2P and 4P system guide

Well I have a Gigabyte GA-7PESH1, good board, but from my knowledge way too expensive overall if you can find it.
 
runs2far said:
Any chance we can get an update with socket 2011?
2P socket 2011 is starting to hit reasonable prices and ebay is overrun with spicy chips, but we do not have any info on the possibilities with the different boards.
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I have the ASUS Z9PE-D16/2L, and i also have the SUPERMICRO MBD-X9DRD-IF-O.

I have folded on both, both with e5-2680 cpus.

the Asus uses ~20w more than the SM with the same config: Asus 400w folding, SM 380w folding.

The SM board is pretty funky, long but short, fits in e-atx cases, but i had to orient my 212's going horizontal since it has the narrow type socket, this didn't affect temps at all, as the cpus were the same temp on both boards.

the Asus board i was able to orient the 212s vertical and there is still plenty of room to populate all 16 dimm slots. it also has more pcie x16's for video cards if that's your thing.

both have IPMI options which is very nice

PPD numbers for the e5-2680s:

8101: 16:40 - 255k
8102: no data
8103: 13:01 - 368k
8104: 9:51 - 370k
8105: 13:09 - 355k
 
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Here is a quick guide to 2011 2p folding.

CPU's.

These come in a varity of core counts and speeds, for a full list see here:- E5 Xeon list

8 core is recommended as any clock speed will complete bigadv in time, for hex cores you will need a speed of 2.5Ghz or above.

Be careful of steppings on ES chips, B0 does not play nice with newer Bios's and the chips are more unstable than Cx chips.

Chips can be sourced from ebay or your local e-tailer and prices range from $250 to $2,000. There is a 3rd option but you need to join the IRC channel for that.........

Update for Ivy Bridge based xeons

HCC packaged chips will fit just fine into a standard socket

Mobo's

Offically all of the following companies produce 2p 2011 mobo's.

Asus Asus 2011 boards
Supermicro SM 2011 and 1356 boards
Tyan Tyan 2011 Boards
Gigabyte GigaByte 2011 boards
Intel

Availability is non existant on gigabyte and most of the tyan Boards, recommendations are for either Asus or SM.

The server boards will have on board video, the workstation boards may not - you will need to factor in a gpu, I recommend a cheap HD 5450. If you want to GPU fold at the same time you will probably want a workstation class board as they generally have more PCIe slots

Most mobo's should take Ivy-E xeon's with a BIOS update.

Boards come in all sizes from ATX upwards, the most popular size seems to be SSI EEB or E-ATX so plan a case accordingly.

Ram.

Most mobo's will have an offical list of what memory will work, however my experience has been that most ram should work. To get the best speed you will need quad channel kits for each cpu and a DDR3 speed of 1600, Ivy-EP is rumoured to support 1866 so you may want to future proof your purchase.

2gb sticks will be more than enough for folding.

Update for v2 Ivy Bridge based Xeons.
You must use ECC ram when using 2 cpu's otherwise the machine will not post. Get hold of the approved list from the mobo makers website then hit the net to purchase your preferred brand.

Heatsinks

2011 boards either have the standard square mounting or a narrow ILM mounting. A standard mounting means that subject to clearance for your RAM you can use just about any 2011 heatsink. For the narrow mounting the only one found so far is the Supermicro narrow ILM HSF one - and its not cheap.

There is no need to go OTT with E5 HSF - you can't over clock enough to worry about additional heat. I used a pair of these on my Asus:- Intel 2011 HSF. An alternative would be the Coolermaster 212.

Cases.

The same applies here as to earlier posts in the thread - Make sure you get one that fits your mobo, unless you are handy with a Dremel. the 80w/95w CPU's do not put out much heat but be cautious with the faster CPU's - 2.6Ghz and above as they have a 115/130/135/150w tdp, small cases will have a lot of heat to deal with.

PSU's

Usual recommendation of something high quality, efficent and with 2 EPS plugs. Splitters/adapters are not recommended but if you absolutely must use one, an 8pin PCIe to 8 pin EPS adapter is best.

To give you a guide on power draw, Dual 2665's, HD5450 and a bunch of fans runs about 248w from the wall.
 
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Dual 2011 still seems pretty expensive to me. I've been tempted before, but it never seems to make sense. From a pure thread count/folding ppd perspective, a $1000 quad g34 rig from one of our team mates seems to be the best bet.

If single thread performance is needed for a gaming rig or otherwise, it seems like an Sr2 dual 1366 at 3.6ghz to 4ghz would be a less expensive option.

I suppose if an all purpose folding box with high single thread performance is needed, dual 2011 is basically the only option, but it would cost around $3-4k
 
There are ways of making it cheaper but it is not the cheapest option around

Low power draw makes it good for 2p folding and an SR-2 can't touch it PPD or PPD/W wise
 
jebo_4jc said:
Dual 2011 still seems pretty expensive to me.......a $1000 quad g34 rig from one of our team mates seems to be the best bet.
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Hmm. Haven't seen many complete 48 core, $1,000 quad G34 setups around, even [H]ere :)
And my first 2P 2011 rig was set up for about $1,300, including PSU and memory.
Granted, I got a fantastic deal on two E5-4650Ls to get the price that low.
I've since updated to a more expensive Asus MB at an additional cost of about $200.
 
jebo_4jc said:
I suppose if an all purpose folding box with high single thread performance is needed, dual 2011 is basically the only option, but it would cost around $3-4k
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Where are you getting $3-4K? I'd bet you could get into a dual E5-4650/E5-2680/90 machine for under $1500 with HSFs and 8 x 1GB memory. You would also be able to run it off of any 500W or greater PSU and put it in any ATX case if your board supported the application.

If you have $3K, you'd be close to a 4p 2011 - especially if you had an 850W+ PSU and some HSFs that would fit socket 2011 boards.
 
musky said:
Where are you getting $3-4K? I'd bet you could get into a dual E5-4650/E5-2680/90 machine for under $1500 with HSFs and 8 x 1GB memory. You would also be able to run it off of any 500W or greater PSU and put it in any ATX case if your board supported the application.

If you have $3K, you'd be close to a 4p 2011 - especially if you had an 850W+ PSU and some HSFs that would fit socket 2011 boards.
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I must have been looking at the wrong places on eBay
 
In my opinion, even if going for dual 2011, source the ~$500 E5-4650's. They run roughly the same as E5-2680's, but you can move to a 4P board in the future AND they cost less (at the moment).

I made the mistake of buying a bunch of E5-2680's for over $600ea. I then found E5-4650's for $500 ea and so far they're running great in a 2P arrangement.

254827 PPD on 8101 for dual E5-4650. 263868 PPD on 8101 for dual E5-2680 (different WUs, but they're clocked the same. 3.1GHz all-core turbo.)

Dual E5-2660's are only good for 220213 PPD.

E5-4650

E5-2680
 
Thanks for the knowledge bigted, I'm looking into building with the same SM board :)

Thank you Nathan_P for the update.

2 or 4P 2011 may not be the cheapest solution up front, but the ppd/watt is good and as the prices are now, a smart ebay shopper can get a 2P 2011 at less than $1500.

Knowing that the Hyper 212 heatsinks fit most boards is good to know, and the knowledge of hunting C revisions on the Spicy chips is a help to me.
 
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