Your computers?

[DJGM]

There's no way I could run realistically have a genuine Mac OS X machine, even 2nd user ... too expensive!

If I remember correctly, Tidus' wife Kassie (or Kasumi) has a few top-end Macs as well as superfast connection, according to Tidus. I honestly don't think borrowing one could be an issue.

Well, since she lives about 90 miles away in the city of Birmingham these days, I think that could be an issue.

I probably could hire something like a mid-range iMac from a computer rentals firm for a week, but I don't
know how much that would cost without specifically contacting such a firm for a price quote. It probably
wouldn't be worth it though ultimately ... I'm guessing it'd cost at least UK£25 per week.

The only cost effective way I think for me to be able to run Snow Leopard or Lion, would be with a standard
built PC running a Intel dual core or quad core CPU, and equivalent tech specs of a Mac Pro system. I do
believe there are ways and means of getting such a system to run a genuine retail edition of Mac OS X,
but there's no guarantee that it'd work exactly the same way as a real Mac system, if at all.

If I could get hold of a few grand UK£££, I probably would consider buying a Mac Pro workstation/tower from
an Apple Store, but given what BOXX workstations have to offer, I'd sooner spend the cash on one of those.

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[Antony]

Well, since she lives about 90 miles away in the city of Birmingham these days, I think that could be an issue.

145 km isn't that far. I've driven longer than that just to pick up computers.

I probably could hire something like a mid-range iMac from a computer rentals firm for a week, but I don't know how much that would cost without specifically contacting such a firm for a price quote. It probably wouldn't be worth it though ultimately ... I'm guessing it'd cost at least UK£25 per week.

Not talking about rentals. Based on what we know, you looked after Tidus, provided Tidus accommodations, helped his claimed multi-nation KJC company, and then the new one. All I suggested was simply borrowing one of the top-end Macs. By borrowing I mean long term borrow. A friend of mine still has my iMac G4 and Xbox for quite a few years. She borrowed them a few years back, and I have no problem with that.

Thinking about it, since you helped Tidus so much, it makes sense to most of us that requesting Tidus to arrange the borrowing and delivery shouldn't be an issue at all.

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[Antony]

Well, this couldn't be any cheaper than 99 cents (on eBay). I got an iMac G3 (500 MHz) for 99 cents (AUD). I guess I beat beanboy89's record of eMac in terms of cheap.



So, Laurent and I took a 90km drive to Central Coast to collect it.

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[Antony]

This is another Antony is poor computer-acquisition post, I got this beautiful antique computer last month, but haven't got time to post it.

Presenting half-Don's-age antique Cube (a.k.a. Power Mac G4 Cube) and 17-inch Apple Studio Display (LCD/ADC):


Recommended video clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-PB86oy044

Apple released Power Mac G4 Cube in July 2000 and discontinued it in July 2001 (which makes it half-Don's-age). Ever since I first saw this beautiful device, I wanted one. Well, Antony was poor, and I couldn't afford one back then. Lucky that I managed to score myself one (second hand) from eBay. (Antony is still poor.)

Laurent and I drove to Newcastle to collect this antique back! Distance from Sydney to Newcastle is about 163km (according to Google Maps) which translates to longer than 90 miles.

It is still pretty fast if you run earlier Mac OS (or OS X) and it is virtually silent since it does not have internal fans to cool down components. The only spinning devices are the internal hard drive and discs I insert into it, for that, I might replace the HDD to a silent one.

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[richard mitnick]

New machine coming, about ten days.

The main thrust of this beast is, of course, crunchng, 24/7, especially on the twin GTX580's.

MAINGEAR SHIFT Chassis with Advanced Vertical Heat Dissipation
Intel® CoreT i7 3930K Six-core 3.2GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 12MB L3 Cache w/ HyperThreading
Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 140 Supercooler Intel Turbo Boost Advanced Automatic Overclocking
Memory: 16GB Corsair® VengeanceT DDR3-1866 1.5V (4x4GB)
Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: 2x EVGA® GeForceT GTX 580 6GB GDDR5 Total in SLI with MAINGEAR EPIC X2 Liquid Cooling [ULTIMATE]
Western Digital Caviar Black SATA 6G 7200rpm 64MB Cache
24X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

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[Mandrake]

New machine coming, about ten days.

The main thrust of this beast is, of course, crunchng, 24/7, especially on the twin GTX580's.

MAINGEAR SHIFT Chassis with Advanced Vertical Heat Dissipation
Intel® CoreT i7 3930K Six-core 3.2GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 12MB L3 Cache w/ HyperThreading
Processor Cooling: MAINGEAR EPIC 140 Supercooler Intel Turbo Boost Advanced Automatic Overclocking
Memory: 16GB Corsair® VengeanceT DDR3-1866 1.5V (4x4GB)
Graphics and GPGPU Accelerator: 2x EVGA® GeForceT GTX 580 6GB GDDR5 Total in SLI with MAINGEAR EPIC X2 Liquid Cooling [ULTIMATE]
Western Digital Caviar Black SATA 6G 7200rpm 64MB Cache
24X Dual Layer DVD RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Very nice. That's one monster PC.

Though three things that came to mind:

-No SSD? Best investment you'll ever make for a PC IMO.
-16GB RAM. With a Sandy Bridge-E platform why not go for 32GB? The stuff is dirt cheap.
-Dual GTX 580s. The Radeon 7970 is out now, only costs $50 more or so, and is 25 -> 30% faster. Nvidia's next generation 'Kepler' GPUs are due out within a few months too.

Personally speaking, my current i7 920 is just fine for now. It's overclocked to 4GHz though. I don't really have a need for more raw CPU power. That said, I'm certainly going to be upgrading my storage (new SSD and HDDs) this year, and I plan on getting a new graphics card too. (Nvidia Kepler probably, possibly a Radeon 7970 or 7950...)

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[richard mitnick]

Hey Mandrake- How are you?

This beast is, as I said, mainly aimed at "crunching" on projects running BOINC software. It priced out at US$5284. I needed to keep the cost in mind as I specified the components. The GTX580's were the best over all deal for highly rated GPU's for work on projects like GPUGRID, Milkyway, etc.

This will be my main desktop machine, replacing my aged core 2 duo machine.

I also have an i7-920, also aimed at "crunching". It is great; but it has a conventional case, strictly CPU crunching. And beyond that, it is my wife's machine for email, Yahoo, etc.

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[Antony]

It priced out at US$5284. I needed to keep the cost in mind as I specified the components.

You spent USD 5.3k for crunching as volunteers!?

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[richard mitnick]

Antony-

I do not see here a reply I made, I needed a new machine anyway. I just thought I would get myself prepared for what I see coming at BOINC.

And, I tell you what: you have a new gonzo Power Mac? Dual Xeon's? Let's have a "throw-down", a competition. Install BOINC 6.12.34 from BOINC, or 6.10.58 from WCG, attach to some projects and let's see what happens. I don't remember what your graphics are, but this would be fun and very revealing, Mac vs Windows. My new machine is not as good as it gets; but it is not chopped liver.

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[Antony]

It's an ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1024 MB). The Mac Pro is Mid 2010 model. The thing is, I wouldn't spend that much money just for crunching as a volunteer.

Let's have a "throw-down", a competition. Install BOINC 6.12.34 from BOINC, or 6.10.58 from WCG, attach to some projects and let's see what happens.

Borrowing your sentence, I do not have and do not want to have BOINC on my computers. Can't afford running BOINC, sorry.

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[Mandrake]

It priced out at US$5284. I needed to keep the cost in mind as I specified the components.

I note that one someone here spent an astonishing 89% more than this figure on a computer. Only the white and very rich Antony can afford a $10000 computer.

As I noted, raw CPU performance to me isn't that important. My i7 does fine at that, I'd prefer to spend money like I have on my massive Corsair Obsidian 700D case. I still really want a shiny new graphics card this year and a couple of SSDs.

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[Antony]

I note that one someone here spent an astonishing 89% more than this figure on a computer. Only the white and very rich Antony can afford a $10000 computer.

The Mac Pro (Mid 2010 model) was only A$ 6,219.00. (That said model is still available at Apple Store at time of writing this.) The $10k mark was calculated after monitors, additional RAM and others.

I did not spend that amount of money for crunching for those projects. Antony is poor.

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[richard mitnick]

My new machine from MainGear is installed and running. CPU and GPU temps about 60% of max, both on sealed liquid cooling systems. So I was able to add the GPUGrid project and also extend GPU crunchng to Einstein and Milky Way.

My average had been about 11,000 credits/day. Now, I just did 58,000.

The main thrust was to be able to add the GPUGrid project. They do great work.

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[Antony]

Unlike Don who rushes for everything latest or most powerful, I got myself another antique computer.

Some of you may remember that I got an iMac G4 in late 2007. Well, there's was an identical iMac G4 at a price that I simply can't refuse. So I got it. Same 17-inch model, same, 1.25 GHz model, same USB 2 model (the final and the most advanced model of iMac G4 in 17-inch).

Here's a photo of them side-by-side:


Oh, Antony is very poor.

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[richard mitnick]

Update on crunching on the new Maingear machine.

Now doing between 80,000 and 140,000 credits a day.

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