Alternatives for expanding my einstein@home farm
16 Aug 2022 5:58:31 UTC
Topic 227974
(moderation:
Hi!
I have already dedicated most of my hardware towards einstein@home and I am searching for alternatives to expand my credits production.
What is usually done by users here to produce so many credits?
I have two options. I could buy more GPUs and build "einstein mining rigs" that look the same as ETH miners, but that alternative could be quite expensive. What GPUs are the most cost effective in a RAC / PRICE comparison?
My other option would be to buy used servers, I can buy used servers for 250 USD, mainly IBM 3350 but mostly 10 years old or more. What would be the performance of those? Is it better than getting a GPU considering the high prices of GPUs nowdays?
Is there another alternative I am not considering?
Many thanks for your help.
With the price of gpu's
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With the price of gpu's skyrocketing I was buying things like this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/275192695285?hash=item4012c349f5:g:S~UAAOSwatJiIPRN&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsHsVhS4M5t0gxfmo8AcrRvZH%2BO4C7OaXIX48GkP9xF%2BCN%2F7dMmMzUwOnCzc6aputIns5emPY%2BqzqkptYeB99UgfT%2BY4KEe9MXS0UbRijT0W%2FEmKFdISjWTjqKNnHC0VcJ%2BBow1EtowKVp2p%2F2ykzJkqHWGF%2FhaYBYYJuU7pJmVCye9NU9qow9w5CE2wyKibc%2Fpzwkf8b%2FwRczb6IRYErUM8Z%2FNUbDCL7vyDQqEiQUulr%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7Lv7uXUYA
The one thing I looked for though was that each quad core cpu had HT capabilities so I got 16 cpu cores instead of just 8 cpu cores, the cpu's above do NOT have HT. Memory for those machines is DDR3 and is about $40 for 2 8gb sticks on Amazon and I am slowly working up to 32gb per machine. Most of my machines have 24gb of memory and some projects use alot of memory per task so I can't fully use all the cpu cores.
And then I drop in an Nvidia 760 or even a cheap used 1060 in it and run Linux, I don't have access to cheap Windows licenses and with 18 pc's if they don't have a license sticker on them since they are just crunchers Linux works just fine. I find used gpu's on Facebook Marketplace but mostly only buy locally due to being burned a couple of times by scammers, I don't know how that will affect you being where you live.
That looks like an excellent
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That looks like an excellent idea... I found it for cheap on my country. But the model that is available for cheap its Dell Precision T3500, is it also good?
Castaris wrote: That looks
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Yes it has a Xeon W3550 which is a quad core cpu that thinks it's an 8 core cpu thru Hyper Threading, what you want is two of those cpu's in the machine and the specs I saw said it has that and they run at 3.06ghz which isn't the fastest today but is alot faster than the 2.2ghz pc's I'm running and mine runs Einstein tasks just fine. Most of those types of pc's come with a huge power supply that takes up the whole bottom of the pc and isn't usually bigger than a 350 or 400 watt one so think older model gpu's, one of mine runs an Nvidia 750Ti gpu just fine but when I tried to put a 1050Ti into it wasn't really happy and had problems. I could use a 2nd power supply sitting on the shelf next to the pc and that would work just fine but I haven't done that so far, a teammate did that so he didn't have to buy the bigger 750 and 850 watt psu's so he essentially had 2 psu's for about half of his machines so he could run things like Nvidia 180Ti's etc.
Although I can't say how the
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Although I can't say how the previous owner used the Precision T3500 (is it used?) I can speak about the Dell Precisions after running them hard for years. We have two Precision T7810 that are running at 100% 24/7 and our Precision T7920 is our main workhorse that also is running at 100%. All three are dual Xeon since there is no AMD version (well, they are releasing the Threadripper Pro version "soon"). In the 7 years we have had the T7810's, we have had zero hardware issues (software is a different story). The one year we have been running the T7920, we have had zero hardware issues. I know that these computers can break and have for other owners, but we have never had a single issue.
Boca Raton Community HS
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I don't have that new but have 6 of those workhorses, mine are a combination of Dell and HP, but they too have had zero hardware problems.
I favor GPUs. Consider
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I favor GPUs. Consider Nvidia Reportedly Resuming RTX 3080 12GB Production, Thanks To GA102 Over Supply. That video card's FP32 performance is 30.64 TFLOPS as shown at TechPowerUp. That is a lot of performance for $699 (probably lower in the coming days and weeks.)
Vester wrote: I favor GPUs.
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That would be VERY nice to see that back again assuming any of us little guys will ever see them
I had no issue buying two of
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I had no issue buying two of the 12GB 3080's from EVGA a month ago. Finally at MSRP too.
Could have bought five of them if I wanted. Lots of stock available.
Keith Myers wrote: I had no
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You are correct THERE ARE lots of places that say they have plenty:
https://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/nvidia/rtx3080/
Nvidia's financial reporting
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Nvidia's financial reporting gives a clue. Their revenue crashed in the most recent quarter, and the worst-hit of their major businesses was gaming.
I suspect there is a considerable lead time and pipeline of the production and delivery to them of the major cost component--the GPU chip itself. So probably Nvidia itself is in fact getting lower average prices from their distribution network, and margins all down the line are contracting. Just the opposite of the flush times not so many moons ago. Nice for end users (us). Dreadful for everyone else in the food chain.
The official quarterly results for the second quarter (ending July 31, 2022) are not out yet, but they knew they would be very bad and chose to soften the blow (or better inform investors...) by giving an early peak.
Overall revenue down 19% from the immediate previous quarter. Gaming revenue down 44%.
Anybody want a nice GPU? Cheap?
The funny thing is, older generation wafer capacity remains short, so the auto manufacturers are nowhere near the end of the tunnel on their part shortages, but the recent generation high-end capacity that gets used for cell phones, PC CPUs, and the GPUs we like here is suddenly in capacity surplus to current demand.
I joined the semiconductor business in 1974. At the time Intel was streaking to the skies. In less than six months they hit the wall--more capacity than demand, and before the year was out they had two 10% layoffs. It keeps on being a boom/bust business. Ever since.