I'm building a new computer that will only run boinc, and will be running 24/7. I want the majorty of money on the parts that are accuctly going to help produce faster results. What computer parts will help me the most?

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That depends on which project(s) you want to crunch for. BOINC itself doesn't crunch, it's the science applications from the different projects that do all that work.

Now, some want lots of level 2 cache on the CPU, whereas others don't mind if it's a P2 or a massive beast.

As for "faster results".. some projects are going to release (Seti) or have released (Einstein) a science application that generally takes much longer in crunch time than the present one does. This to relieve the back end (servers, connection) of having to deal with lots of computers every day all asking for more work.

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I don't know your budget; mine was fairly low; but I did this myself just a few months ago. I wound up with an ASUS motherboard (socket 939) and an AMD 3700+ "San Diego", a "gaming" case (lots of fans as I knew I would be overclocking, but not "lots of fans where they look good" - actually where they DO some good), a $50 PCIE video card, 2 256MB sticks of RAM (which I already had; should have spent a bit more and gotten faster RAM, again b/c of the oc'ing, I can only get to 2530), small but fast SATA hard drive, used junk parts for CD and floppy.

You will need at least 512MB of RAM, and you don't want to get the "budget" stuff; if you're going to overclock, then you'll need the "really good" stuff. Other than that, the only thing that really matters is the CPU, and that the motherboard is "new" enough and "good" enough to _truly_ get the most out of the CPU. Video only matters when you are watching the graphics. You _don't_ want to scrimp on the power supply; the one that came with my case fried after two months, taking out the video card.

The only thing I would change about my system, other than better RAM, is that if I had the $$, I would have put an AMD X2 4400+ in it instead of the single-core 3700. If you want to see mine on SETI, it's here - it does a SETI result in about 35 minutes. Not bad for around $700!

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Wow, didn't realize a 3700 would run that fast. I'm running an AMD 3000+ 64bit 939 and it takes me a little over a hour to complete a unit. So I guess it is the processor after all.

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Wow, didn't realize a 3700 would run that fast. I'm running an AMD 3000+ 64bit 939 and it takes me a little over a hour to complete a unit. So I guess it is the processor after all.

And Crunch3R's SETI app! If you already have a 3000... if your motherboard supports it, I would bet you could buy a dual-core CPU, either a 3800 or a 4400, and get a _far_ bigger improvement for your $ than you'd get by adding a whole new system for the same price as the dual-core CPU alone.

Obviously if you can _add_ an X2 system, and keep the 3000, that's even better; but if the budget says you're going to wind up with a single-core second box, I wouldn't do it; you're putting too much of the money into other things besides the CPU.

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Hereis the motherboard I'm using as of now. It does appear to support x2.

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That depends on which project(s) you want to crunch for. BOINC itself doesn't crunch, it's the science applications from the different projects that do all that work.

Now, some want lots of level 2 cache on the CPU, whereas others don't mind if it's a P2 or a massive beast.

As for "faster results".. some projects are going to release (Seti) or have released (Einstein) a science application that generally takes much longer in crunch time than the present one does. This to relieve the back end (servers, connection) of having to deal with lots of computers every day all asking for more work.

Much people do still have OLD pcs with CPU's @ 100 mhz
that may be used to crunch faster WUs and still meet deadlines

I found (by experiment)that SIMAP actually may work on these old pcs 100-800 mhz

However SETI-beta has sent me one WU that on my atlhon XP 2000+ left 72 hours
of CPU time to crunch - (over 4 weeks 24/7) and I did not received
the credits of that WU yet
---> may delay a year until there is quorum for that WU (hehe)

Thus what is missing on the web pages of all projects, is a rougly estimate
of how much cpu time ,(eg at 1000 mhz), average WUs of that project delay to be done
and also a estimated size in MBytes of each WU and of each result

Thus a Dialup user will not be faced with a multi megabyte download / upload
and also can select which projects is worth participating, according
with the CPU power of your pc

Thanks,

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There are discussions of these issues in the Wiki under selecting a BOINC Powered Project. However, since there is a wide variation in actual run times you do have to test each project because one may be more appropriate for your computer and another to a person with a slightly different configuration.

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