I've folded 3347 work units across 4 PS3's. Two of them have died and were replaced under warranty. Both were 60GB units. One of the 60GB's that died did so about 16 months after purchase, but Sony had extended the warranty of the 60GB units to 18 months. Otherwise, I would have had to pay $160.
SCE Joins Stanford's Folding@home Program (B3D ID=32377)
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Wow, I didn't know that - apparently they are fallible after all, when stressed enough.
I'm think by the way that depending on where you live, you could probably buy 40GB models, earn back your money on the power cost savings alone within a year, and sell the 60GB versions for a fair price to people who want backward compatibility, and use that to buy even more 40GB models, all the while staying cost neutral.
I'm think by the way that depending on where you live, you could probably buy 40GB models, earn back your money on the power cost savings alone within a year, and sell the 60GB versions for a fair price to people who want backward compatibility, and use that to buy even more 40GB models, all the while staying cost neutral.
They still talk of very low returns, so impact should be marginal. Though that could be because the hardware is holding up for now, but in x months time all these Folding machines will fold themselves!
My PS3's are on 24/7, though they are occasionally running a game, playing blu-ray or streaming music.
They make a noticeable dent in my electricity bill. I'll retire them from folding when the next revision of PS3's are out.
I was a little surprised by my 50% failure rate too. The fact that Sony quietly extended the warranty on the 60GB units suggests that the launch batch may have had a few gremlins in it.
They make a noticeable dent in my electricity bill. I'll retire them from folding when the next revision of PS3's are out.
I was a little surprised by my 50% failure rate too. The fact that Sony quietly extended the warranty on the 60GB units suggests that the launch batch may have had a few gremlins in it.
B3yondMatterMind
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I have four PS3's with only one of them pulled out of FOLDING to play games on occassionally (lately been racing GT-5 P). Otherwise they all are running F@H 24/7 for over a year now. Only two were were bought at launch and other 3 months later. Power bill is most difinitely impacted. 
Well basically I think F@H on PS3 averages 200watts. So that's like running a small microwave 24/7. But I guess I've been fortunite with absolutely no hardware problems whatsoever.
Three are in a very cool area of the Basement on a HDMI switch and a small 32" HDTV. One is in my Entertainment system hooked into my 65" Mits 1080P HDTV. All four are on different F@H teams with a collective total over 3000 WU's. PS3 is a Beast!
One dedicate PC to F@H uses more power to get far less WU's. PS3 makes a far more efficient F@H tool!!! ......as long as they hold up!
Well basically I think F@H on PS3 averages 200watts. So that's like running a small microwave 24/7. But I guess I've been fortunite with absolutely no hardware problems whatsoever.
Three are in a very cool area of the Basement on a HDMI switch and a small 32" HDTV. One is in my Entertainment system hooked into my 65" Mits 1080P HDTV. All four are on different F@H teams with a collective total over 3000 WU's. PS3 is a Beast!
One dedicate PC to F@H uses more power to get far less WU's. PS3 makes a far more efficient F@H tool!!! ......as long as they hold up!
One dedicate PC to F@H uses more power to get far less WU's. PS3 makes a far more efficient F@H tool!!! ......as long as they hold up!
If you were to put an HD3850 in there though it would be pumping out lots more WU's than a PS3. Couple it with a low lower Penryn/HDD and I doubt the power draw would be all that different between the two.
Or alternatively if your playing for points rather than WU's, I hear a quad core pumps out a lot more. You could forgoe a GPU altogether and get one of the lower end Penryns. Again, that would make a pretty low power draw PC.
An efficiency comparison under those circumstances could be interesting.
40Gb PS3 runs at 135W.
Which is far and away the best perf/W of any FAH-capable MPU on the market (speaking of Cell here) when considering total system power consumption and overall FLOP rate.
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