Message boards :
Questions and problems :
what new machine specs?
Message board moderation
Author | Message |
---|---|
Send message Joined: 11 Mar 22 Posts: 3 |
Hi, I'm thinking of buying a new machine that would be mostly or entirely dedicated to BOINC. I'm just your average retired guy, and I can't afford the phenomenal many-many-many-cored machines that a surprising number of people running BOINC projects have. I was thinking about something along the lines of this Dell XPS desktop: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/desktop-computers/xps-desktop/spd/xps-8950-desktop/xd8950adl40h?configurationid=c53b3029-a7b8-4a36-8c8e-681cf115b440. I would consider increasing the RAM to 64 GB and also increasing the "level" of the graphics card (i.e., to the 3080 or 3090) - the point of the latter would solely be to run BOINC GPU projects/tasks (*not* games). I do want to get the most BOINC bang for the buck, and I don't want to pay for features or upgrades or whatever that BOINC can't use. Is there a document or post or other article of some kind that discusses hardware for BOINC? Or, probably better, can anyone here give me some guidance on this? I run Windows. The projects I'm currently enrolled in are: Cosmology@Home Einstein@Home LHC@Home MilkyWay@Home Rosetta@Home SiDock@Home Universe@Home WorldCommunityGrid (OpenPandemics - COVID-19 only, for now) I've in past been enrolled in Seti@Home (now on indefinte pause) and ClimatePrediction (which no longer seems to have Windows work). In essence, I'd want a machine that is at least reasonably optimized for running BOINC projects - as many as possible (CPU and GPU) within my budget, as fast as possible (CPU and GPU). I'd appreciate any help or advice or pointers anyone here could give. Thanks. Doug |
![]() Send message Joined: 28 Jun 10 Posts: 2534 ![]() |
I've in past been enrolled in Seti@Home (now on indefinte pause) and ClimatePrediction (which no longer seems to have Windows work).Currently they are few and far between though not quite extinct. The latest type of task to be launched soon on the main site will eventually be available in a virtual box version for those not wishing to mess with WSL or installing a Linux distribution from within VB. But the VB tasks are I would estimate at least six months away. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 17 Nov 16 Posts: 868 ![]() |
Half your projects are in wind down and don't have any work. I'd say the Dell XPS machine you linked is entirely sufficient for 90% of the projects you listed. Only a couple might need a bit more memory for large footprint calculations or virtual machines. Maybe splurge to 64 GB of memory. The spec'd 3070 in the machine is entirely sufficient for the gpu applications. Only marginal imrovements moving to a 3080 and the 3090 is entirely not worth the huge increase in cost for very little improvement in the crunching speed. ![]() ![]() |
Copyright © 2024 University of California.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.