New Cruncher Online

[Steve Bohlen]

I have a new cruncher online, a Dell PowerEdge 2650 (dual core Xeon @ 3.20Ghz) rack server. I know it's an older machine and only 32-bit, but the price was too good to pass up...it was cheaper than any desktop I've seen with the same power. Better known as 'hulk', he's currently crunching Primaboinca so I can see just how much better the crunching is with him in the farm. This is my first multi-core cruncher so I'm excited to see what he can do.

I was having some issues getting RAID turned off and Bok was awesome in helping out. I sent him a long PM for help and he replied with just a one sentence answer that had the clue I needed to get through the troubleshooting effort. Bok, you rock!

Another cruncher coming online soon (thanks to Bok for the hardware starter). I have a feeling my days of single core crunching will soon be over. :)

[DrPop]

Let me be the first to welcome you to . . . The FARMING CLUB! :D =)):-o hehehe, this stuff can be addicting, so watch out, my friend! ;)

Seriously, though - welcome to the club. If you would, run a CPU-Z on that thing and let me know what version the XEON is. Also, is it 2 CPU? I'm curious, because until last winter, I had 2 of those older Dell PowerEdge Xeon servers at my office. :cool:

[JerWA]

It's this one I believe:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Xeon/Intel-Xeon%203.2%20GHz%20-%20RK80532KE0881M%20%28BX80532KE3200E%20-%20BX80532KE3200EU%29.html

1 core, hyper threaded, 32 bit only. That's the only one I can find with the RK80532K string in it (there's one other but it's just a stepping change I think).

[Bok]

Did your package arrive Steve ?

[Steve Bohlen]

Did your package arrive Steve ?

Yes, it did! Just last night. Thanks again, Bok. Will be tackling those parts soon.

As for the Xeon, it is dual core, hyperthreaded @ 3.2Ghz. Just quick paste from one of the project pages:

Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz [Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 5]
(4 processors)

He's a bit loud, but I've read that the fans can be adjusted. Not too worried about that at this point though. Just want it to crunch for a bit.

It does have a few PCI-X slots so I'll now have the opportunity to play with GPUs for the first time as well. Eventually.

[Dandasarge]

I miss the ole 2650, Great computers make a lot of heat.

[Fire$torm]

Yes, it did! Just last night. Thanks again, Bok. Will be tackling those parts soon.

As for the Xeon, it is dual core, hyperthreaded @ 3.2Ghz. Just quick paste from one of the project pages:

Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz [Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 5]
(4 processors)

He's a bit loud, but I've read that the fans can be adjusted. Not too worried about that at this point though. Just want it to crunch for a bit.

It does have a few PCI-X slots so I'll now have the opportunity to play with GPUs for the first time as well. Eventually.

I think you will run into a problem with GPUs. No company that I'm aware of currently makes GPUs for PCI-X except the CAD/Workstation hardware. But that stuff has a very high price tag. I wonder if there is a PCI-X daughter board that accepts PCIe cards???

Anyhow, have fun with the new hardware. Crunch on mate!

[Crazybob]

Congratulations Steve! Nice addition.

[JerWA]

Even if you could "convert" the slots, the power reqs are way different.

PCI and PCI-X are both dead slots. On the plus side most PCI stuff is compatible (because PCI-X is backwards compatible), so if you DO find a PCI GPU it should work.

[Fire$torm]

Even if you could "convert" the slots, the power reqs are way different.

PCI and PCI-X are both dead slots. On the plus side most PCI stuff is compatible (because PCI-X is backwards compatible), so if you DO find a PCI GPU it should work.

OH, see this old dog can learn new things... LOL. I did not know about that compatibility option in PCI-X. Good to know.

[Steve Bohlen]

On the plus side most PCI stuff is compatible (because PCI-X is backwards compatible), so if you DO find a PCI GPU it should work.

That's my understanding as well; I can use a PCI GPU. I did see some PCI GPUs still on NewEgg. Even a few that are on the list of boinc compatible cards. Still doing research on that.

[Steve Bohlen]

I miss the ole 2650, Great computers make a lot of heat.

Did you use it for crunching at all? Any tips you can pass on?

[Dandasarge]

Did you use it for crunching at all? Any tips you can pass on?

No they were Gov computers.
I can tell you they run great 24/7 even when its really hot out without issue. They are loud. That's about it. Nothing good or bad about them, We had 50 something of them never had a major issue but they were pretty slow.

[DrPop]

OK, that's why I wanted to see a CPU-Z screen shot. If it is a dual core, then it has to be a Paxville or newer. That means you can run a 64bit OS and get quite a bit more points out of it. :D

PCI-X if I remember right was like a double width PCI. They had 66MHz and 100MHz PCI-X slots in the Dell PowerEdges that I owned. Actually pretty fast for their day - worked good for high end SCSI cards, etc.

You could put any regular PCI GPU in those PCI-X slots, and it will work fine. In fact, it might be a little faster if that mobo has separate controller / lanes for the PCI and PCI-X slots. Won't be anything like PCI-e, of course, but plenty fast for crunching.
Here's the real clencher: the price you pay for a PCI card is outrageous considering the relatively small amounts of credit it will put out compared to a newer PCI-e card of the same price.

However...maybe you can find like a used NVIDIA 9500 in PCI version or something like that used? Here's to hoping! ;)

[Steve Bohlen]

No they were Gov computers.
I can tell you they run great 24/7 even when its really hot out without issue. They are loud. That's about it. Nothing good or bad about them, We had 50 something of them never had a major issue but they were pretty slow.

LOL. Well, 'pretty slow' sounds like something on the 'bad' side. However, it sounds like they are reliable, which is nice to hear. If the government bought them, then I'm sure there's something wrong with them ;)

[Steve Bohlen]

OK, that's why I wanted to see a CPU-Z screen shot. If it is a dual core, then it has to be a Paxville or newer. That means you can run a 64bit OS and get quite a bit more points out of it. :D

PCI-X if I remember right was like a double width PCI. They had 66MHz and 100MHz PCI-X slots in the Dell PowerEdges that I owned. Actually pretty fast for their day - worked good for high end SCSI cards, etc.

You could put any regular PCI GPU in those PCI-X slots, and it will work fine. In fact, it might be a little faster if that mobo has separate controller / lanes for the PCI and PCI-X slots. Won't be anything like PCI-e, of course, but plenty fast for crunching.
Here's the real clencher: the price you pay for a PCI card is outrageous considering the relatively small amounts of credit it will put out compared to a newer PCI-e card of the same price.

However...maybe you can find like a used NVIDIA 9500 in PCI version or something like that used? Here's to hoping! ;)

There are a few more actions I still need to take on this machine, one of which is looking at cpuinfo to determine if the MB will support 64-bit (I should have found out before installing the OS, but was too anxious to get it up and running). I'm running linux, so can't send you a CPU-Z screen.

I just ran 'grep flags /proc/cpuinfo' and it looks like this MB is 32-bit only. Maybe I'm looking at something wrong? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the Paxville. I was sure it was 32-bit just based on the manual and some online research before I bought it.

And concerning PCI slots, as I understand it, this machine does have separate controllers. Your idea about buying used is an excellent one. Will have to go that route. Thanks.

[Fire$torm]

Hiya Steve,

I found this on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon),


Due to a lack of success with Intel's Itanium and Itanium 2 processors, AMD was able to introduce x86-64, a 64-bit extension to the x86 architecture. Intel followed suit by including Intel 64 (formerly EM64T; it is almost identical to AMD64) in the 90 nm version of the Pentium 4 ("Prescott"), and a Xeon version codenamed "Nocona" with 1 MB L2 cache was released in 2004. Released with it were the E7525 (workstation), E7520 and E7320 (both server) chipsets, which added support for PCI Express, DDR-II and Serial ATA. The Xeon was noticeably slower than AMD's Opteron, although it could be faster in situations where Hyper-Threading came into play.

A slightly updated core called "Irwindale" was released in early 2005, with 2 MB L2 cache and the ability to have its clock speed reduced during low processor demand. Although it was a bit more competitive than the Nocona had been, independent tests showed that AMD's Opteron still outperformed Irwindale. Both of these Prescott-derived Xeons have the product code 80546.


Also, according to the Dell™ PowerEdge™ 2650 Systems User's Guide (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe2650/en/ug/5g387aa0.htm#1039239) all of them use DDR memory. The x64 systems I have seen/used support DDR2 or DDR3. So between this and the above one can surmise that your system is a 32 bit setup.

[DrPop]

Ok, not trying to beat a dead horse, I understand what Jerwa and you are saying. However, you did say it's dual core. I take that to mean 1 CPU on the mobo with 2 cores in it, correct? If so, then it must be a Paxville or better- essentially 2 Noconas sandwiched together. I know this because I had a Poweredge 1650 and 1600 until Nov of last year.
You should be able to run a 64bit OS on this rig if I'm interpreting this correctly.
Type Xeon wiki into Google, and take the second link with the list...that will start to make some sense, then. ;)
Happy crunchin' :)

[Dandasarge]

not going to read all of it its late and i'm in a zob mood, but the 2650 is a 32bit system, i dont think they made a duel core 32 bit? the numbers on that system are going to suck next to a new system but he should pull ok credits on PrimeB. 6-8k a day or so. for some people thats a lot.

[JerWA]

Ok, not trying to beat a dead horse, I understand what Jerwa and you are saying. However, you did say it's dual core. I take that to mean 1 CPU on the mobo with 2 cores in it, correct? If so, then it must be a Paxville or better- essentially 2 Noconas sandwiched together. I know this because I had a Poweredge 1650 and 1600 until Nov of last year.
You should be able to run a 64bit OS on this rig if I'm interpreting this correctly.
Type Xeon wiki into Google, and take the second link with the list...that will start to make some sense, then. ;)
Happy crunchin' :)
As my link says, it's hyper threaded, not dual core. 1 physical core, 2 logical cores. It's a 32 bit CPU. Dell only offered one model of 3.2 GHz Xeon CPU in the 2650, and that's the part # I looked up. I'm about 90% sure.

FWIW the model # is irrelevant to the age of the server. The PE 860 is newer than the 2650 is older than the 1850, 1950, and now the newest are down to 3 digits gain like the R210, 400, 610 etc.

[Steve Bohlen]

Ok, not trying to beat a dead horse, I understand what Jerwa and you are saying. However, you did say it's dual core. I take that to mean 1 CPU on the mobo with 2 cores in it, correct?

There are 2 physical CPUs that sit side by side on the MB, each with its own fan.


the numbers on that system are going to suck next to a new system but he should pull ok credits on PrimeB. 6-8k a day or so. for some people thats a lot.

Spot on. The average seems to be about 6k+ a day on PM. Heck of a lot better than the P4s and Atom I've been running...for sure.

[DrPop]

As my link says, it's hyper threaded, not dual core. 1 physical core, 2 logical cores. It's a 32 bit CPU. Dell only offered one model of 3.2 GHz Xeon CPU in the 2650, and that's the part # I looked up. I'm about 90% sure.

FWIW the model # is irrelevant to the age of the server. The PE 860 is newer than the 2650 is older than the 1850, 1950, and now the newest are down to 3 digits gain like the R210, 400, 610 etc.

OK, thanks. Makes sense. We were not using the same lingo - I was taking dual core to mean 2 cores on one die. They did not make any that were 32bit only, the Paxville being their first. Now I see what you mean - he is talking 2 physical, but single core CPUs.
So I stand corrected, JerWA had you right from the beginning...I was thinking dual core rigs, not realizing you meant 2 CPU rigs. Sorry for the confusion.

Oh yeah, 6K is 6K. Need I remind anyone that we have lost and won PG Challenges by 10K before?!! :p

Well, I crunched SETI a looooong time on my 2 CPU Nocona Poweredge.
You can imagine how long it took me just to get 300K there! Every point you get in Primaboinca- you might get 1/10 of a point in SETI, LOL!
Well, hope you got it cheap, but most importantly, welcome to the club! :D. I believe the crunchin' bug may has hit! ;) Next thought is, what's the mono model# ? Might be compatible with the Noconas, which are no a pittance on Ebay; higher clock speeds and 64 bit! Paxvilles would be awesome- give you 4 cores in that rig, but probably not compatible with the older mono.