Farms, Names, Pictures, Projects and Paper Trays

[S. Starbuck]

A few days ago I get a letter from the student loans company, with final details of my loan to get me through university this year. Naturally, I have spent much of it on my computers

So I now have nearly all the parts for my nice new boinc farm in the post, which should arrive over the course of this week.

The farm in it's initial state will consist of 5 crunchers, all identical. Stats are as follows:

Motherboard: Asus M2A-MX
CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+
RAM: 1GB Crucial DDR2-667
Storage: 2GB Compact Flash (via IDE converter)

PSUs are not ordered yet - The plan is to measure the power usage of one of the nodes using the PSU for my main computer, so I can see just how much each of them uses.

Now as for storing these things. I first looked at getting cases for each of them, but I came to the conclusion not only would this cost a fair amount of money, it would mean they use up more space than needed. I needed to come up with an idea, which thanks to the empty paper tray on my desk I came to quickly.

I have now in the post 5 paper trays with standoffs. Each of these trays measure 260x345mm. a uATX board measures 244x244mm, so plenty of room.

Now these trays stack on top of each other, so hey presto - an instant computer rack.

So that's the hardware basically sorted, and I'm already planning on using linux on them all, so where does that leave us?

Well, names.

I always give my computers names, but I'm also always rubbish at it.
So I'm opening it up to everyone here at AMDUsers - come up with a name for each of the nodes! I also would like a name for the whole stack in general, if any of you are up to the challenge!

Now I don't mind what sort of names you come up with, but if you can provide a reason and/or background for the name that would be great. There is no lottery or anything, just post your ideas and I'll pick the 5 I like best

That's not the end of it either. While it's nice to have my head in the sky, running seti@home looking for ET, I also understand the arguably greater importance of doing work that will benefit mankind much more directly - thinks like medical research.

As such, I'm opening these 5 nodes up to 5 different projects - one project per node. (I will be actively monitoring them, so if a project goes down I can switch the node to something else quickly.)

Again, I have no preference as to which projects these are. So, I'm opening this up to AMDUsers as well!

If you have a favourite project, make a short argument for it, and I'll pick 5 of them.

Bonus points if you choose a project and name a node after something related to that project!

You basically have until the farm is fully up and running, which I estimate will be in about 2 weeks time.

And as promised, here is a picture for you all (don't worry, lots of pictures will come as the farm is built).



Good luck!

[Frederic Brillouet]

I'd call at least 1 of them crunchy

[vaughan]

I usually name mine after the CPU and/or the motherboard I use. Something imaginative like Opteron165.

Seeing as you will have 5 the same that calls for a different nomenclature. Maybe where they are in the stacked rack?

Perhaps this: Idle, below normal, normal, above normal and high. Leaves room for Real Time when you build the next rig.

[Danish Dynamite]

i am thinking PT1 PT2 PT3 PT4 PT5, PT = Paper Tray or T1 T2 T3 T4 T5, T = Tier OR Tray
with naming your comps as long as naming makes sense to you thats all that really matters

from your the cpu you choose, i am guessing you do not pay for power that you use, and wouldn't it be cheaper to get a phenom 9550 and one mobo, it would do much more work then 5 sempron's

as for your psu's i would get 450w (over time psu's caps loss effect thus psu not working as well as they are rated)

these a program out there called BoincView apparently you will need to run WINE on linux to get it to work but makes it very simple to monitor your different comps

as for projects i really like nano-hive but currently they have no work (for at least a year now and doesnt appear that will change in the near future)

[S. Starbuck]

as for projects i really like nano-hive but currently they have no work (for at least a year now and doesnt appear that will change in the near future)

You must have not seen the news:

Please note:
I'm no longer maintaining NanoHive-1 nor NanoHive@Home. If you would like to take over either or both of the projects please contact me and I can help you (or at minimum hand over the keys.) --Brian.

Questions/Answers
RealSanta, founder of Team SETI.Germany-NH writes:
> As I read at the nh-homepage the project is "dead"?
Yes, sad to say the project is effectively dead. I no longer work at Nanorex, and they have no interest in keeping NHAH alive. I'm open to another team taking over the platform though.

[S. Starbuck]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I won't give any hints away as to my current favourites though!

Seeing as I had my camera to hand I've taken a picture of my desk as it looks currently, where you can see quite clearly the inspiration for the rack.
(This isn't how the desk normally looks - I quickly threw all the junk on the floor behind the camera!)

[Danish Dynamite]

You must have not seen the news:

oh thats sad, wasn't like that last week

[Danish Dynamite]

where you can see quite clearly the inspiration for the rack.

is that the 16 port switch ? lol

[sentient_life]

Ah shucks, I was waiting to join Nano Hive for the longest time, and then they go and shut down for good!

EDIT: I apologize for going off subject, but I'm wondering how much longer APS@Home will be available. The admin seems to be too tied up with outside endeavors to generate more work. Another long dormant project, Proteins@Home, announced that they should have more work in December. And Predictor@Home has been taking a long time getting acclimated to the Univ of Michigan.

[mitchellds]

yup I gave up on Nano Hive long ago.. I never got to make it to a Million. Anyhow, ABC, Milkyway, and Yoyo are good projects. Cosmo used to be good, but has had some lapses. Want to give some of these a whirl ?