Proposed retirement of StompMonster

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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597
Location
Merseyside
As some of you may have noticed, the StompMonster hasn't been in production for quite a while.

There are a number of reasons behind this slacking:

The main reason is that some bad weather late last year tried to remove the roof of my garage (which is attached to my house) - this is where Stompy lives. Since then, I have had to switch all electrical appliances off in the garage, including Stompy, more than half of my farm and my main server, as the roof now leaks and it isn't safe to leave things powered up. I have also had to move all of the equipment to a dry part of the garage, further away from mains power and LAN connections.

Real life has also had an influence, as my job has ramped up considerably for the last 5 months. I am currently working on an international project that has required a lot of travel and long working hours. I don't have much time left over for housework, never mind house maintenance and hobbies. I am planning to take some time off in late March / Early April, when I can start on the major project to replace the roof on my garage, if other plans I currently have don't work out.

Last, but no means least, I'm looking into having a major extension built onto my house. This will require the demolition of the garage, as well as trying to find a home for literally tons of accumulated items whilst the building work takes place (I'm seriously looking at renting a 20 foot container in the garden to store it all).

With all of these factors, I'm looking to officially retire from hosting the StompMonster in the very near future. I've been hosting Stompy since April 2004, but its getting to be about time that I hand the baton to someone new or we agree to retire Stompy gracefully.

There is also the issue that the StompMonster hardware is now starting to look a little antiquated (XP1600/1700 running Win98), more modern hardware is much more productive and energy effecient. So I would personally propose the potential retirement of the StompMonster in its current form completely.

If nothing else, I would like to kick off the debate as to what to do with Stompy from now on.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2005
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Herts
I'd like to know more about the 'monster. Photos ideally :) How many xp's is it etc.?

What are you going to do with it? It sounds like it's pretty much retired already anyway.
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2002
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Derbyshire
I would think the only people who it may concern are the original share holders listed here

Personally I think it'll be a shame but Stompy has had a very good innings and you've done a great job of keeping him fed, up until the wind tried to steal your garage at least. :o

I will PM GSVJase and Captain Fizz as I know where they're hiding these days :p
 
Associate
OP
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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597
Location
Merseyside
The StompMonster layers were as follows:

PC-Chips M841 Motherboard
Athlon XP1600 CPU
128Meg Memory
PSU
Small hard Drive (enough to hold Win 98 and SETI@Home)
Windows 98SE

I've got a basic website set up on Geocities that I did a while ago:

Old Stompy Photo's

There were 6 stompy layers in operation at last call, though 1 was starting to get a bit unreliable. The other layer had the CPU Fan header fail, which cooked both the motherboard and the processor (as in DOA, beyond repair). Whilst I hosted it, I had to replace all of the CPU heatsinks, a number of the PSU's and a couple of the hard drives died as well.

The 6 working layers were re-housed in October 2004 onto MDF shelves in a 19" rack. This allowed much better airflow, as well as much easier maintenance.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Oct 2002
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4,061
Location
Inverness (UK)
Well, she's done well. :)
Cheers again to magman. Stompy was a greedy booger. :D

Retirement sems inevitable now - As what would the full stompy's output be compared to a recent CPU/Machine? Including heat & power use.

If it is getting split (being a shareholder) I wouldn't mind one of the CPU's to replace the aged Thunderbird 1000GHz in my server. :p

I suppose it's up to the shareholders, and more importantly the hosters over the last few years.
Hosting stompy also included an electricity bill (and occasionally complaining partners! :p ) - So whoever has hosted it would have first say IMHO.

Unless it will still be of use?
If it is still churning out more units than a spangley new PC - Would it be worth it crunching?
 
Soldato
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Colne.... Up Norf.
As a shareholder... 5 shares actually, if it does get broken up and binned/sold etc, id like all the cash raised... if any to go to either Magman to at least partly cover a tiny fraction of the electricity cost the beast will have been eatting.
 
Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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Location
Temuka, New Zealand
DreederOcUK said:
As a shareholder... 5 shares actually, if it does get broken up and binned/sold etc, id like all the cash raised... if any to go to either Magman to at least partly cover a tiny fraction of the electricity cost the beast will have been eatting.
As a shareholder of 6 I'll second that.

Many thanks are due to Magman for his continued support of old Stompy but I think the power to production ratio is now well past economic, one C2d would probably out perform the remaining layers :eek: stick it on ebay as a piece of computing history:)
 
Associate
Joined
10 Mar 2006
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337
Hi, i know stompmonster was setup before my time but i thought i'd make a few points/suggestions.

When it was producing Stompmonster was still in the top 20 SETI producers with a RAC of over a 1000 i think. so in terms of points it is worth running, however i also agree you could get a single core2duo system to get a similar amount for a lot less power.

Not so long ago there were some posts advertising, "free electricity here send your machines". maybe stompmonster could be relocated.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17646968&highlight=free

this post seemed to indicate that there are other unused layers (10?), is it worth setting these up?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17533840&highlight=stompmonster

there was some talk about a son of stompy, could any of the bits be re-used in more upto date equipment (eg the rack, psu's, harddrive, win98 licences)

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17533840&highlight=stompmonster

For what its worth i hope it does continue, and to give some motivation, i hereby issue a midrange month and a bit PARP to the stompmonster.
 
Associate
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
137
Crikey my account is active after all this time!

Alas poor old Stompy...... was a great time and something that will last in the memories of all dungeon inmates back in the good old stomping days of the OcUK Seti team!

If any money could be salvaged from the sale of Stompy I'd be glad to see it go to Magman to at least contribute towards his electricity costs :D
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
5,600
Location
Surrey
I'll raise a glass to stompy, he crunched well and hard for many many years.

It'll be sad to see him turned not on but the hardware would probably be matched in terms of output by one or two high end boxes today. As such the environment thanks as all for the retirement.

Cheers all (and doesn't that list of names take you back :eek: )

Paul
 
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