Project: The Great Wall (GA-8N-SLi-QUAD)

Ockie said:
I remember recommending computer parts to a VP, first thing he told me, "I don't want junk, I want the best that you can get so I can use it for a long time". They dont want to wait for the computer to catch up to them, they want the computer to be waiting for them.
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But when their check depends on that system running, they want the best which doesn't always mean bleeding edge.... it means fast and stable. This is a guy that DOES NOT need quad SLI...

Ockie said:
If it were me personally I would have chosen a multi monitor video card instead of multiple cards just because of the sheer intimidation and the chances of problems occuring with multiple video cards.
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And that's what I am saying... he went with A) an nVidia chipset based system (not very stable IMHO) and B) quad SLI which... IIRC isn't even supported by nVidia. I may be wrong on this but even if they do support it.... there are how many boards out there that do it? Really... when I build computers for people that depend on them for their business I look at their NEEDS and set aside my WANTS. It's up to you to sell that person on why what you will do for them is whats best.
 
THIS IS NOT QUAD SLI!!!!!! STOP SAYING IT IS!!!!
quad sli uses two x16 pcie slots i.e the asus a8nsli 32, and has two tier cards.
this is just a mobo which supports 4 cards. if you read eraly reviews of this, it was well nigh on impossible to set up all slied cards on this.
he is just using 4 graphics cards, and it will work fine.

however for the makers advice, with the lian li and that many cards you will need extra cooling in the side of the case for those 4 cards as lian li blower does not work well and 4 7800gt = lots of heat!

want pics of screen!
f
 
Poncho said:
I'm gonna laugh when this guy gets fired for spending all this cash on a system that is totally unstable. Really man.,.... I would sell all that crap and build a Xeon workstation and add PCI cards until you have enough outputs. This guys paycheck depends on the stability of his system.... and you failed to reasearch what he NEEDs rather than what YOU want.
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Always a troll in the pack ;)

Repeat with me kids ... NO SLI ... I will test it for the fun of it, but it will not run in the SLi config.

Xeon workstation would be fine if I was looking for processing power. I don't need that much proc. I need video. And lots of it. Find me a pci video card that will push the 2D frames I need in the resolution behind the monitor. It just doesn't exist. I tested the NVS series with 2 and 4 of these monitors and the Windows desktop was a slide show at the native resolution.

Look, I've built close to 1200 systems, designed 60 build outs, and have been building PCs and staying on the bleeding edge with my systems for 5 years now in engineering, video production, and data management situations. Don't come into MY house and start shitting on the rug. Any system can be stable if you build it right.
 
freddiepm61 said:
THIS IS NOT QUAD SLI!!!!!! STOP SAYING IT IS!!!!
quad sli uses two x16 pcie slots i.e the asus a8nsli 32, and has two tier cards.
this is just a mobo which supports 4 cards. if you read eraly reviews of this, it was well nigh on impossible to set up all slied cards on this.
he is just using 4 graphics cards, and it will work fine.
f
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Actually FYI, quad sli support is within the drivers and will be officially supported in the near future when the dual pcb sli cards comes out for consumers.

Also, with hacked drivers people were able to make these into quad sli boxes, the board supports quad sli... a lot of people had the problem that it only shows up 3 video cards in SLI instead of the 4, but this should change with the new drivers. There are some chinese reviews out there with the screenshots and hacked drivers... thats if you can read chinese ;)
 
lobstar said:
Look, I've built close to 1200 systems, designed 60 build outs, and have been building PCs and staying on the bleeding edge with my systems for 5 years now in engineering, video production, and data management situations. Don't come into MY house and start shitting on the rug. Any system can be stable if you build it right.
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flamers got WRECKED

I look forward to seeing the final setup :)
 
No offense OP, but if someone tried to build me that computer (with the same needs) on company budget, I would fire them ASAP. Nice computer, but very unprofessional allocation of company resources. I would assume it cost well around 5k--simply unfathomable (can't wait to see the 3DMark06 scores thou...)
 
I love all the hate about getting fired ... LOL ... AGIAN! I'm doing what he asked, not telling him this is what he needs. Re-read the FIRST POST! To be honest, this machine is pretty much a steal. I mean, $5k for all this gear? IBM and Alienware aint got shit on that ... its the monitors that are expensive ...

So, I've been at work since 8am, its now 11:47pm ... Its been hell, but its finished. I don't have benchies, since the thing won't do SLi. Sorry, I know, it sucks, but its just not working. I'll take a stab when nVidia releases the correct drivers for quad SLi.

In the mean time, I'm tired. So, I only have a two pics right now. I'll get more pics with it in action when the boss gets all of his apps up.

wall1.jpg

wall2.jpg


Oh yeah, and the obligatory shot of the brand new Color LCD Cisco IP phone system I just finished installing corporate wide :)
 
why didnt you just span the display instead of using dual view, i would look really kick ass on all those, and what mount are you using for the displays
 
I'm using the Ergotron over under. Spanning that would make it hard to manage windows and workspace, but if he wants that, I can easily turn it on.
 
lobstar that looks great :) damn i'd kill for that.


I agree with you, these naysayers have no no no idea about the real corporate world where companies splurge money (like my CEO who bought a slew of BMW 7 series's for the company cars... or purchasing a Citation X learjet and another Beechcraft for "just incase".


btw, what was the boss's initial impression?
 
cyks said:
No offense OP, but if someone tried to build me that computer (with the same needs) on company budget, I would fire them ASAP. Nice computer, but very unprofessional allocation of company resources. I would assume it cost well around 5k--simply unfathomable (can't wait to see the 3DMark06 scores thou...)
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Really, you don't have an idea how much companies spend... read my above post. Hell, I'm not even going to mention this 2 million dollar storage array that we purchased.. or the Cisco IP gigabit phones.


The price that the OP is spending is GREAT... you try and get ANYTHING that matches it for nearly that price.
 
Ockie said:
btw, what was the boss's initial impression?
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Initial impression is that his legs are hot. LOL :p

That thing is kicking the heat out of the case, but its really hot under the one section of his desk, a good 90F while the rest of the office is about 68F. Chipset and Core temps are stable under load at about 46C and 42C respectively.

He loves the Hauppage PVR so far, and he has lost his mouse pointer several times. When I asked him what he thought, he just muttered "Overwhelmed." I don't think he expected those monitors to be THAT big. Which is good. This is his personal ball washer (Lewis Black ....).

If anyone ever decides to do this, heres a tip: Make sure to manually set the speed of the PCIe slots if you use the exact same cards in PCIe Slot2 and Slot3. What happens is the board will default to 0-16-16-1 because the SLi bridge manages the middle two slots. Since they are the exact same cards, they have the same pipes, and automagically wants to SLi. Even if the little selector card is set to normal, it still tries to do it. Also, 8-8-8-8 doesn't seem to work ... so I had to run 1-16-16-1 instead. Not much I can do until we get a driver update and a BIOS update, but its functional. I don't think you will have this problem if you use dissimilar cards.
 
disapointing they didnt release it in proper working order...

but i guess companies are becoming more comfortable in doing so as of late.. using us to beta test and troubleshoot for them. im sure it saves them lots of money. :(
 
Anyone that thinks what I posted was hate or wrong, needs to do the rereading.

Nowhere in the OP does it say the man wanted all that power-- hell-- the man likey doesn't even know how much power he can get, god bless him.

Whatever discounts the OP gets on hardware is no excuse for all that. It can simply be applied to more appropriate means. What companies spend in total is also no excuse for denying me-- let alone far from the point.

I challenge you to save thousands and try to see the difference of performance for what the CEO does.

So anyways... nice gaming rig you got there. I am still looking forward to how many 3D marks it gets, despite how adamant you peeps are.
 
oh man that kicks ass, I guess i can only dream of having a setup like that for now. i want to see some more shots with cool graphs and stuff on each different screen!

by far the most impressive setup i have seen in quite some time....
 
cyks said:
Whatever discounts the OP gets on hardware is no excuse for all that. It can simply be applied to more appropriate means. What companies spend in total is also no excuse for denying me-- let alone far from the point.
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Thats a dumb comback considering that it IS the point. Do you know that my boss has an OQO for his notes, a sattelite phone for the company contact so when he's in in South America or somehere in Europe he can get a good signal. Do you know that the CEO's here also drive Armored cars and have over a mile of underground tunnels constructed and personal body guards....

So you tell me, how is $13,000 a lot when you look at it from that prespective... how is it irrelevant.


Your basing this build on your own oppinion, if I asked my co workers to build me a machine and they came up with the junk you mentioned... I'd fire you on the spot.

This is nothing but a business expense and I'm sure that CEO has made all of that back already.


RagingSamster said:
I challenge you to save thousands and try to see the difference of performance for what the CEO does.
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I challange you the same thing but yet have that computer last two years and still be considered good.... I dare you... oh wait... you cant do that... impossible... but nice try.




The bottom line is that they demand the best. If I owned a Ferrari, mansion, highest rank in the company, etc... do you think I want some mediocore setup? The boss gave him the budget and he worked from that... if it was too much then do you honestly think the boss would have thought about it? I'm pretty sure he knows the value of $13,000 and a good computer vs the ones bestbuy sells.



I really hope you aren't in IT.
 
My point is not that you spent the money, believe me I know how corporations view money.... I've spent a lot of it :D But my point is that you built a system that is VERY bleeding edge, using parts that are NOT the most stable which, IMHO, is the most important thing for a person who relies on a system for his work. Now... I suggested the Dual Xeons since the validation that Intel goes through on their server platforms is second to none and that means STABILITY. With a good workstation board you could load it up with PCI 2D Workstation cards, high end mind you, and provided the same amount of performance for HIS NEEDs without comprimising stability. Just wait.... you'll be back in that guys office time and time again to try and fix the thing that are inheriantly wrong with using bleeding edge hardware. That's my point.... Not the money. I wipe my ass with 13k of my companies money and it won't make a difference. Hell, I threw away 200k worth of hardware (stuff that's not even out yet and worked great) just because I needed the space. :D
 
I guess I see where you're coming from.
 
"using parts that are NOT the most stable"

Thats like saying you can build a house with a wood or with 40cm thick rebar cement walls. One is more stable than the other :p He doesn't need server stability, he needs a box that does what its told and when its told. I know what my boss needs.

The priority with this machine was finding the match between functionality and reliability. Between video conferencing, TV, 40-50 charts, etc, it needed to be bleeding edge. He knew the possibilty of this not coming together the way he wanted it to. Hell, I was very cautious about building this because I know what can happen, and do you really think I would put myself in a position to be in his office every day fixing something? Thats career suicide. But, its something he wanted. I advised him on the liabilities, and such, and he still wanted to do it. Are there backup plans? Of course.

There is an art to stability. Its knowing your weakest link in the chain, and controlling that link as much as you can.
 
lobstar said:
There is an art to stability. Its knowing your weakest link in the chain, and controlling that link as much as you can.
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Control is an illusion. My point is that you went with hardware that was NOT needed, when there was a more stable option. I would NEVER build a business PC with a Giga-byte board, or any other manufacture than Intel. I wouldn't have used anything but an Intel chipset.... all for stability. I wouldn't have put 4 Top End PCIe gaming cards in a worstation, they put off way too much heat and draw way too much power. But that's jsut me. Maybe he won't care when his PC locks up in the middle of a tele-conference. Maybe he won't care that he has swamp ass because of the space heater that is now under his desk. I know I would....
 
Ockie said:
Thats a dumb comback considering that it IS the point. Do you know that my boss has an OQO for his notes, a sattelite phone for the company contact so when he's in in South America or somehere in Europe he can get a good signal. Do you know that the CEO's here also drive Armored cars and have over a mile of underground tunnels constructed and personal body guards....

So you tell me, how is $13,000 a lot when you look at it from that prespective... how is it irrelevant.


Your basing this build on your own oppinion, if I asked my co workers to build me a machine and they came up with the junk you mentioned... I'd fire you on the spot.

This is nothing but a business expense and I'm sure that CEO has made all of that back already.
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$13000 includes monitors, which has nothing to do with what I am saying. The PC is overkill, far from mission critical, and his/your/my company budget doesn't qualify it! Large budgets are not built upon careless spending, my friend. I don't give a shit if the budget is in the hundreds of billions that computer is still a gaming rig and I am truly sorry if you think that is an opinion—because I am assured in seeing that you ignored my challenge to save thousands and try and find a decrease in mission performance. With that I will take my leave because I see nothing more than the caress of a corporate e-penis here. Such a tool…
 
When you order a high end computer from dell they dont go "are you retarded you do not need this much power" they just build it for you. Same thing with private contract work. They build what they are asked. Stop getting your panties in a twist because you are jealous of the rig the man is building.


Great work, OP, nice machine, hopefully the boss likes it, and can make some money off of it! :)
 
Great job lobstar it's truely impressive. Don't mind the people in here being stupid, you did what you were asked to do. If he had a problem with it, he wouldn't have let you spend the money.
 
It's just somewhat annoying that the job could have been done cheaper and saved some power in the long run. Letting a kid lose with a blank check in a candy shop. But hey, like people said, he's got the money to spend, and got a wall of pure pwnage in return. Good for the CEOs.
 
chill haters

Nice job...you could have gone to Dell and bought their Quad card solution for $10k and then added monitors, but that would have put you close to the $20 mark.

The important question is:

Can you have every Sunday football game on those screens? :D
 
mrweasel said:
Can you have every Sunday football game on those screens? :D
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I think we both know the real question here is how long will you last watching every football game at once before your head explodes :p
 
Ignore the haters, they're alllll just jealous ;).


That is the most kickass setup I have EVER seen.
 
Poncho said:
Control is an illusion. My point is that you went with hardware that was NOT needed, when there was a more stable option. I would NEVER build a business PC with a Giga-byte board, or any other manufacture than Intel. I wouldn't have used anything but an Intel chipset.... all for stability. I wouldn't have put 4 Top End PCIe gaming cards in a worstation, they put off way too much heat and draw way too much power. But that's jsut me. Maybe he won't care when his PC locks up in the middle of a tele-conference. Maybe he won't care that he has swamp ass because of the space heater that is now under his desk. I know I would....
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So, what you say is you would use a setup that doesn't exist?

Lets look at the other options: all workstation class products.

How about a Sun Ultra40 workstation? That has dual Opteron 254s,4GB of RAM, two PCIe, and expandability. So, the workstation is $4995. One drive at 250GB, 1 year product support. Now, take the Quadro 1400 out, and put in two NVS440 cards. $420/card. Same monitors, etc. Its almost the same price, and a lot less work for me.

Lets push out video on two of those from the TV (which he uses to watch market trends), have Cisco VTadvantage (Webcam conferencing) to communicate to our london and tokyo office at the same time, push Microsoft LiveMeeting with the office app of his choice, keep the trading software open (so far today running full screen, 10 charts/screen, 3 screens), one scheduling/messenger window with an IE window.

On that box, with 4 screens and just Windows and IE open, dragging IE was a slide show. One window. One operation. Those cards just don't have the power that I need.

Now, why did I choose that setup to compare? Because I have 10 of those boxes sitting around and a couple cards that I could test with. It didn't work. And that is a tried and true machine.

He doesn't do this stuff all day, every day, but being the CEO, when he wants to do it, it better work right. If it doesn't work from the start, you start over. If I could have found another board with quad PCIe, I would have used it. No doubt. GB is not my favorite vendor by any means. But, it was available. Does it mean I'll use it for ever? Nope. But, at least with this machine, I have that option of going in, tearing down the box, and rebuilding it on a Saturday. Go with that Sun, and I'm stuck with it until they decide to release another model that has the options I want. And then I get to repurchase the entire box. I've saved money, met all the goals, and come in UNDER his budget of $17000 for his two year office computer solution (remember, he wanted LESS computers).

I totally agree with you though, Poncho. I would have much rather had a solution like the Ultra40, or something similar work, but I can only build whats available.
 
The haters got owned again :D

Very nice build, I completely agree with your choices (mobo, 4 cards, etc) over the other options people have suggested. I just wish I had as much of a budget as your boss does when I gets a computer :D

Keep up the good work, I want to see it finished.
 
lobstar said:
I totally agree with you though, Poncho. I would have much rather had a solution like the Ultra40, or something similar work, but I can only build whats available.
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See, my point is that I would HATE using a GB board with a nForce chipset on something for a business. It's just not stable enough for me. Now, there shouldn't be a reason to need PCIe cards when you can get very solid workstation cards in PCI. Look at the FireGL series of cards. You can get those in PCI flavors and they should be able to do the job, for what he NEEDs, just as well. You don't need gaming cards in that situation. I'm getting the impression that you are "fan" of nVidia, and quite frankly their worstation cards are meh. And also, with that much multitasking you would be better off going with a workstation. Off the top of my head I can't recall if you are using a DP solution, I'll check after I post this. To each their own i guess.... that just isn't a way that I would go. And for the record it isn't about money. My guess is that you could have gone above budget and the guy wouldn't have cared. He just wants something that is the best for HIM, not the sack riders on some internet forums. But I hope it works out for him. You might want to look into some type of water cooling (it would have to be extreme LOL) and possibly a second power supply to solve the heat and more power might help stability.... maybe. Just my .02.
 
Yea, you used a single P4 in that setup. I would have REALLY considered a DP solution there. Would help with the multitasking that the system demands.
 
I got a few minutes with the machine today. Just ran 3Dmark06 to see what it would give me. No SLi :(

All stock settings BTW.
score.JPG
 
That is a fair assumption Poncho. I do preffer nVidia personally, but this was more of a rational thought. The mobo I had no choice with the chipset, so nForce it was. Since I was getting the nForce chipset, I figured I'd go with the nVidia cards for a compatibility match since I wasn't sure what the results of combining this 4 PCIe board on an nForce chipset and running 4 ATI cards. I will say, I probably wouldn't have run into the problems I did if I chose the ATI cards since I wouldn't have to worry about the SLi garbage trying to install. It did run through my head though, because I've been meaning to try those ATI workstation cards. The NVS440s are just coincidence. They had those here before I even started :)
 
luucky!!

personally, i wouldn't have spent that 5k on one project...but WOW. just...WOW. a picture is worth a thousand words eh? i can't even imagine one of those monitors :p i hope they serve you well!
 
It's plenty stable if he built it right which he did. Just drop it and admit that it is awesome.

Those GPU's will come in handy being Vista capable.

EDIT: Also how hard is it to swap out the MoBo when something better becomes avaliable? Not very.

EDIT2: Dang double post.
 
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