Mini PC's

a1call · 2022-01-09, 06:04

Just came across this for the 1st time. Seems to be good for Number-Crunching farms. Can rack up 16 cores for less than $1k.

I know Celeron is not particularly fast, but still 4 cores,

https://www.amazon.ca/AWOW-AK34-Comp...977050908&th=1

Any better (new) alternatives?

paulunderwood · 2022-01-09, 06:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1call

Just came across this for the 1st time. Seems to be good for Number-Crunching farms. Can rack up 16 cores for less than $1k.

I know Celeron is not particularly fast, but still 4 cores,

https://www.amazon.ca/AWOW-AK34-Comp...977050908&th=1

Any better (new) alternatives?

Not a wise choice for crunching large numbers. During heavy use heat dissipation would be a problem. The Celeron does not have AVX/AVX2.

a1call · 2022-01-09, 06:37

I have tried running Raspberry Pi's remotely in the freezer. It crashed occasionally but not always. I am tended to think it would have crashed regardless of where it was.
Would be willing to test one of these if I get a chance. Have no clue how would AVX/AVX2 affect processing. Would it be significantly slower for large numbers?

paulunderwood · 2022-01-09, 06:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1call

I have tried running Raspberry Pi's remotely in the freezer. It crashed occasionally but not always. I am tended to think it would have crashed regardless of where it was.
Would be willing to test one of these if I get a chance. Have no clue how would AVX/AVX2 affect processing. Would it be significantly slower for large numbers?

AVX2 is 2x faster (?). If you are looking for a bargain, a cheap system built around this 9400f chip would be okay.

a1call · 2022-01-09, 06:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulunderwood

AVX2 is 2x faster (?). If you are looking for a bargain, a cheap system built around this 9400f chip would be okay.

That's a good price. Thanks, will look for a ready made minimal setup for that processor. The last (only) system I put together myself costed $2k, CPU not included.

paulunderwood · 2022-01-09, 06:53

This 10400f is even cheaper -- will need a cheap GPU or run it headless. When building make sure you get a compatible motherboard.

a1call · 2022-01-09, 06:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulunderwood

This 10400f is even cheaper -- will need a cheap GPU or run it headless. When building make sure you get a compatible motherboard.

Thank you very much for your expertise, sir. Will see if I can get a budget system configured, using the Newegg configurator.

kriesel · 2022-01-09, 07:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1call

Have no clue how would AVX/AVX2 affect processing. Would it be significantly slower for large numbers?

If running mprime / prime95, maximum fft length, and thereby maximum exponent, varies by available instruction set. SSE2 can go to ~595M exponent, so would not affect wavefront or 100Mdigit. https://www.mersenneforum.org/showpo...74&postcount=8
Mlucas would not be so restricted.
Performance would be affected.

a1call · 2022-01-09, 07:26

I know most people are interested in Prime95 & GIMPS. But personally I only use Pari-gp and PFGW. Even at 1/2 speed, if the price is way less than 1/2 of an equivalent PC, it might be interesting to me. Alas I have no disposable time for any of that right now. Retirement now, Retirement now.

LaurV · 2022-01-09, 08:30

Any way you do, if you have access to cheap electricity, you will get A LOT better with second hand xeons, people discarded wagons of them after spectre-related bugs came to light (practically, you could get them for free, or even get paid to get them), and clever Chinese entrepreneurs made special (new) mobos for them, just to sell them, and the memories they had stocks. So, you can get a very cheap system with a lot of cores and a lot of processing power, I mean A LOT, of which only the CPU and the memories are second hand, everything else is brand new, including the mobo, ssd, etc. The downside is the fact that the business is a bit risky, you won't get any warranty in the most of the cases, and the system itself, even if everything works perfect, it will be quite power hungry.

I posted links in the past (I think, in Xyzzy's hardware thread). Just go to aliespress and search for "x79 combo", or "x99 combo", or just "motherboard set", sort them by price, descending, and stop where your budget limit is...

a1call · 2022-01-09, 08:49

Interesting, will check that out. Thanks.

2022-01-09, 06:04	#1
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2·19·59 Posts	Mini PC's Just came across this for the 1st time. Seems to be good for Number-Crunching farms. Can rack up 16 cores for less than $1k. I know Celeron is not particularly fast, but still 4 cores, https://www.amazon.ca/AWOW-AK34-Comp...977050908&th=1 Any better (new) alternatives? Last fiddled with by a1call on 2022-01-09 at 06:11

2022-01-09, 08:30	#10
LaurV Romulan Interpreter "name field" Jun 2011 Thailand 26E9₁₆ Posts	Any way you do, if you have access to cheap electricity, you will get A LOT better with second hand xeons, people discarded wagons of them after spectre-related bugs came to light (practically, you could get them for free, or even get paid to get them), and clever Chinese entrepreneurs made special (new) mobos for them, just to sell them, and the memories they had stocks. So, you can get a very cheap system with a lot of cores and a lot of processing power, I mean A LOT, of which only the CPU and the memories are second hand, everything else is brand new, including the mobo, ssd, etc. The downside is the fact that the business is a bit risky, you won't get any warranty in the most of the cases, and the system itself, even if everything works perfect, it will be quite power hungry. I posted links in the past (I think, in Xyzzy's hardware thread). Just go to aliespress and search for "x79 combo", or "x99 combo", or just "motherboard set", sort them by price, descending, and stop where your budget limit is... Last fiddled with by LaurV on 2022-01-09 at 08:34

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2022-01-09, 06:37	#3
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2·19·59 Posts	I have tried running Raspberry Pi's remotely in the freezer. It crashed occasionally but not always. I am tended to think it would have crashed regardless of where it was. Would be willing to test one of these if I get a chance. Have no clue how would AVX/AVX2 affect processing. Would it be significantly slower for large numbers?

2022-01-09, 06:53	#6
paulunderwood Sep 2002 Database er0rr 4123₁₀ Posts	This 10400f is even cheaper -- will need a cheap GPU or run it headless. When building make sure you get a compatible motherboard.

2022-01-09, 07:26	#9
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2×19×59 Posts	I know most people are interested in Prime95 & GIMPS. But personally I only use Pari-gp and PFGW. Even at 1/2 speed, if the price is way less than 1/2 of an equivalent PC, it might be interesting to me. Alas I have no disposable time for any of that right now. Retirement now, Retirement now.

2022-01-09, 08:49	#11
a1call "Rashid Naimi" Oct 2015 Remote to Here/There 2×19×59 Posts	Interesting, will check that out. Thanks.