# Maximum crunching on the cheap



## PaulieG (Jul 14, 2021)

So, some bill are due and I'm going to be selling off a couple of 5950x's rigs, most likely locally. I'd like to make up for it a bit by running a couple of older setups that will give some maximum value for WCG. Can someone give me some suggestions on older and cheaper Xeon chips/boards that are known to crank out the work on the cheap? All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!


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## Lorec (Jul 14, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> So, some bill are due and I'm going to be selling off a couple of 5950x's rigs, most likely locally. I'd like to make up for it a bit by running a couple of older setups that will give some maximum value for WCG. Can someone give me some suggestions on older and cheaper Xeon chips/boards that are known to crank out the work on the cheap? All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!


Life happens every now and then. Sigh. Anyhow rather than Xeons Id recommend Ryzen 7 1700 its a 65W TDP chip and it sips power and also it doesnt cost much anymore!


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## PaulieG (Jul 14, 2021)

Lorec said:


> Life happens every now and then. Sigh. Anyhow rather than Xeons Id recommend Ryzen 7 1700 its a 65W TDP chip and it sips power and also it doesnt cost much anymore!


But would a Ryzen 7 1700 with 8 cores complete more work than dual Xeon e5650's with a total of 12?


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## Toothless (Jul 14, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> But would a Ryzen 7 1700 with 8 cores complete more work than dual Xeon e5650's with a total of 12?


Yep. A good chunk more.


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## PaulieG (Jul 14, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Yep. A good chunk more.


Ok, well that settles that. Thanks!


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## Toothless (Jul 14, 2021)

PaulieG said:


> Ok, well that settles that. Thanks!


I would also look into V2 Xeons if you're able to. My 2680v2 will max at 100w with 20 threads, and dual sockets help with saving space.


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## Lorec (Jul 14, 2021)

I do still own and use Xeon E5 2695V2 as a one of main crunchers though!
Ryzen IPC is so much better after all, I feel like my e5 2695 is just barely keeping up with my r7 1700.
Powerwise yeah, 1700 sips power like its freshly brewed earl grey tea 
I might move on at some point but x79 was an adventure I wanted to embark on


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## 80-watt Hamster (Jul 15, 2021)

Lorec said:


> Powerwise yeah, 1700 sips power like its freshly brewed earl grey tea



You, sir/madam, are a gentlewoman/man and a scholar.


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## phill (Jul 15, 2021)

Lorec said:


> Life happens every now and then. Sigh. Anyhow rather than Xeons Id recommend Ryzen 7 1700 its a 65W TDP chip and it sips power and also it doesnt cost much anymore!


These aren't bad CPUs at all, depending on the motherboard you end up with, (X370 for example) I'd consider trying to go for the 3700X or even a 3900X.  I've both of mine running at 1.0vcore, its 24 threads and loaded it's pulling 145w  Even with the 1080 TI folding on top of it, its not pulling 280w total  I've got a link for some testing I did with power usage, I'll grab it for you  
EDIT - Found it!!  'Ere 'tis!!

The 1700's are good CPUs but if you can find any of the non X models, they are normally 65w models.  That said, you can always undervolt most of the Ryzen CPUs and they will work at a lower clock speed, even if you have to set them to run at a fix speed.
I find even with the V3/V4 Xeons they are in no where near the performance of a Ryzen CPU, even more so the later models.  Xeon's just aren't as good as they used to be.  Ryzen has really shook the boat! 

I always say to myself, rather than selling hardware to try and pay for things since it's something you want, it's possibly better to keep hold of the hardware as you'll just loose money selling it and so on..  Life sucks at times and whilst I'm daft enough to buy sometimes at the wrong time, I don't try and sell it if I'm short..  Always another way I think


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## KLiKzg (Sep 1, 2021)

If you need to run cheaper, then you need to run on:
- most cores/threads to get days in for badges
- least speed, to have least wattage
Depending of the chipset, you can do some calcs.

My 2 best setups are C30 & T5500 (not using those CPUs), for that would be:
- C30 w. 2x Xeon E5-2630L - each 60W = 40days per day
- T5500 w. 2x L5638 - each 60W = 24days per day
etc.

Let us know, what you have picked.


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## PaulieG (Sep 1, 2021)

I picked up a 1700x and a 2700x a while back that should be up and running by this weekend to make up for some of what I lost with the 5950x's I sold. It's the first time in a couple months that I'll have some extra time on my hands!


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