Tony Sivori wrote:

On Mon, 01 Sep 2003 16:49:57 +0100, Filipe Santos wrote:

I own a Pentium III machine, so my units take hours to process. 
I blame the obsolete Pentium III architecture and I thought that 
a dedicated hardware expansion card could be a solution. 

[snip]

Why such a card hasn't been made?

This was discussed here years ago, try Googling for it. A card was 
briefly offered to the public, and if memory serves, none were 
ever actually delivered.

If you stop to think about it, pretty much what your asking for is 
a P4 (since you're unhappy with your PIII times) or its equivalent 
on a PCI card. That isn't going to happen anytime soon, and if it 
did you wouldn't like the cost.

Would $253.43 (plus shipping) be sufficiently inexpensive?  

--
Tony Sivori

Another approach would be to build a SETI-only configuration ... 
Power, motherboard, CPU, heatsink/fan, RAM, LAN, HDD.  

For configuration, you need to temporarily install KBD, Mouse, 
Monitor, Video card, CD, ... 

Sample condfiguration from geeks.com (no, I don't work for them 
... I just like their price structure) ... $253.43.  

I think this condfiguration should pump out 4 to 6 WU per day.  Anyone who 
has better information should correct me.  

Pentium 4 1.9GHz, 128MBy PC800 ECC, 4.3GBy HDD, 230 watt supply.  

J-MS6385-1900-K10 MSI MS-6385 Intel 850 mATX MBB & Pentium 4         $169.00

64RIMM800ECC-N    2 64MB Rambus DRAM ECC for RIMM Socket-800MHz       $43.00
Note: 128M is more than enough for Linux

JETCOOLP4         Antec Jet Cool Socket 423 Heat Sink/Fan to 1.7GHz    $4.99
Note: you might want a beter fan)

LP6100A           Powmax LP6100A 230-Watt micro-ATX Power Supplyw/ATX $18.49

90430D3           Maxtor 4.3GB UDMA/33 2400RPM 256KB IDE Hard Drive   $17.95

Essential parts ... 						     $253.43

The following are temporary ... needed for install/configuration only 

ASVGB1-8M         8MB Savage IX AGP Video Card - Retail Box $11.65    $11.65

SFD-321B          Samsung Beige 1.44MB 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Drive      $7.95

LTR-16101B-DO-R   Lite-On 16x10x40 Beige IDE CDRW Drive               $28.50

                  Keyboard, mouse                                     $10.00
				  
		  17 inch Monitor - used                              $49.99
				  
Installation and configuration parts ... 	                     $108.09

								     $361.52

Overall ... you need to be sure that all of the parts are mutually compatible; 
you need to know how to install and configure Linux; some of these parts are 
used; the case was omitted to reduce cost; shipping costs are not included.  

-- 
Martin G. Diehl

Reality -- That which remains after you stop thinking 
about it.  

All replies and comments accepted and considered.  
Adoption of your suggestions are at my sole discretion.  
Award criteria are unpublished and are considered to 
be a trade secret.  As such, awards for your responses 
cannot be guaranteed.  Incoming flames may be stored 
for use during severe winters or may be circulated for 
deep analysis, peer review, and/or literary criticism.