 jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | setting up a seti farm? I am interested in learning how to set up a seti farm or a system like CRUNCHIE,
I have a list of questions that I would like to ask and I will post them here. And hopefully the can be answered in a way I understand and my list be completed before the money arrives.
1)I want to be able to produce about 4-5 a day with each "Blade".
What would be the most inexpensive set up for this, including MOB,memory,CPU,and power supply?
2)I don't want to spend a lot of money for an operating system.
What is the best to use.
3)Do I have to put the same operating system on each hard drive?
4)Is it possible to run a "Q" on 1 of the machines, for instance this one, for the others to get wu's from, then have that "Q" connect to the Starfire VI "Q" I am using now?
5)After this thing is built, how would I monitor the output of each machine and see the progress of completed wu's. Also how does one tell if there is a problem with out seeing a drop in production first? Is a monitor needed for the blades, or is there a program/switch that will allow me to see each hard-drive/screen of each blade?
6)Is it easy to just build one then add the consecutive blades like plugging in additional modules?
7)Is there a best way to do it? Compared to the easiest way to do it?
8)As far as networking them together, is it best to keep them off the primary network I use to share DSL with my daughters, computer, like a hub for the blades that connects to another nic card on my main computer, independent of the nic card connected to my dsl router.
9)would usb networking be easier than the hub/nic way, using a direct connection via serial port or something?
Thanks for helping me with these questions before I decide to sink some money in to this.
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SAVE SETI! |
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 Andy8B B R Bash Bush RegularlyPremium
join:2002-01-26
::1
| This WOULD be nice, to see a mini "how-to" clinic for those of us interested in doing just the same. 
EDIT>> In regards to # 3.. what would be the best/fastest "free" OS to use, assuming I can get my hands on anything besides XP?? 
[text was edited by author 2002-10-17 16:58:42] |
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 HRMGod Bless AmericaPremium,MVM
join:2002-02-03
Darien, CT
kudos:1 | reply to jmplep
A nice 8 port router or switch rather, would do the job or an old 200mmx can be the router..You would use seti queue to monitor the Wus, or Seti SPy can work over a net. I will let others fill you in on the blades. You can run them headless(No video card) or buy an all in one board with video and NIC. A KVM switch is nice too!
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Unlock'em,lap'em,Hang'em on the wall |
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jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | reply to Andy8
said by Andy8:
This WOULD be nice, to see a mini "how-to" clinic for those of us interested in doing just the same.
Feel free to add your own questions and let's see if we can't get this going, then I could rewrite it as a single post that could maybe be a sticky that included all of our questions and all of the answers. I of course would include in the foot notes everyone whom helped. ( With this team that may take up 5or6 pages initself).
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SAVE SETI! |
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| reply to jmplep
2) Use linux. It's free. |
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HRMGod Bless AmericaPremium,MVM
join:2002-02-03
Darien, CT
kudos:1 | reply to jmplep
This is crunchie's hardware info!
»www.teamstarfire.org/crunchenste···are.html |
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 paulGranpa PaulPremium,MVM,ExMod 2006
join:2001-07-14 | reply to jmplep
said by jmplep:
1)I want to be able to produce about 4-5 a day with each "Blade".
What would be the most inexpensive set up for this, including MOB,memory,CPU,and power supply?
Uniquecp and I both tested a few boards for the Crunchenstein, so the work has been done for you! I currently run a farm at the house with 8 blades, plus 4 towers.
For mobos, the winner seems to be the ECS L7SOM. $70 shipped, it has onboard everything, in a micro-ATX format. None of the integrated components use cycles from the cpu, so as a cruncher only, it's great. There are a handfull of ram settings for aggressive memory timings, and some preset FSB adjustments for mild overclocking.
Your pricepoint of XP cpus, ranging from a $55 XP1600+ to a $150 XP2200+. Most would lean towards something on the cheap side, like a XP1800 or 1900+, since the object is budget crunching.
I've bought 5-6 sticks of budget DDR ram, and can honestly say for budget crunching, get Crucial. Their PC2100 128meg sticks go for $35, and will take aggressive settings up to 150 fsb or so with stock memory voltages. All the rest of the budget sticks fell short of that.
For blade-type crunchers, Sparkle has an excellent budget 250 watt PSU. $24 from Newegg, it has a healthy 3.3 and 5v rails, which is all you need for the blade.
All total you can do this for $220 shipped per blade. You'll get 6.5-7 wu's a day from it.
Paul
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looking for little green men.... |
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jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | reply to jmplep
pbroussard
I was looking at the ECS LSOM and I agree. the
$220.00 isn't a problem well in about a month it won't be, however, building the blades like crunchie seems to be the easiest solution, what else would be needed to tie all of this together, having about 4 blades in the next 5-6 months. Adding them one at a time.
Seti fan suggest Linux and I like the idea and off handedly want to learn the system anyway, would I still be able to use my WINXP machine as a base unit to serve as the Q?
Or would I have to build a server in Linux?
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SAVE SETI! |
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| reply to jmplep
The Q doesn't care what OS you're using - it'll hand out WU's to all types of OS's. So, yes, you can use your XP to run SETIQueue.
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paulGranpa PaulPremium,MVM,ExMod 2006
join:2001-07-14 | reply to jmplep
Hey, I'm a hardware type guy!!!! But I do know that all you need to do is have the linux box point to an IP and a port to get wu's. It can get them from an XP queue.
All my machines run Setidriver with a week's worth of wu's on them, no central queue. I've got a 4 port router feeding 3 hubs in different locations in the house, so all the boxes/blades are connected to a Team Cache, was on FM's, but now on Deadwax's queue.
It would be nice to have a central queue for myself, but that would be one more thing to monitor, and it's a job keeping 11 crunchers going!!! I use Overhill's most excellent Seti Cache Spy to monitor the caches, and VNC to monitor the blades themselves.
Paul
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looking for little green men.... |
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jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | What is VNC? |
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paulGranpa PaulPremium,MVM,ExMod 2006
join:2001-07-14 | quote:
What is VNC? - A practical introduction
VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing 'desktop' environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures.
»www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html
I can open up a window from my main box, and have the desktop from any and all of my blades. I can do just about everything from one machine, once the box is set up. I've set up a complete Seti account, burned CD's, switched from one DC project to another, installed apps, on any of the boxes on my network, all from this one PC. Pretty similar to PC Anywhere.
No need for a monitor once the box has the OS and VNC installed, and any tweaking done. Obviously, you can't get into the bios to tweak, since the OS and VNC need to be running.
A must have for a mini-farm!!! Quite a few people here run it!
Paul
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looking for little green men.... |
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jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | reply to jmplep
I have PCAnywhere 10.5 would that work or is VNC better? |
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paulGranpa PaulPremium,MVM,ExMod 2006
join:2001-07-14
| reply to jmplep
Dunno, never tried PC Anywhere. All depends on the cpu cycles it takes. VNC really doesn't use any cycles, except when it's in use. Then it's a pretty big hit, but generally only for a minute or two while you check the box.
The biggest thing I like about it is I can check to see if all of the boxes are running or crashed. I have 4 in the storeroom, two in the living room, and 5 in the office. I can check them all in a minute or two.
Paul
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looking for little green men....
[text was edited by author 2002-10-17 18:31:12] |
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 CatSnakRIP Splashy - We miss youPremium
join:2001-05-06
Lakeside, CA | reply to jmplep
said by jmplep:
I have PCAnywhere 10.5 would that work or is VNC better?
It would probably work fine if you are going to run a Windows OS on each of the blades. I don't know if it will run under Linux though.
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 uniquecpWhere'D It GoPremium
join:2001-08-07
Scottsdale, AZ | reply to jmplep
VNC works pretty good and someone just posted a new release for it. The guys here at work that review these things do not like PCAnywhere the responses were rather venemous so I did not push the why's to much but it seemed to involve a security issue.
Farm wise
L7SOM $70
xp1800 $77
HSF 7000 rpm for OCing as cheap as $12
used 1.5 HD $10
used DDR 128 $20 (get CAS 2.5 or better
I use KVM switches you can get a manual one for about $30 with cables
OS's linux free, you will need to know a good bit about drivers to use this board though
NT4 from $15 to $25 used on Ebay. Make sure you get the ones with the Service Packs.
Sisoft Sandra free
VNC free
Seti free
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I crunch therefore I am |
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| reply to jmplep
How about running seti diskless via linux?
Check out the following link:
»bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/staf···seti.htm
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"Who is the boss of you? Me! I am the boss of you!"Mir Yannick, The Grand Inquisitor of Zork |
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jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | reply to jmplep
Okay What I am looking for are these things.........
From
HRM 
router (if needed with VNC)
MrFixIT
A Linux os
paul
ECS L7SOM motherboard
XP1800 cpu
128 megs Crucial PC2100 DDRAM
Sparkle 250 watt power supply
VCN
What I don't have is a hard drive. would a faster 7200 hard drive be better? And what is the smallest I could get?
Now adays you can't find one under 20gigs but wouldn't a 2- 10 gig be just fine? IF ONE COULD BE FOUND?
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SAVE SETI! |
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paulGranpa PaulPremium,MVM,ExMod 2006
join:2001-07-14 | reply to jmplep
You could do what we all do, cruise the for sale forum and jump on the 2-6 gigi hdds for $10-$20 shipped....
Sure, you're going to get one go out on you every now and again, but for the money you spend, it's allright... I've bought 10 or so used, can't think of any that have gone out yet.
Paul
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looking for little green men.... |
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jmplepPremium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP | reply to jmplep
I have and extra cd rom drive, but is it needed to stay connected to the MOB? or can it just connected temporarily to load the OS and other programs?
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SAVE SETI! |
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