WHATS AVAILABLE IN QUADS I'LL BE WANTING AN X6 FOR SURE.
ANOTHER FACTOR IN THAT DECISION IS THE MOTHERBOARDS ARE THE SAME FOR THE QUADS AND THE X6. AM3 SOCKET.
ONE AND TWO PCI EXPRESS2 SLOTS PER MB SEEMS TO BE THE NORM THESE DAYS. I WILL LIKELY ONLY RUN ONE VID CARD PER BOX ANYWAY.
I EXPLORED THE WORLD OF BACKPLANES AND PCI EXPRESS EXPANSION SYSTEMS ; YA RIGHT, MAYBE WHEN MY LOTO NUMBERS COME IN.
16 SLOT BACKPLANES AND EXPANSION SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THE REAL SERIOUS AND WEALTHY GPU CRUNCHER.
IMAGINE THE POWER BILL FOR 16 OF THOSE 5970 CARDS CRUNCHING

Just had a chat with my better half about that, I won't be getting 16 5970's. As we always have a little give and take in our relationship, she said ya go ahead get em, and you can live on a lawn chair under the deck. MMM the idea did cross my mind.

lol! I've been given similar choices myself!