Call to arms!

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Vaulter98c

Vaulter98c

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2009
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May 21, 2008
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OK, here's the deal. I'm pissed. REAL PISSED. There is a big nasty noise behind us, and it's the EVGA LawnMower.

So, I'm Gonna pull all the stops. 1,000$ in folding hardware.

I need you guys to put together a "shopping list" for me. Try to go used prices, like FS/FT stuff. I only have a few requests

1) I need a new 4 way mother board and a PSU that can handle 2 9800 GX2 (local friend of mine is thinking of bailing on 2)

2) I would like to stay away from SMP if possible, I fear that as time goes on CPU points will only go down more

3)I have a rack, but no shelves for it, take that in mind

4) Please try to keep things some what simple, I don't have the time to be doing crazy projects, but setting up a board and a few cards each few days shouldnt be too hard

5) Try not to rape my power bill too bad, Ive got a server "room" with a dedicated 20 Amp line just for the rack, but try to go max PPD/Watt (sustainment is the key here!)

6) I will need all components, not just a mobo and grfx card

7)???

8) PROFIT!!

SO, tell me what to do!!

FOLD ON FOR 33!!



EDIT- I know I said I was short on cash, just to clarify, this is from a loan, didnt want to tap into it, but its for a good cause right?
 
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A 750tx for corsair will power 2x 9800GX2 cards just fine.

You can pick them up used for 75 or less often in the FS section.

I had one powering 3 of those cards a while back.
 
On another note;

I plan to be back up to full strength shortly. I'm going to make a run at top 20 ppd list again. Tis winter after all.
 
I checked out that dual socket, not liking the comments on newegg, and I'd not be able to RMA if I needed. I co sidered a dual 5520 (16 cores hell ya) but I'm affraid that smp is on the way out points wise. What's yalls thoughts?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
The way to maximize your PpDpWatt is to cram as many GPU cores as possible onto a single MoBo.
Feed then all from a low wattage CPU and only use 1 stick of ram.

Best mobo, if you can find one cheap, is the MSI K9A2 Plat as it will take 4 double width vid cards.
Look to drop in a 35/45 watt AMD single/dual core CPU and 1 Gb ram.
4x 9800GX2's or even 295's.
The hard part is that you will either need a 1200-1500 watt PSU or you need 2x 650-750 watt PSU's to power it.
The whole rig will pull close to 1 Kw from the wall and do ~45k PpD with todays protiens.

Luck .......... :D
 
Tigerbiten said:
Best mobo, if you can find one cheap, is the MSI K9A2 Plat
Click to expand...

The last of these I tried to get gkanakis grabbed before I could get to them...:D That power hungry PPD monster had to be fed, I guess. ;) Someone please sell me one in good shape so I can consolidate some more cards.
 
My thoughts are that tiger it spot on for todays hardware.

I also like it for what might happen. If we do get a GPU2 that can truly use an ATI card fully it's an easy swap of hardware.
 
I've got a 680iLT that has 2 slots and a P4, and a Q66. Should I sell those and try to grab 2 k9a2 's and 2 more 9800gx2's? That would give me a 4way 9800gx2 rig and a 4 way 8800gt rig. I'm thinking 300 for the 98's, 200 for the mobos, what would be the lowest wattage CPU? Also, should I look intomore ram and then make a ram drive for the cards to use, less power than a hdd spinning? What about powering these monsters?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Vaulter98c said:
I've got a 680iLT that has 2 slots and a P4, and a Q66. Should I sell those and try to grab 2 k9a2 's and 2 more 9800gx2's? That would give me a 4way 9800gx2 rig and a 4 way 8800gt rig. I'm thinking 300 for the 98's, 200 for the mobos, what would be the lowest wattage CPU? Also, should I look intomore ram and then make a ram drive for the cards to use, less power than a hdd spinning? What about powering these monsters?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

A HDD spinning hardly takes any watts at all. I wouldnt put the extra time and effort into it. Just dont use any extra HDDs and make sure you dont have more han one optical drive (if any). I'd find the GX2s before you sell anything. Those will be the hardest to find.

This guy has a really cheap stick of RAM and a cheap HD.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1457305
 
The 4 way 8800 rig will be fine with a 750TX. For the 4x 9800GX2 rig tiger has good advice in his earlier post.

If your going all GPU, selling the current hardware probably makes sense.
 
Axdrenalin said:
The last of these I tried to get gkanakis grabbed before I could get to them...:D That power hungry PPD monster had to be fed, I guess. ;) Someone please sell me one in good shape so I can consolidate some more cards.
Click to expand...

they have a new revision of the k9a2 that now supports am3 and ddr 3. I have it and it's a dream.
 
I just bought two K9A2's from Lassiter, but i think I am going to only be using 1 of them.
I can do $130 shipped
 
Listen to Tiger for power usage estimates and advice. He has it down to an art form. :cool:
 
nitro, is that with the 3 core CPU in it? was he the one doing that deal?
as for the other one, what CPU should I use?

Any more ideas?
 
Yea with CPU and HSF

Or I also have a P6N Diamond if you would rather an intel setup, but i dont have CPU/HSF for it.
 
is the P6 4 slots? What would you want for both? Consider a trade of a Q66 to help stretch the money?
 
Yea the P6N is also 4 slots, and I looked and I have a Q6600 that I could put into it.

Im only gonna let one go, but i havent decided.
 
let me know which one and a price and we'll talk. So, I'm looking at buying

2x 9800 GX2 ($320)
2x 4 Slot Mother boards (unknown)
1x 1000 watt PSU (unkown)
Some ram (not much)

And to sell I have

1x 680i SLI LT Mobo
1x Q66
Maybe a 250Gig WD Hdd

that look right?

What sort of PPD could I expect from
4 8800gt
4 9800GX2
3 GTX260
1 SMP client on a E83
PS3
 
The Q6600 isn't the most power efficient chip, but you do leave yourself the option of SMP on the box now or in the future.
 
Vaulter98c said:
What sort of PPD could I expect from
4 8800gt
4 9800GX2
3 GTX260
1 SMP client on a E83
PS3
Click to expand...
~85000PPD with overclocks.

~5000PPD per 8800GT
~10000PPD per 9800GX2
~8000PPD per GTX260
~900PPD for the PS3
~2000PPD for the E8300
 
That sounds fun :)

Any idea on prices for a 1000 watt PSU for the 9800 GX2 rig?

Also, can I run 8 GPU's in a box? I thought only 7 could run in XP?
 
Isn't the SMP client going to be less capable then a basic GPU, anyways? <-- I'm not too sure, but this is based off of my experience with a C2D T5600 vs 8500GT.
EDIT: ignore. somebody just blew this myth out of the water :)
@Vaulter98c: did you fix the motherboard, or is it's status still unknown?
 
Vaulter98c said:
That sounds fun :)

Any idea on prices for a 1000 watt PSU for the 9800 GX2 rig?

Also, can I run 8 GPU's in a box? I thought only 7 could run in XP?
Click to expand...
For new PSUs, expect to pay ~$180-200 after rebate. Have a look at these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171022
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256043

You can run 8 GPUs in XP, 5 in Vista.
 
Vaulter98c said:
That sounds fun :)

Any idea on prices for a 1000 watt PSU for the 9800 GX2 rig?

Also, can I run 8 GPU's in a box? I thought only 7 could run in XP?
Click to expand...
I think PC299 has a 1000w hes looking to get rid of
 
Zero82z said:
His setup is insane... Does he work for nVidia or something? He's also using the GPU3 beta which could account for his high production somewhat.
Click to expand...

Right now he is mystery man. We have no idea from where he came or how he got the fermi cards.

My point in posting in this thread is to encourage waiting to invest in the gear to build this folding machine. If one machine can produce over 200,000 PPD with the new cards, why waste money now to build a rig to make 30,000 PPD when it will be non competetive in 3 or 4 months?
 
Well... unless if the new GPU3 client does that to all the cards, ATi included...

Too early to tell. Too many variables unaccounted for so far.
 
rcranfield said:
Right now he is mystery man. We have no idea from where he came or how he got the fermi cards.

My point in posting in this thread is to encourage waiting to invest in the gear to build this folding machine. If one machine can produce over 200,000 PPD with the new cards, why waste money now to build a rig to make 30,000 PPD when it will be non competetive in 3 or 4 months?
Click to expand...
He's also using an unreleased version of a future client, and we have no idea how other GPUs will perform under the same circumstances either.
 
Well, whats yalls view on that? Should I buy a 4 way, keep my 2 GX2's on my 680i and just sell my Q66 to recoop for a PSU, pretty much only spending about 150$ or so?

That would leave 800 for new V/cards once they come out... I love how they smack talk over there too, glad its not just us lol

Anyone else notice how their top guys are producing like mad? all these guys had smaller numbers not long ago? thoughts? Hell, the new guy accounts for a quarter million himself!
 
I agree there are a lot of unknowns. No idea of price of the new cards, but my guess is they will HAVE to be at least competetive with the ATI product, especially in this economy. If so, then the $1000 the OP was talking about would buy 2 of these new cards. Stick them in a basic SLI board and crank out 50,000 PPD just on 2 cards. That probably beats just about anything he could do with that $1000.
 
Vaulter98c said:
Well, whats yalls view on that? Should I buy a 4 way, keep my 2 GX2's on my 680i and just sell my Q66 to recoop for a PSU, pretty much only spending about 150$ or so?

That would leave 800 for new V/cards once they come out... I love how they smack talk over there too, glad its not just us lol
Click to expand...
I would honestly not spend loan money on F@H hardware, and just wait until you have more disposable income that you can actually use. You'd have the benefit of waiting until future hardware comes out to give you a better idea of what you should go with as well. But that's just my opinion.
 
Vaulter98c said:
Well, whats yalls view on that? Should I buy a 4 way, keep my 2 GX2's on my 680i and just sell my Q66 to recoop for a PSU, pretty much only spending about 150$ or so?

That would leave 800 for new V/cards once they come out... I love how they smack talk over there too, glad its not just us lol

Anyone else notice how their top guys are producing like mad? all these guys had smaller numbers not long ago? thoughts? Hell, the new guy accounts for a quarter million himself!
Click to expand...


One thing that has been a constant in F@H is that there's always something new and exciting just around the corner. If you keep waiting for what's on the way, you'll end up just waiting forever. QMD, PS3, SMP, GPU1, GPU2, SMP core A2, SMP -bigadv, and we're eagerly waiting for SMP2 and GPU3 now. Also consider how the QMD's went away with zero notice, GPU1 went away with minimal notice, and Clearspeed never materialised.

I would never tell someone how to spend their money, thats between you and your home's CFO (if applicable). I'm just saying that buying anything just for the sake of folding and trying to predict the future trends of folding is a very risky game.
 
well, im not trying to predict the way its going, I'm just looking at what we have now and thinking how to go from here. I know SMP will be important for a long time, but GPU's are always going to be the heavy hitters for the next few years. Plus, upgrading a GPU is much easier than going to the new socket. As for the next GPU generation, I think it may be beneficial to see what points they can get, if they bomb then atleast it will lower the prices of current gen stuff and maybe I can go from there

as for the CFO, she's not aware of this. I pay the bills, I make the money, she spends it. Now, its my turn :)
 
SWMBO... careful... you're threading on some serious razor diplomacy if 1 grand dissappears.
 
its ok, I run the books :)

thats the only way I know I can do this, plus I get an extra grand at the end of next month, so It'll be back in there before she knows whats up

even if she does find out, she knows about folding and loves it, she's finishing a double major in biology and geology, so she actually knows more about it than I do lol.

And with the amount of house and lawn work I did this week, if she knows whats good for her...
 
no, thats stil on my to do list lol, I'll try to get on that now tho, I think Ive got all the hardware Ill need
 
Vaulter98c said:
And with the amount of house and lawn work I did this week, if she knows whats good for her...
Click to expand...

eeek... That line has gotten many a good man into dire straits.... ;)

Better make sure that new hardware looks like the old (on the outside):D

But then I run (my new stuff, anyways) inside a cheap-o box.;)
 
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