Does the project need an equipment/ donation drive?
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Number crunching :
Does the project need an equipment/ donation drive?
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Send message Joined: 9 Sep 08 Posts: 96 Credit: 336,443,946 RAC: 0  
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I'll just throw this out for consideration... I have no idea of the financial resources available to the project or if it's even necessary but if it would help with the current growing pains I would certainly contribute a few bucks towards a dedicated MW server or whatever was required as done at SETI. If accepting money was a problem maybe a list of needed equipment could be posted. |
 KWSN imcrazynow Send message Joined: 22 Nov 08 Posts: 136 Credit: 319,414,799 RAC: 0
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What ever it takes to keep the work flowing. My damn finger is sore from the manual updates.;) You ATI'ers are killing me.   4870 GPU 4870 GPU
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Dave Przybylo Send message Joined: 5 Feb 08 Posts: 236 Credit: 49,648 RAC: 0  
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I think we may need to separate the database from the actual server software. They're both on the same hard disk. The server hardware is excellent. We have 8gb of ram. I think a new hard drive would greatly increase the speed however I'm not sure what type it is. I'm almost positive it's SCSI but don't know the details. Dave Przybylo MilkyWay@home Developer Department of Computer Science Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
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KWSN imcrazynow Send message Joined: 22 Nov 08 Posts: 136 Credit: 319,414,799 RAC: 0
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How big of a drive would be required? 4870 GPU 4870 GPU
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Send message Joined: 9 Sep 08 Posts: 96 Credit: 336,443,946 RAC: 0
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I think we may need to separate the database from the actual server software. They're both on the same hard disk. The server hardware is excellent. We have 8gb of ram. I think a new hard drive would greatly increase the speed however I'm not sure what type it is. I'm almost positive it's SCSI but don't know the details. Dave: Just let us know what specifically you need and where to ship it and I'm sure you'll be receiving a package by UPS very quickly :) I hope Travis is OK and not just off snowboarding somewhere... |
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Send message Joined: 30 Aug 08 Posts: 24 Credit: 250,053,699 RAC: 0 
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Just set up a paypal account that everyone that wants to can donate to..... That is how a lot of the forum run it...... |
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KWSN imcrazynow Send message Joined: 22 Nov 08 Posts: 136 Credit: 319,414,799 RAC: 0
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bump 4870 GPU 4870 GPU
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Send message Joined: 1 Dec 08 Posts: 139 Credit: 8,721,208 RAC: 0 
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We've had a bit of a discussion along these lines on another thread. We were under the impression that MW didn't have the server to itself. A decent (at least) 2U server can be had for cheap. For instance, I bought a server with 2X2.5 gHz P4 Xeons, 1GB memory, all the hot swap fans (there are two on-board spares), and two 36GB or so HDDs for $75 off ebay. I got two 1GB RAM sticks for about $40 including shipping, and was able to use the two 256MB sticks I took out in a different server. Anyway, I didn't have to pay shipping, because the seller is close to my house (which gives me an advantage in bidding - sales tax is a LOT less than shipping for something like this). Still, there is a seller in Nebraska which has similar deals, shipping included, though usually without drives or drive caddies (or sometimes RAM). In my experience, by the time one gets surplus computers, the drives have a lot of hours on them, and the drives aren't as dependable as they should be for something mission-critical like this. I've found that one can expect to pay somewhere on the order of $60-$100 each for new, 73GB, server grade, hot-swap drives. The caddies cost something like $10 (or less - sometimes a lot less) on ebay. It seems to me that the minimum configuration would be two drives configured as RAID 1. If you're outfitting a "new" server, the ideal minimal configuration would be two RAID 1 arrays (one for OS and the like, and the other for data). One can get 36GB drives for somewhat less than 73GB (though nowhere near 1/2 the price), and if all the drives are the same size, one could use one "cold" spare for both arrays. Another thing to look at is hot swap fans and PSUs. One thing I like about my HP-Compaq server is that all the fans are identical, and two on-board fans are redundant. So if the fan right by the CPU Heat Sink dies, you can just grab one of the redundant ones and switch it in, without powering down the server. Fans can usually be had on ebay for about $10. A "real" server will usually have at least two hot swap PSUs (sometimes 3). Again, with the usual careful shopping, these go for about $20. My guess is that having the database on a different set of spindles than the rest of the server application(s) may well increase the throughput of the application, probably by a considerable amount. This counts even if you don't need another server. I would still strongly urge getting at least two matching drives and using a redundant RAID array (I know that sounds like I'm repeating myself, and RAID 0 is strictly for speed - it has no redundancy). 
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verstapp Send message Joined: 26 Jan 09 Posts: 589 Credit: 497,834,261 RAC: 0
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KWSN>My damn finger is sore Get a script... :) Cheers, PeterV  .
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KWSN imcrazynow Send message Joined: 22 Nov 08 Posts: 136 Credit: 319,414,799 RAC: 0
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KWSN>My damn finger is sore Did. :) 4870 GPU 4870 GPU
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