Value of computation

fivemack · 2008-09-05, 20:23

Would anyone here buy a second-hand crunch machine?

I have committed to doing the matrix job for a GNFS180; I estimate this will be ready to start at the end of October and take three months on an 8GB machine.

I intend to buy a Nehalem system - a next-generation Mac Pro - when they are released. But that will probably be in January.

So I think the thing to do is to buy a Phenom+8GB system (my present Q6600+8GB system is weirdly unreliable) tomorrow, aiming to sell it in January or February and put the money towards the Mac Pro. I can't reuse the components, the Mac Pro takes totally different memory.

The Phenom system costs £350 now, I would aim to sell it for, say, £25 less than what the components would cost new at time of sale ... which I think means I'm buying a CPU-year of processing for about £100, which doesn't seem too absurd. Yes, I'll have pushed the machine quite hard for those three or four months, but a computer ought to endure three years, and at least the buyer knows it's not DOA.

Would anyone here buy a pre-used computer in that condition?

2008-09-05, 20:23	#1
fivemack (loop (#_fork)) Feb 2006 Cambridge, England 2×7×461 Posts	Value of computation Would anyone here buy a second-hand crunch machine? I have committed to doing the matrix job for a GNFS180; I estimate this will be ready to start at the end of October and take three months on an 8GB machine. I intend to buy a Nehalem system - a next-generation Mac Pro - when they are released. But that will probably be in January. So I think the thing to do is to buy a Phenom+8GB system (my present Q6600+8GB system is weirdly unreliable) tomorrow, aiming to sell it in January or February and put the money towards the Mac Pro. I can't reuse the components, the Mac Pro takes totally different memory. The Phenom system costs £350 now, I would aim to sell it for, say, £25 less than what the components would cost new at time of sale ... which I think means I'm buying a CPU-year of processing for about £100, which doesn't seem too absurd. Yes, I'll have pushed the machine quite hard for those three or four months, but a computer ought to endure three years, and at least the buyer knows it's not DOA. Would anyone here buy a pre-used computer in that condition?

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