Topic: Cheapest Core i7 Machine - 0.5 BTC Bounty [PAID] - page 2. (Read 5056 times)

A.) I wouldn't go with AMD and those PSUs at all.
B.) There are better builds though $/W should not be considered as per original requirements.
C.) Dual channel memory and cas rating is important in terms of bandwidth and speed which is not benchmarked for.
D.) SSD > HDD on avg, and have better warranties in terms of all components.
E.) 2day shipping should count.
F.) Please see the AMD benchmarks in single channel.

Thanks 

1K2L2G6VeS4yNtEfN6UFPygnTmbv7bEChQ

I will be happy to have BTC to purchase Keyhotee ID

Does anyone have a solid justification for why azwccc should not win?  If not I plan on awarding him the bounty.

I was able to spec it at that same site through pricewatch.com ( http://www.pricewatch.com/price/motherboard_combos/fx-8320 ):
Description    Unit Price    
   cb-amd   Combo w/ AMD FX (Socket AM3+)
  w/ AMD FX8320 - Eight-Core (8 x 4.0GHz - 16MB Cache)
  ASRock 960GM-VGS3
  Systems - CPU Fan Only
  2GB DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 2GB - Single Module)
  500GB 7200RPM SATA3 6gb/sec - Hard Drive
  Premium Assemble, Setup, Pretest, & Set CPU FSB & Power / Cooling
  400 Watt Power Supply
  Combo - 1 Year   $305.78   Remove

Barebones w/ AMD FX (Socket AM3+)
  w/ AMD FX8350 - Eight-Core (8 x 4.2GHz - 16MB Cache)
  ASRock 960GM-VGS3
  Systems - CPU Fan Only
  2GB DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 2GB - Single Module)
  500GB 7200RPM SATA3 6gb/sec - Hard Drive
  Standard Value Mid-Tower Case
  400 Watt Power Supply
  Standard - Build, Burn-in, Test & Ship Out in Approx 3 to 5 Business Days
  Barebones - 1 Year   $327.88

Granted, if you're willing to go i5 I can go much lower. SSD and solid PSU in addition to dual channel memory that is actually good seems to be missing from these benchmarks. You're going to starve any 8 core setup in single.

If you're willing to go AMD. This isn't including the -25$, cashback, or free 2day if you get in fast.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1We5D Total:    $263.93
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1We6R Total:    $303.93
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1We8m Total:    $343.93

If you're willing to go USB drive, get a 3.0 as 3.0 USB is better, even in USB 2.0 slots.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1WeeH + http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141628

This is an awesome website... looking over the various machines this is what I found:

Core i7 3.9 Ghz
2GB
$369.78 + $20 USB Stick with Linux on it for HD total  $389

Based upon their performance numbers, the Core i7 is 25% faster and yet only costs 8% More. 

I suspect any system running full tilt will need to spend another $50 in cooling, but that is a constant offset that also favors the i7 over the i5.

Overall, PortaTech seems to be the best source for these systems. 

AMD FX8320 @ 8 x 4.0GHz
$242.93 + $20 USB Stick with Linux
Adjusted for 10% less performance... $270
Adjusted for extra power used over 1 year... $370 (100 Watt difference, 24x7, $.1 KWH)


I am inclined to say that azwccc is in the lead so far.

http://www.portatech.com    (if never heard, http://www.resellerratings.com/store/PortaTech)
choose barebones computer (FREE Assembly & Testing Included)

Barebones w/ Intel Core i5 / i7 (Socket 1150)
  w/ Core i5 4670 (4 x 3.8GHz CPU - 6MB Cache +1200MHz Graphics)
  ASRock H81M-DGS
  Systems - CPU Fan Only
  2GB DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 2GB - Single Module)
  500GB 7200RPM SATA3 6gb/sec - Hard Drive
  Standard Value Mid-Tower Case
  400 Watt Power Supply
  Standard - Build, Burn-in, Test & Ship Out in Approx 3 to 5 Business Days
  Barebones - 1 Year

$359.88 shipped, they don't have a good choice of hard drive, but no labor fee.
I5-4670 is good in benchmark

If replace the CPU with  I5-4430, $333.88.

WUPS. I think it cut it off when i switched vendor to a specific one.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1W43u

2x 1GB 1600 modules for dual-channel, CAS9, and heatspreaders for 1$~ less @ NewEgg vs the Kingston and Mushkin modules @ CAS11, single, and no HS.

Total: $331.93 - 26.99 (CC + SR) = 304.94

Same build with Ivy slightly more, at a lower ICP+wattage, but has turbo. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1W4nT

You left off the memory in your latest build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1W1KP
+ code NAFSAVE25NOV1R = 301.94
+ Free month shoprunner (Free 2-day shipping) = 299.95 ( https://www.shoprunner.com/non_member/home/ )
+ TCB 1-2% Cashback ( 3-6$~ ).

If anything just scale the CPU accordingly... it's still a cheaper build overall and the binned Ivys can't be beat for wattage. Check it out, no matter how you spec it, Ivy i7 will always lose the $/W and $/Ghz battle: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1W2jt

If you wanted more IPC, the Haswell v3 is currently cheaper than the Ivy line in terms of build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1W2D2
Total:    $304.94
+ code NAFSAVE25NOV1R = 279.94
+ SR -1.99 S/H = 277.95

Note: 25.6 GB/s Max Memory Bandwidth   

Thus my calculations show we are using about 25% of the MAX theoretical memory bandwidth.   Close to 50% of the practical memory bandwidth.  An ASIC would be limited to perhaps 4x gains if all they did was replace the CPU and perhaps 10x gains if they used very special purpose state of the art memory.   Of course, I doubt they could do these things in a machine costing less than $4000 so there is little cost/benefit to creating an ASIC for this

Turbo doesn't mean much for 100% mining load unless I liquid cool the unit

Gathering all that right now. Please don't forget the CPU has Turbo to 3.5ghz and is a 69 W CPU.
http://ark.intel.com/products/65734/

This would be great and I will probably order one if I can get it all in one place because that will also save time and money. 

Mail-in Rebates are labor and delay.   You also didn't factor in labor.  So That puts your price at $412.     The improved reliability is a plus in your camp, though the CPU is 3.1 Ghz vs 3.4+ so you currently have the edge for the best system.

I was able to build the following:
AMD FX-6300 BULLDOZER SIX CORE 3.5GHz Biostar A960D+ 2GB DDR3 500GB HDD for $367 shipped.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291007635830    

Based upon benchmarks the i7 system is 1.34x faster overall so I would have to handicap my AMD system by a similar factor which would put the price at $491 vs $470 for your i7 based system.  I suspect that I could spec an AMD system that was slightly cheaper once I remove the DVD drive and use the same 32 GB SSD drive and case that you mentioned.     The there is the long-term electric cost to factor in which would give the i7 a clear edge.    

My conclusion is that you are very much in the lead in the price/performance metric.  I will give it another day before I declare a winner and pay the bounty.

Xeon E3's are rebadged and binned i7's that are compatible with most motherboards out there.
Readycache drives can be used as boot drives but require additional fuckery in many cases, so I am not going to use one in my build list. I refuse to use BioStar or Diablotek anything due to reliability. I could not find information on most of the Biostar motherboards in reference to the latest shipping units requiring a BIOS flash or not, which is another reason i chose the ASRock or alternatively MSI models. This is important as it would require additional time, fuckery, and another CPU to accomplish. Notice the compatibility flag on his.

That being said:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1W14w
Base Total:    $357.95    
Mail-in Rebates:    -$25.00    
Shipping:    $4.99    
Total:    $337.94

Though, all of the ones using the Kingston module should add an additional 99 cents as the Amazon one has one left and requires 35+$ spent to have free S/H on that item.

I can configure for one retailer if you like or mix parts better for no MIRs. If you buy today it would be under 320 with code NAFSAVE25NOV1R shipped totally from newegg and also assuming a free shoprunner account.

The mining proof is well defined.  The best algorithm for performing the proof is yet to be developed.

Proof:
 


Factors in Performance:
How many SHA512 hashes per second can a CPU achieve.
For each SHA512 hash performed, a hashmap must be populated with eight 64 bit keys and 32 bit values.
The minimum memory bandwidth requirement is therefore:  12*8*Sha512PerSec  bytes per second.
The memory is accessed randomly and is transferred in blocks of 64 bytes based upon the cache line size of the CPU.
The effective memory bandwidth requirement is therefore: 64*8*Sha512PerSec  bytes per second.

A 3.4 Ghz Core i7 can generate 2 million Sha512/sec per core.   I will be generous and assume 12 million Sha512/sec when all cores + hyper-threading are saturated.
12 million * 512 bytes per second is 6 Gigabytes per second on the memory bus assuming no other overhead.

Transfer rate on RAM is 6.4 GB/s per channel theoretical.   So when you factor in all of the other random overhead, the fact memory access isn't perfectly pipelined or sequential then it becomes very clear that memory bandwidth and CPU power must be paired.   

The fastest possible machine may be a 12 core Mac Pro with DDR4... but this wouldn't be the lowest price/hash.  

 

You are forgetting power supply which adds $40 to each of your quotes.

Opps... I just noticed the case included a 400 watt power supply... Good work!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1VWD5

406$+50 build

Or if you wanted a real i7:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1VWJ3

415$+50 build

Same as above with 2gb 1600 memory:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1VWML

418$+50 build

I believe I have the lowest price at the moment with 100% brand new parts following the rules. Address in sig

A higher CAS latency at those speeds doesn't necessarily mean the memory is slower to respond.

Let's assume the we have two sticks of memory, one at DDR3-1333 CAS 5-10-10 ( for example), and one at DDR3-2666 CAS 10-20-20. Which is faster?

Because CAS latency is given in clock cycles, a doubling of bus speed means that the CAS latency will double. However, since twice as many clock cycles happen in the same amount of time, the answer is, they are both exactly the same.

I suppose we have the question of higher bus speed, or lower latency...

Matthew:out