Hi there

[bobmarker]

I'm new here. Looking to build a dual Xeon X5690 as a 3D render machine. Hope to get some pointers from people out here. I will post it on the right forum soon.

Thanks!

[DrPop]

Hi, welcome to the SETI.USA forums! Really hope you enjoy your stay, and please consider becoming a member of the team at some point. ;) We'd love to have you.

If you'd like, please post your question in the hardware forum, and I'm sure you will get some good responses - there are a lot of great computer guys on here!
Take care,
Pop

[Fire$torm]

Hello and welcome.

[artemis8]

Hi Bob and welcome to the boards.

[Crazybob]

Welcome to the boards and good name!

[spingadus]

Hello and welcome to the boards!

[bobmarker]

Wow! What a warm welcome! That's a nice change!

Thanks guys!

I don't think I've used the exclamation mark in the last year as much as I have in this post! :)

[Crazybob]

The boards here are fairly active except sometimes in the summer when vactions are in full bloom. If you have any questions or need any help with your current system, we'll do what we can to help you out. Good luck with the new build!:)

[bobmarker]

Ok, I've been sniffing around these boards for a while. Please don't laugh, but what exactly is the BOINC thing? I saw the FAQ but it assumes I already know what it does. Is there a link somewhere here on that?

Sorry for the ignorance.

Also, what forum is the best for hardware related questions?

[Crazybob]

I was going to post a link, but thought I'd give it a shot. In the old days you had the SETI@Home project. It was standalone software. Then they came up with BOINC. Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Networked Computers. It is a manager to manage all of the different projects using it's software. You can DL it from most of the projects web-sites or from SETI, here. http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

Once you install it, you can pick a project or many if you want, to run on your system. We do have different threads for most of the projects out there, but you will need to request team access here. http://www.setiusa.us/forumdisplay.php?93-New-Team-Members-Get-Member-s-Only-Access-Here

Once you have the project going, remember to go to the projects web-site and join the team. If you get hung up on anything, let us know and we'll walk you through it.

[Beerdrinker]

WELCOME to the team!

[Slicker]

http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/download/MonsterServer.pdf

For under $8K, you get dual Xeon X5690 CPUs, 48GB RAM, four 7970 GPUs, 3TB of storage, and a 1500W PSU to power it all. I'm fairly certain it would crank out between 1.5 and 2 million credits PER DAY when it isn't busy rendering videos!

Note: The motherboard only supports two SATA 3 drives, so don't bother spending the extra $50 per drive to make them all SATA 3. So... stripe the two SATA 3 drives for max data speed when reading/writing videos and use the SATA 2 drive for the operating system and programs.

[Slicker]

Ok, I've been sniffing around these boards for a while. Please don't laugh, but what exactly is the BOINC thing? I saw the FAQ but it assumes I already know what it does. Is there a link somewhere here on that?Sorry for the ignorance.

Adding to what's already been said...

The purpose of BOINC is to provide a framework so scientific projects can use volunteer's computers to aid them with their research. This massive parallel processing computer network allows the project to complete their work much faster than if using their own limited computing resources. Because it is open source software, anyone with a project that can benefit from parallel processing can use BOINC. This includes universities, businesses, and even individuals. The volunteers earn credits based upon the amount of processing they have done. Credits, or cobblestones, have absolutely no value in the real world, but you do earn bragging rights within the BOINC community. For those who need something tangible, you can print a certificate from each project site where you participate which states the how many cobblestones you have accrued for that project. For example: "This certifies that Slicker [TopGun] has participated in Collatz Conjecture since 11 June 2009, and has contributed 80,943,290 Cobblestones of computation (69.94 quintillion floating-point operations) to Collatz Conjecture."

In addition to earning credits for yourself, you can also join a team. Each credit you earn then goes to both yourself and the team. Teams tend to be competitive by nature, but not all teams are created equally. Our team, SETI.USA, is the best team making it the obvious choice when choosing a team. Teams can represent countries, schools, businesses, hobbies, or organizations.


Also, what forum is the best for hardware related questions?

This one: http://www.setiusa.us/forumdisplay.php?15-Hardware-Buy-Sell-Trade-Disucssion

[GalaxyIce]

Hi bobmarker. Like Slicker says, go for the go-faster stripes :D

Welcome to the team.

[coronicus]

I'm new here. Looking to build a dual Xeon X5690 as a 3D render machine. Hope to get some pointers from people out here. I will post it on the right forum soon.

Thanks!

Hiya Bob, welcome to the boards and it sounds like thats going to be one beast of a machine...

[DrPop]

Adding to what's already been said...
...not all teams are created equally. Our team, SETI.USA, is the best team making it the obvious choice when choosing a team...

LOL! I love it! :)) We need to post that line of reasoning in bold face type on every project's "about us" section and on our home page!!! :D haha :P

Seriously, Bob - welcome to the club. This is an awesome place, and actually quite a bit of knowledge in many different fields represented here. I will have to go take a look at your other thread in the hardware forum and see if I can offer any help at all... ;)

[GalaxyIce]

Our team, SETI.USA, is the best team making it the obvious choice when choosing a team.


LOL! I love it! :)) We need to post that line of reasoning in bold face type on every project's "about us" section and on our home page!!! :D haha :P

Seriously, Bob - welcome to the club. This is an awesome place, and actually quite a bit of knowledge in many different fields represented here. I will have to go take a look at your other thread in the hardware forum and see if I can offer any help at all... ;)

Hmmm, I have to say there is something in what's being said here Bob :-? Let's face it, where else could it be so much fun and interesting? :D