Lowest spec PC to run engine matches

[cooldalek]

Hi

I'm thinking of buying a dirt cheap 2nd hand pc off ebay just to run my engine matches, maybe a desktop, maybe a laptop.

Certainly single CPU

What's the lowest spec I can get away with?

[Tony Thomas]

Hi

I'm thinking of buying a dirt cheap 2nd hand pc off ebay just to run my engine matches, maybe a desktop, maybe a laptop.

Certainly single CPU

What's the lowest spec I can get away with?

In 1998 I was running my matches on a Pentium 500 Mhz with 128MB of total Ram. I was using 16MB of memory for each engine and I was using chessbase GUI at the time with that crappy winboard adapter. Still Yace and few other engines manage to put out a decent defense against the ex-monster namely Fritz.

[Spock]

Depends on what time control you want to run and what quality of games

[cooldalek]

Can you leave comps running for a few days at a time on engine matches? Or will they overheat?

Assume laptops more likely to overheat than desktops?

[Tony Thomas]

Can you leave comps running for a few days at a time on engine matches? Or will they overheat?

Assume laptops more likely to overheat than desktops?

My current Desktop, an Intel Celeron D 2800MHZ sometimes run for 48 hours playing test games for Romichess. I have never had any over heating problem. Note that my air condition is set to 70 Degree Farenheit, aproximately 21 degree Celsius.

[Graham Banks]

Can you leave comps running for a few days at a time on engine matches? Or will they overheat?

Assume laptops more likely to overheat than desktops?

My three computers run chess 24/7 with reboots the only break.

Regarding hardware, don't go for anything worse than a Pentium 3 or Athlon 1800.

Regards, Graham.

[Shaun]

Hi

I'm thinking of buying a dirt cheap 2nd hand pc off ebay just to run my engine matches, maybe a desktop, maybe a laptop.

Certainly single CPU

What's the lowest spec I can get away with?

A faster machine will produce more games of the same quality faster.

Component prices are crashing and if you are prepared to overclock (which does not have to be risky if you are not greedy). You can build an inexpensive machine that is so powerful.

Areas where you should save money if it is for chess only -

Graphics card you do not need anything more than a basic card.
Features firewire / gigabit ethernet etc are not required.

It is also worth considering running costs - it can cost £100+ a year to run a pc 24x7 - if you consider enery efficiency you can get back the cost of a decent power supply in 2-3 years. Alternatively if the machine is more powerful then for the same number of game you might only need to run half the time.

Some thoughts

Shaun

[cooldalek]

Do "core 2 Duo" and "Dual core " both mean the pc is multi-processor?

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

Do "core 2 Duo" and "Dual core " both mean the pc is multi-processor?

Yes,as the "Core 2 Duo" is the next generation which is much faster than the "Core Duo",by Intel of course

[cooldalek]

thanks for the very quick response Deeb