This is my idea of a budget (best value/cost ratio) server. All prices are USD, quoted from US retailer Newegg.com on Oct 10, 2011(I do not work for them) I think we as a community could come up with this. I will put up $500 seed money.

All feedback, especially from those with experience with server configurations, is welcome.

Not Included: Case/mounting hardware, power supply, raid hardware, which are all better left to whoever sets it up.

Qty. Product Description Total Price
------------------------
1 ASUS KGPE-D16 SSI EEB 3.61 Server Motherboard Dual Socket G34 AMD SR5690 DDR3 800/1066/1333
Item #: N82E16813131643 $429.9

2 AMD Opteron 6128 Magny-Cours 2.0GHz Socket G34 115W 8-Core Server Processor OS6128WKT8EGOWOF
Item #: N82E16819105266 $499.98

16 Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Registered w/ Parity Server Memory Model KVR1333D3Q8R9S/8G
Item #: N82E16820139280 $1,215.84
Though i would discourage it, if we can get by with 64GB, we could save ~$600

2 Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820226225 $499.98
System/boot drive. 2x120GB is for possible raid or swap/pagefile. If neither is wanted we could get 1x240 for the same price or just save ~$250

2 Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136783 $189.98
I don't know if this application needs much local storage, but its cheap.

2 Thermaltake CLS0015 70mm 1 Ball, 1 Sleeve CPU Cooler for AMD Socket G34 1U
Item #: N82E16835106158 $71.98
------------------------
$2,907.75

This has been brought up a lot over the years. This is part of why the Donations page was put up. Whatever money was raised before didn't seem to do much of any improvement. Many have offered in the past to buy/ donate parts, it hasn't happened. But, Maybe one day they will actually get a better setup.

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Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?
If it makes sense, DON'T do it.

This has been brought up a lot over the years. This is part of why the Donations page was put up. Whatever money was raised before didn't seem to do much of any improvement. Many have offered in the past to buy/ donate parts, it hasn't happened. But, Maybe one day they will actually get a better setup.

I hear you. That's why I'm not interested in donating cash that will go to more pizza and staplers, but rather actual hardware. The purse strings are probably held by some administrator far removed from the technical concerns of us crunching clients/donors.

I'm talking about nailing down a single person who understands the technical problem and has the power to do something about it, then personally shipping them a box of parts. Any idea who this person might be? Travis? Blurf? Who's actually in the same location as the server? Talk to me!

I hear you. That's why I'm not interested in donating cash that will go to more pizza and staplers, but rather actual hardware. The purse strings are probably held by some administrator far removed from the technical concerns of us crunching clients/donors.

I think that the administration of all the hardware is controlled by RPI labstaff and no one as of yet has pushed thru any significant upgrades.
I can't believe it's a money issue either.
They just got a nice 3 yr influx.
All in all this issue has been beat to death over the time I have been crunching here and this project remains my favorite but I have fallen off lately because of all the never ending simple issues that have never been handled.
I think they should make big sticky threads for all the new people to read so you don't have to go thru thousands of postings to find that we have been down this road before!
I commend you for your interest and efforts,I've been there before too!

And it probably wouldn't have happened anyway if Travis hadn't opened up the finished wu cache to 12hrs worth, LOL!

This has been brought up a lot over the years. This is part of why the Donations page was put up. Whatever money was raised before didn't seem to do much of any improvement. Many have offered in the past to buy/ donate parts, it hasn't happened. But, Maybe one day they will actually get a better setup.

I hear you. That's why I'm not interested in donating cash that will go to more pizza and staplers, but rather actual hardware. The purse strings are probably held by some administrator far removed from the technical concerns of us crunching clients/donors.

I'm talking about nailing down a single person who understands the technical problem and has the power to do something about it, then personally shipping them a box of parts. Any idea who this person might be? Travis? Blurf? Who's actually in the same location as the server? Talk to me!

Hi Tony, etal,

Allow me some self introduction...I'm new to these boards here though I've been a long-time SETI cruncher (circa 1990's though I've given up on getting trying to get my old Performa credits merged with my account...some things have proven to be impossible!) and a lifetime amateur astronomer. I've recently returned from a several year hiatus from crunching I discovered the MWAH and felt right at home. Greetings, all.

Anyhoo, onto your topic of donating actual equipment...I'm in.

I am not a big fan of of promoting or perpetuating bureaucracy and, like you, I would like to see if it were possible to open up a direct avenue between the actual, hands-on IT folks for this project and those of us willing to take direct action on our end to get them the equipment and parts they need...the Dean's ruffled feathers be damned. (FWIW, I've worked in corporate, union and volunteer non-profit over the past 30+ years so I know a little bit about what feather-ruffling is all about! Ha!)

As for the particulars of moving forward, methinks it will be necessary to have an open dialogue with the folks running the project and discuss what the real server/equipment needs/desires might actually be...there are servers, and then, there are servers. And, lest we forget there is more to this financial equation than just purchasing new toys to make everything "all good" again.

Borrowing from Anandtech's analysis of TCO (Total Cost of Operation) the folks at the project are going to clearly look at the following numbers...

TCA (Total Cost of equipment Acquisition @ ~ 40-50%) + System Maintenance (@ ~ 10%) + Operational Costs (people-hours, electricity, bandwidth, etc. costs @ ~40%) = 100% TCO

...with this particular project having its own particular balance of numbers. And, we're going to have to get a reasonable handle on what their desired/projected TCA is going to be here based on the project's real needs.

In fact, I can clearly see the need to create a variety of cost analysis projections depending on what their priorities and/or desires might be...

Provide for immediate redundancy/backup capabilities = x$
Provide for new platform using old system for redundancy/backup = x$
Provide for growth/expansion = x$

...and on and on. All-the-more reason for direct, open dialogue here in the community...what would both the project and its participants like to accomplish here. Nothing like the reality check of some real numbers to get folks looking at this seriously, I say.

Now, I'm not sure how successful the folks over at SETI were with this...

Donate Hardware to SETI@home:
http://home.ssl.berkeley.edu/donate_hardware.php

...but I am of the belief that if the community had a tangible goal to strive for we could then move onto how to how make it happen.

My 2¢. :)
Jimmy G

...but I am of the belief that if the community had a tangible goal to strive for we could then move onto how to how make it happen.

Welcome aboard Jimmy! I like the way you think, and you sound like a man of action. I have visions of an adopt-a-dimm /drive program (we adopt-a-highway in the U.S.) to make it more concrete. People might even just send the parts.

At any rate. I've begun an email conversation with a couple of folks from the RPI cs department so there's hope. What I've gleaned so far: Our biggest hurdle may be availability of man-hours to complete a server replacement (i.e. software migration.) The hardware is definitely ready for upgrade. Here's the current setup: (yes, that's 8GB ;-)

hw.machine: amd64
hw.model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5355 @ 2.66GHz
hw.ncpu: 4
hw.physmem: 8578330624
Don't know about the disks.

Stay tuned...

Tony, thank you for standing up and starting this. It's been on my mind all weekend.

I used to handle donations for Seti and am skilled at sending people to the right place, but while I am in NY I am not near RPI and Travis is in North Dakota now. I have emailed the staff to start gathering info.

---

While on the subject of hardware (but not for the server) if anyone has a GTX 285 or similar, or a Radeon 4870 or similar, I kind of need one of each. My 285 is most likely dead, and my 4870 periodically dies and then comes back (and also seems to produce invalid results most of the time).

Updating the MW hardware is something we have been discussing internally for a while now. We'll be having a meeting Wednesday, I'll keep you posted.

All of your donation money goes directly to supporting Milkway@home - we don't use the money on staplers and other such sundries. To date, MW donation money has only been used to fund students and purchase hardware - students being the priority thus far (someone has to keep things running).

I'll provide more information in a news post after the meeting tomorrow.

(by the way, you guys are awesome!)

Cheers,
Matthew N

Welcome aboard Jimmy! I like the way you think, and you sound like a man of action. I have visions of an adopt-a-dimm /drive program (we adopt-a-highway in the U.S.) to make it more concrete. People might even just send the parts.

At any rate. I've begun an email conversation with a couple of folks from the RPI cs department so there's hope. What I've gleaned so far: Our biggest hurdle may be availability of man-hours to complete a server replacement (i.e. software migration.) The hardware is definitely ready for upgrade. Here's the current setup: (yes, that's 8GB ;-)

hw.machine: amd64
hw.model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5355 @ 2.66GHz
hw.ncpu: 4
hw.physmem: 8578330624
Don't know about the disks.

Stay tuned...

Thanks for the welcome, Tony. :)

That Clovertown X5335 is coming up on its 5th birthday soon, not sure what the campus's EOL schedule is for this type of gear (maybe this was a hand-me-down to get the project on its feet?)...heck, I try to get a good 7 years out of my rigs...but then, I'm not normal. It's not clear what exactly has been flaking out on them here...e.g. mobo, disks, etc.? Keep us abreast, this is a learning experience for some of us!

As for Adopt-A-Highway, I am familiar...I'm actually in NY (don't let my "International" designation fool you) about 2+hours drive from RPI. Adopt-A-DIMM (/RAID/Router/cables etc.) sounds good!

Kudos, and keep up the good work!

:)

Please see the latest news post for an update:

http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=2626#51396

-Matthew N