Hardware Deals:

[Sparky]

I agree with Loony. I am not sure that a single core could feed three 8800GS on XP and it may even be a stretch on Vista unless OCed.

What about just two cards?

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Mak2000, I was told on the folding forum that CPU plays such a little role in GPU folding on vista that you can basically run cpu w/o issue.

Edit:

Xp needs its hand held, but vista not so much. vista would require less, especially if its just sitting idle. I'll bet u that a single core 1.6 ghz chip could handle 3 GPUs in vista no problem, assuming that's all the rig does.

[Kingcarcas]

Or Sempron LE for $30, 1GB for $10-20.....

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Just to run vista, you don't need much, that's the trick. If you want to go uber cheap, 512mb ram, slowest lower power cpu u can get for a 775 socket. That's all u need.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Some items are now gone as the price / performance is gone or they are open box items that were deactivated.

Example: 8800gs for $120. Not a good deal.

[ThunderDuck]

88gs 79.99 xfx
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...036&CatId=3585

Comes with COD4. If you sell that to the kid down the block for $20 you have a $60 folder.

[Start]

and if you don't want the game for $5 less

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...053&CatId=3614

[Ben_Brown]

Not to take away from your post, but I have also started one similar to this over at overclock.net forums that lists deals $100 or under (graphics cards with good PPD). I am posting it here so you can add to the list some other good deals if you want.

ALL FOR THE CURE!!!

Under $100 Folding Card Deals

[MikeB12]

nice list Ben, very organized...

[MikeB12]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127374

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Not to take away from your post, but I have also started one similar to this over at overclock.net forums that lists deals $100 or under (graphics cards with good PPD). I am posting it here so you can add to the list some other good deals if you want.

ALL FOR THE CURE!!!

Under $100 Folding Card Deals

Mind if I post the link to your thread in the first post?

[Kingcarcas]

I got my 8800gt from Buy.com, $109 with free shipping.

[Ben_Brown]

Mind if I post the link to your thread in the first post?

Nope. go right ahead.

[Start]

5% Off Buy.com up to $15. Just make a new account. Would bring the 9800GX2 down to $247

[[486]]

It would sure be cool if someone would make a m-atx motherboard with 4 open ended 8x pci-e slots with a low power processor, and have the board run off of 12V to simplify a power supply...hint..hint manufacturers that are probably watching all these forums...

Or just make the cuda system's motherboard available, anyone know where one could acquire one, or 2?

[legoman666]

I have an account here? Eh, did not know that....

Anyway, here's a permanent link to my spreadsheets:
ftp://legoman666.dyndns.org:47024/scores_nvidia.zip
ftp://legoman666.dyndns.org:47024/scores_ati.zip

I've stopped updating the Huge chart image simply because it got too big. Here's some more easily readable charts:

nVidia Cards:







ATI Cards:




You can do whatever you want with these resources, just stick my name somewhere near by if you repost them somewhere else.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

legoman666, wow, its an honor to e-meet you!

Thanks for all this info buddy. I appreciate it as much as everyone here at XS.

[legoman666]

No problem. I do this stuff while I'm bored at work (which is 95% of the time. AutoCAD gets repetitive after a while). I have the same info for ATI cards, but it's not nearly as "significant" since it is from a much smaller data set. However, with the release of core 1.10 for ATI cards, PPD for the 4850/4870 are starting to increase; 3500-4000, up from ~1900-2000. I can post it Monday if anyone cares to see it

Another note, the PPD/$ values go quickly out of date as the prices of the various cards change and I don't update them often. If you want to see how a new purchase will compare to other choices, simply download the spreadsheet and input the latest prices. The worksheet will autoupdate everything else; Best card for the money, for the watt, etc.

Cheers

[Sparky]

ATI cards going up in PPD? Really? Sweet... it could be worthwhile to put my new 4870 to use then when not gaming
Please do post it!

[legoman666]

ATI cards going up in PPD? Really? Sweet... it could be worthwhile to put my new 4870 to use then when not gaming
Please do post it!

Posted, turns out I had the spreadsheet on my machine after all.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

The ATI ppd is interesting, but not anywhere close to what I was hoping.

If it went to 8k-10k ppd, i'd upgrade my card to an ati, and do a 4 card nvidia 24/7 folder, but nvidia is still king.... for now.

[[XC] riptide]

Posted, turns out I had the spreadsheet on my machine after all.

Welcome Legoman.

[Loony]

Thanks for your work on those spreadsheets Lego! I've looked at the nVidia one numerous times trying to decide which card to get, needless to say, it was a huge help!

[Marvin_The_Martian]

Hey Legoman666

Hope you will be around here from time to time, been a pleasure posting your stuff on XS, though I got to apologize for not making a dedicated thread for them like we talked about.. Kind of got lost with all the other stuff, and I ended up just reposting them in each thread the ppd was brought up

Nice to have you sign up here

Marvin

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Antec earthwatts 430watt PSU on sale @ the egg.

$17.99 final price!

See first post for details!