[ale] Anyone out there?

[Jim Kinney]

Since my daily driver became twin super computers I can't even look at the
off-lease/warranty gear from eBay any more without wasting too much time
figuring out what else it would need to be a baby testing environment for
work stuff.  "So 3-5 of those, more ram for each, a triplet of 2U drive
boxes for lustre and new switch...." And suddenly that $250 used server
morphs into a $15k 10 node cluster with a $400/month power bill to do....
nothing.

I'm beginning to think that HPC may be an addiction best treated with
low-tech hobbies like gardening and metalsmith work. Just need to build out
that CNC plasma cutter with a small cluster for a blender render farm to
drive it....

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

On Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 10:40 AM DJPfulio--- via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> The list has been slow recently.
>
> Refurb microtower Dell and passmarks below.
>
> An ebay special ... All of us get asked by friends about cheap "servers".
>
> Dell has a Core i3-8xxx refurb for $125 in a Micro Tower case. Free
> shipping.  Perfect for non-gamers that want a small PC for cheap.  Add a
> 2T-8T drive and you have a great backup server for your home LAN with 5300
> passmark v10.  Good enough for office work or media server, if that's your
> need.
>
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/385371116037 - Seller has over 98% positive
> ratings on 290K sales.
>
> Specs:
>      Intel i3-8100T 3.1GHz 4-Core / 4-Thread Processor (35W)
>          Intel HD Graphics 630
>      8GB DDR4 2400MHz Memory
>      128GB Solid State Drive
>      Windows 10 Pro
>      Ports:
>      2x USB 2.0
>      4x USB 3.1
>      1xDisplayPort 1.2
>      1xHDMI
>
> Friends don't let friends by older computers when these are so very cheap.
> I'm still seeing 3rd - 5th generation PCs being sold for similar or higher
> prices.  A 4rd gen Core i7 isn't better than this 8th gen Core i3. Compare
>
> CPU             Technology                      Max TDP Passmark v9
> i3 8300T DDR4 2400      8th Gen Coffee Lake     35W     7880
> i7 4765T                4th Gen Haswell         35W     7540
> i5 7500T                7th Gen Kaby Lake       35W     7485
> **i3 8100T DDR4 2400    8th Gen Coffee Lake     35W     7424**
> i5 4570S                4rd Gen Haswell         65W     7021
> i5 7400T                7th Gen Kaby Lake       35W     6887
> i5 6400                 6th Gen Skylake         65W     6850
> i5 6500T DDR4 2400      6th Gen Skylake         35W     6340
> i5 6500T DDR3           6th Gen Skylake         35W     6280
> i5 7260U                7th Gen Kaby Lake       15W     5883
>
> Don't get too worried about the 10s in any passmark scores. Round up/down
> to the closed hundreds
>
> A Core i3-13xxx is around 15K passmarks.  That's about the same as a Core
> i7-10xxxx.  While I didn't check that Core i7 3 generations older than Core
> i3 are roughly the same performance, it does seem reasonable.
> Check it out: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
>
> Posted because I hate to see people blowing more money than necessary. I
> don't know this seller, though I have bought used computers off ebay a few
> times when I needed something cheap and fast.
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