Great Post! I would change your x5650 assumed price though. I bought a HP DL380 G6 with 2x x5650 Processors, 16GB Ram, and 2x 146GB SAS 10k HDDs for 250€ (Approx $310 USD) last month.
Its loud and not as efficient as modern servers but it runs 24/7 no problems
That's great price. Have you installed any GPUs on that?
For comparison purposes we should probably use the cost of new equipment, not second hand. At today's 'ebay' prices Titan (supercomputer) would be much cheaper, too (at least on paper).
Not yet but I plan to install some Firepro S9150s I found on Ebay for that sweet double precision. The server can fit 3 but the electricity would be astronomical and my PSUs would no longer be redundant.
It isnt a fulltime Boinc/Gridcoin rig as it is running my Firewall, NAS and a few other services in VMs but I have 1 x5650 Boincing, keeping my apartment warm fulltime.
I'm not sure that makes sense, my 2 X5650 retailed at 999USD each, knowing the local market here, they wouldve cost more than retail at release. If people want to know current value then maybe a snapshot, like price as of 1st of Jan 2018. Something along those lines in my mind makes a tad more sense.
It may also be interesting to plot the prices of the hardware by month, to see what the historical return was. An interesting thought but a ton of work that only few may find interesting haha.
Keep up the great content, absolutely love reading your analysis'