An announcement

[ThunderRd]

Guys, I have come to a decision. I'm about to tighten up the competition.

Over the last two days I have been having some meetings with my accountant; it's the end of my fiscal year.

After looking at the numbers it has become evident that I have no business spending the kind of money that I am in power. I won't be specific about the numbers, but suffice it to say that it is staggering. On top of investing a lot of money to upgrade my shops, (which I was going to do anyhow), the power bills have been 2 1/2 times more than before, and a hike in per unit price is due soon. I just can't keep 'em running 24/7 any more, it just doesn't make sense financially.

I'm not dropping out; far from it. I just know that with the money I have spent on power I could have done other things that make more sense.

I got into this because I lost a close friend to Hodgkin's last year and wanted to contribute somehow in my own way. I'm happy that I did it, and wouldn't do it any differently. But it's an expensive thing, and although I am comfortable enough, I think that Jim would tell me that I'm insane to continue at this pace, if he were here with me.

I'm going to have to back off on the SMP client; running 10-12 hours a day won't make deadlines on a pentuim d, so they will go to 2 instances of the console. The servers and my home machines will stay on SMP and will run 24/7, so I will still be a force to be reckoned with: I haven't calculated what my total output will be, but I reckon that it will still keep me in the top 3.

@SteveI: You are the pioneer on the team. I have learned much from you and now, we can race.

@ everyone else: it's going to be fun.

@ Sam: I feel that somehow I'm letting you down, but I know that you don't feel that way. It is a pleasure folding with you.

[Gizmo]

We do what we can, as we can. We are pleased as punch to have whatever you feel you can contribute.

[ccperf721p]

You've done quite a bit for the fold, I don't know many people that could have kept up that pace. I honestly don't feel bad as long as I have at least one rig folding, even a single console is a contribution..

[ThunderRd]

I'm proud to help and produce whatever I can, and will continue to do just that. As for the pace, well, it's a massive amount of work to keep all those boxen crunching, especially with the unstable client in Windows. On average, I'd say I spent around 1 1/2 to 2 hours each day maintaining folding clients alone. Not to mention all the other stuff on my plate during the day. I have time, so I did it, but the price is getting out of sight.

[Samuknow]

You are in no way letting me or the team down. Look at what you have done is such a short time. You brought in a fresh breeze to the team. You motivated many to try if they dare to challenge you. I can only imagine the power your little city of folders must consume. I honestly was wondering how long you could keep this up. Your friend would still be proud of what you have accomplished. Do what YOU have to do. You are a hero to this team.

[Samuknow]

BTW....great job breaking the 3 million mark.....

You are my inspiration.

More mushy content....You came from nowhere. You took this on like you were on a mission. I now know that you were and still are. You have added so much knowledge to this task that we endure and love. So in no way feel as if you are letting anyone down.

[Strongwolf]

Yeah, what he said. Great job dude!!!

[smiffy]

Hi All

Superb job ThunderRd.Afraid to say that due to yet another price hike of 12% in my electricity
cost I may have to reduce my folding effort as well.
Possible loss of two machine although they will be the slow
4200 X 2s which dont overclock for diddly.

Smiffy

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by ThunderRd

Guys, I have come to a decision. I'm about to tighten up the competition.

Over the last two days I have been having some meetings with my accountant; it's the end of my fiscal year.

After looking at the numbers it has become evident that I have no business spending the kind of money that I am in power. I won't be specific about the numbers, but suffice it to say that it is staggering. On top of investing a lot of money to upgrade my shops, (which I was going to do anyhow), the power bills have been 2 1/2 times more than before, and a hike in per unit price is due soon. I just can't keep 'em running 24/7 any more, it just doesn't make sense financially.

I'm not dropping out; far from it. I just know that with the money I have spent on power I could have done other things that make more sense.

I got into this because I lost a close friend to Hodgkin's last year and wanted to contribute somehow in my own way. I'm happy that I did it, and wouldn't do it any differently. But it's an expensive thing, and although I am comfortable enough, I think that Jim would tell me that I'm insane to continue at this pace, if he were here with me.

I'm going to have to back off on the SMP client; running 10-12 hours a day won't make deadlines on a pentuim d, so they will go to 2 instances of the console. The servers and my home machines will stay on SMP and will run 24/7, so I will still be a force to be reckoned with: I haven't calculated what my total output will be, but I reckon that it will still keep me in the top 3.

@SteveI: You are the pioneer on the team. I have learned much from you and now, we can race.

@ everyone else: it's going to be fun.

@ Sam: I feel that somehow I'm letting you down, but I know that you don't feel that way. It is a pleasure folding with you.

You honored your friend. You observed his passing by hunting his killer. In pursuit you went out past the safety of the middle way and now reason tells you it's time to retreat. To conserve your forces and dig in for the long battle.

Who can find fault with anything you've done? As I've said before, I'm just glad of the chance for association.":O}

(You surely bruised him you know, your friends killer, you surely bruised him.)

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by smiffy

Hi All

Superb job ThunderRd.Afraid to say that due to yet another price hike of 12% in my electricity
cost I may have to reduce my folding effort as well.
Possible loss of two machine although they will be the slow
4200 X 2s which dont overclock for diddly.

Smiffy

Me as well. Had to stop altogether for months, now just the PS3...Science is getting more expencive...

[ccperf721p]

It costs me about 20 bucks a month to fold with my sig rig, so I can get a pretty good idea of what 25 dual core netbursts cost to run each month.

I will pick up a little of what T-road drops off, I have finally seen the bios screen of my second Q6600 build. With a TB of storage and 8GB of memory it will take a couple of days just to test.

[Samuknow]

That should do it....

[ThunderRd]

Hey cc-
Maybe with a bit of the money I save I can buy me a couple of those

My sincere thanks to all for the good thoughts. This is a good group.

[ccperf721p]

I have 5 rigs in my house, each serves a different purpose, and all but my main rig are low powered. It was really getting old having 3 rigs without cases, making noise and all being just powerful enough with enough DDR1 to handle the task at hand. Plus I wanted a decent HTPC in the living room. I just combined everything into one box that will handle everything with ease. After selling off most of the older stuff I had to add $200 to the kitty to build the rig. With it being networked to my business and my parents house, plus streaming to the PS3.. Well you get the idea..

[robbie]

I think Daniel said it best. Thank you for all that you have done.

[SteveI]

Sorry to hear about the bills.... and a race it will be then, lol.

Some quick advice. From what I have read, the newest lowend Intel dual cores overclock like a beast, and are much lighter on power. In terms of dollars and cents, next time you wana upgrade, make sure you go for cheap overclockable boards. They can save a lot and milk CPUs for more processing power. For example, a low end Intel dual core 1.6ghz (1meg cache) goes for around $65. It can easily overclock to 3.0ghz (or more), and probably fold for 1,600ppd. Even overclocked, it probably uses less than half of the power of your PentiumD's. Remember, each of your computers have essentially, 2 Prescotts glued together..... But business is business and money is money.

OTOH, my entire home network is running SMP now, and as much as I would like, I won't be upgrading anytime soon (unless something breaks).

Do what you can, no one can ask for more.

[Samuknow]

I have never sen a 65 dollar intel dual core before.

[SteveI]

Originally Posted by Samuknow

I have never sen a 65 dollar intel dual core before.

These are newegg prices, so they can be had cheaper if you look. It comes down to cache size:
dual core celeron (512 cache) $66
dual core allendale (1m cache) $75

both are 1.6ghz and are essentially core2duos with the cache stripped, but otherwise great bargains on the cheap. For all intel cores now, 3ghz should be a snap. They've stripped cache to compete against AMD at the low end, while keeping the large cache CPUs pricey. Dollar for dollar or ghz for ghz, there's no competition.