I basically wanted to put windows XP on my system so there's no WDDM overhead. My plan was to at least have XP until I get a newer 10 series GPU and then I was going to use linux.

Well... in that case ... maybe I took that XP requirement too serious. If you don't have reservations against Linux, why don't you work with it right away as skgiven suggested?

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

I guess my only concern is that if A. my power supply can fit in the minitower and B. If there's a 24pin ATX power connector (which I believe there are on all newer models)

I have a Dell Optiplex 790 MT here (1155 base, i7-2600).

The board has the usual ATX2.2 24pin + 12V-P4 sockets. It is a special PCB and works with the genuine Dell control panel only. No way to figure out the pin layout of the edge connector and no such information available in the web.

But the power supply does not look special to me... it has usual ATX size and no particular connectors for the panel. So your ATX PSU could possibly work in the Optiplex 3010 ... but don't nail me down on that. You may want to call Dell customer service to be on the safe side.

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

I basically wanted to put windows XP on my system so there's no WDDM overhead. My plan was to at least have XP until I get a newer 10 series GPU and then I was going to use linux.

Well... in that case ... maybe I took that XP requirement too serious. If you don't have reservations against Linux, why don't you work with it right away as skgiven suggested?

I don't have enough money for a decent skygiven PC at the moment otherwise I'd gladly buy a really high end one with Linux.

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

I guess my only concern is that if A. my power supply can fit in the minitower and B. If there's a 24pin ATX power connector (which I believe there are on all newer models)

I have a Dell Optiplex 790 MT here (1155 base, i7-2600).

The board has the usual ATX2.2 24pin + 12V-P4 sockets. It is a special PCB and works with the genuine Dell control panel only. No way to figure out the pin layout of the edge connector and no such information available in the web.

But the power supply does not look special to me... it has usual ATX size and no particular connectors for the panel. So your ATX PSU could possibly work in the Optiplex 3010 ... but don't nail me down on that. You may want to call Dell customer service to be on the safe side.

No worries I'll look into it and I'm not going to hold anyone on anything.

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

I don't have enough money for a decent skygiven PC at the moment otherwise I'd gladly buy a really high end one with Linux.

Well... if I may ask that, how much do you want to spend? As there are also other favorable alternatives, e.g. Haswell systems.

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

I have $220 dollars but I'm wondering at this point in time if I should just wait until I can get a better PC compared to mine and the one I was looking at. It seems like that would be the best thing to do.

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

Well...

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future [Niels Bohr]

I wish you all the best!

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

Thanks. I'll have to think it over a couple of days.

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

And now for something totally different...

How about a new desktop running windows 10 so you have a decent desktop. Do you do anything on your desktop that needs more than onboard video?

Then, drop linux on your old system and stuff it in the corner.

That's what I did. Then I did it again, and again ;)

That's a good idea but I rather not use windows 10 as of now due to the WDDM overhead.

I have also decided that since this Pentium D machine is working, I will use it till sometime next year, then upgrade big time. I will look into upgrading options later on this year in December sometime.

Thanks

And now for something totally different...

How about a new desktop running windows 10 so you have a decent desktop. Do you do anything on your desktop that needs more than onboard video?

Then, drop linux on your old system and stuff it in the corner.

That's what I did. Then I did it again, and again ;)

unless you mean linux on the new windows 10 desktop

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

Just use linux!

Hey all,

I see that the holidays are coming around, so that means some extra money for me.

The thing that I haven't asked though for this project in depth enough is about the pci x16 bandwidth. So right now I still have my old dell PC. I know the pci slot in it is not a 3.0. My main question for this project:

Is it TRULY worth it to buy a new PC for a pci x16 3.0? Does the system performance increase a lot, or only a little for this project and my gtx 960 gpu?

Thanks.

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

I just do not want to buy a complete different system if the performance isn't a huge difference.

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

I doubt that PCIe3x16 will give the GTX960 a significant boost... your current PCIe2x16 = PCIe3x8 should be sufficient. But it is rather the Pentium D CPU which gives me headache. This one is very slow.

My suggestion is to save the money and wait until AMD Zen and Intel Kaby Lake arrive on the market and the delivery and pricing situation improved. I would expect it by summer 2017. Before that, you'll pay "early access" prices for Kaby Lake which basically is just yet another refresh.

Later next year you can choose between the new Intel 1151 platform ... or Zen/Summit Ridge/AM4 ... or even make a Haswell/1150 bargain. The latter isn't a bad thing either.

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

Does the CPU really matter if the project runs off of my gpu? I don't understand how a newer one would be much of a difference. How about RAM?

I have just seen this on ebay and it looks pleasing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371801736019?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I would put my spare 600 watt psu in the PC, replacing the 400 watt psu that comes with it.

If CPU really does make a big difference and if ram does too, wouldn't this be a good match? Considering it's skylake and has ddr4?

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

Importance of CPU varies with the project. Broadly speaking, the CPU "feeds" the GPU with data and therefore the load depends on the number of data blocks, the number of interrupts or "messages"/time (unless polling used), kind of memory access and the total block size.

More precisely, the CPU and GPU performance must be well balanced and faster cards require allocation of a full CPU core by the SWAN_SYNC Parameter. In your case, the GPU isnt too fast, but the CPU is slow on the other hand. PCIe2.0x16 is fast enough and should not be the bottleneck.

Having said this ... the D820 Pentium D was released in 2005 when PCIe1 was still on market. You do have a PCIe2 capable board, don't you?

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

Besides.. the eBay offer does not include HDD, OS, DVDRW. As a workable system the price increases up to 500$ quickly. So it is not as cheap as it seems.

And please keep in mind that you have to set-up the OS entirely new (or work a fiddle at least), as you cannot just take your HDD out and attach to the new board. The SATA drivers will not match.

By the way, please get 8GB DDR4 for use with a 64Bit OS. And I would spend the extra 36$ for the faster G4500. It's worth it.

PS: dont worry about the PSU, the 400W will suffice even for a i7-6700 & GTX1060...

---

I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

I do not know if my pci slot is a 2.0, I assumed it was. The computer I'm using came out in 2007.

I forgot to mention about the OS. I happen to have a few spare hard drives and I have a dvd drive as well. I plan on using Ubuntu though which can use a usb stick to install.

I also have a windows xp, vista, 7, and 8 disk in my drawer just in case.

My fault for not including the details

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.

And I have a few product keys

---

Cruncher/Learner in progress.