Dual SR-2 club

S

SazanEyes

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - January 2011
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
1,250
Just ordered my second SR-2 from Newegg. I was tired of having two Xeons sitting around unused.

So how many other crazy, I mean [H]ard, folks are out there? I know a couple, but maybe we can start a list.

Club Members:

musky
Kendrak
may i be worthy
gama
SazanEyes (soon)
 
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BTW, musky will be starting the 3 x SR-2 Club shortly...
 
SazanEyes said:
Just ordered my second SR-2 from Newegg. I was tired of having two Xeons sitting around unused.

So how many other crazy, I mean [H]ard, folks are out there? I know a couple, but maybe we can start a list.
Click to expand...

THAT is [H]ARD. :D

You know, just yesterday I was looking at the EOC stats and thought, what happened to Sazaneyes - your output had dropped off a bit and I thought "there is something wrong... or he is planning something big".

I had just done the maths, now I have a little more real world data, and for this last week in the [H]orde concluded that this week:

2 SR2's at 4.2GHz = top 3 to top 5 if run fulltime
1 SR2 at 4.2 GHz = top 18
1 SR2 at 3.6 GHz = outside top 20.:eek:

Talk about brutal - imagine buying an SR2 and finding it does not guarantee even top 20!

Yes, lets start a club, keep the riff raff out. :cool:
 
With the lack of bigadv the GPU points were keeping me in the game. However, I moved my GPU box to a new case last week, and now it's unstable so I turned it off. I ended up sleeping most of the weekend rather than trying to fix it. :eek:
 
I believe Kendrak and I are the only other two with two of these things.
 
musky said:
I believe Kendrak and I are the only other two with two of these things.
Click to expand...

I thinks so.....

Picking up two of these only cost me:
Dishwasher
Stove
Waterheater
5 trees removed in the back lawn
New garage door.
A few trips to Express

A true value when you look at it.
 
Well, a club of four to start with... what shall we do? Discuss the delightful things that only owning two SR2's can bring?

Did the second bring you happiness where the first did not?

I find I can run a clothesline between them and dry undergarments with the 1200w of heat blowing gently from them. You simply can't do that with one, old bean... :eek:

I also find my bank account is measurably smaller than two months ago. Which is denting my plans for a third, fourth, fifth and sixth.:p
 
Kendrak said:
I thinks so.....

Picking up two of these only cost me:
Dishwasher
Stove
Waterheater
5 trees removed in the back lawn
New garage door.
A few trips to Express

A true value when you look at it.
Click to expand...

SHH! Keep your voice down. I don't want my wife to catch wind of those sorts of things. :D
 
I have cut my power consumption by half (from when it peaked). But have more than tripped my ppd.
This should save me on my power bill and cooling when summer comes round again.

Ohhh and MIBW, LOL!
 
W.Feather said:
this.......though they have a twisted sort of logic behind getting them....it "saves" money in the log run doesnt it?
Click to expand...

Yes it does. I was spending between $100 and $200 month just on electricity for GPU folding. The quad GX2 box and triple GTX 295 box peaked at around 85K PPD, which is less than a single SR-2 with a mix of WUs. To be able to phase out the GPUs (which had the additional disadvantages of being loud and hot) and some other older boxen while simultaneously increasing PPD is a win/win.

Plus, I'm involved in a lot of other DC projects where CPU power is more useful than GPU power. I'll probably run other projects on at least one SR-2 from time to time, or at least free up my i7 to run something else.
 
musky said:
Do tell...what do you have gama?
Click to expand...

I have a pair of SR-2s one running a pair of E5530s and one running a pair of L5640s. I finally broke down and got into the Fermi folding game, bought a pair of GTX 460 (768 MB) on Friday. Until then I was running a pair of 9800 GX2s and a 8800 GTS (512 MB). My unstable OC on the L5640s caused me to drop a 2685 12 hours late today. Wasn't happy about that.
 
gama said:
I have a pair of SR-2s one running a pair of E5530s and one running a pair of L5640s. I finally broke down and got into the Fermi folding game, bought a pair of GTX 460 (768 MB) on Friday. Until then I was running a pair of 9800 GX2s and a 8800 GTS (512 MB)..
Click to expand...
Awesome, didn't know you were running an SR-2 let alone two. Regarding client types, the consensus seems to be that running GPU especially Fermi alongside -bigadv with the SR-2 is counterintuitive for total system production. What have you seen?
 
Would like another SR-2. But not just any SR-2 setup. A second one that is in a clamshell case amouting to not much more space used than a single SR-2. For 2xSR-2 in one case. Low profile video cards of course.
 
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[H]ecklerKoc[H];1036310672 said:
Would like another SR-2. But not just any SR-2 setup. A second one that is in a clamshell case amouting to not much more than a single SR-2 for 2xSR-2 in one case. Low profile video cards of course.
Click to expand...

That does my head in. What sort of case can fit 2 x SR2s?

And of course, allow me to be the first to extend Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Dual SR2 Cool Kids Club to [H]K, seeing as you have the PPD for at least 6 of them anyway ;)
 
Only have a single SR-2 so far.

BTW, has anyone see s single, or dual, low-profile 2.5" or 1.8" drive carrier that fits in a PCI-Express slot? Would like a carrier that can also provide power to the drives from the slot.

Not looking to replace the controller. The controller would still be the SATA ports from the SR-2. Looking to save space and power connectors by relocating the drives to the space used by the PCI-Express card slots.

I really do think a Folding specific 2 x SR-2 platform with four H70s could be crunched into a fairly small container. A container that is still able to worked on by the average Joe. (I should probably extract this thread into its own soon.)

** Update:
Sort of found the PCI drive carrier I was looking for. Need PCI-e.
If it isn't on eBay..... But only PCI.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250687453389

Startech also has it. But only PCI.
http://us.startech.com/product/S25SLOTR-25in-SATA-Removable-Hard-Drive-Bay-for-PC-Expansion-Slot

Scythe's Answer. But only PCI. Also has fans. Not a bad thing since a few of the SR-2 componets in the area are warmer and no heat sink.
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/064/slotrafter_detail.html

Ably Tech's PCI Answer.
http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=9&cat=CBL_ADAPTER#
PCIe Answer:
http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=58&cat=PCIE_RISER#
http://www.ably.com.tw/pdt/viewpdt.asp?absp=59&cat=PCIE_RISER
 
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Wait, can I actually join two SR-2's so that task manager shows 48 threads or are we talking two computers? Because then you're not top 3.
 
So something like a big briefcase, with an SR-2 mounted on each side? Interesting...
 
APOLLO said:
Regarding client types, the consensus seems to be that running GPU especially Fermi alongside -bigadv with the SR-2 is counterintuitive for total system production. What have you seen?
Click to expand...

I am not running any GPU folding on my SR-2 rigs. I had tried it with the GPU2 folding but stopped when the GX2s were creating issues. I had used my 8800 with my E5530 rig but I think that the ppd from the GPU wasn't worth the drop on the SR-2.

EDIT:
Just did another test, added ~11 seconds per frame on a 6702. It basically was the same with the 8800 as it was without the 8800.

APOLLO said:
Awesome, didn't know you were running an SR-2 let alone two.
Click to expand...

Cause I R super lurker
 
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Cehr said:
Wait, can I actually join two SR-2's so that task manager shows 48 threads or are we talking two computers? Because then you're not top 3.
Click to expand...

In theory, this would be possible under Linux with sort of Beauwulf or Kerrigan cluster (I think that is what they are called.) I've always wanted to try it, but never have.
 
@ Cehr - Regarding your upcoming build in your sig "Dual-X5650 @ 4.8Ghz 1.4v 24/7"

If you can get your upcoming rig linpack stable at 4.8Ghz and 1.4v, I will declare you [H]umongously [H]ard and a worthy addition to our folding team.

That would be very nearly a 200,000 ppd on P2692 machine. I look forward to it.:p
 
MIBW.....if he can do that, you have some catching up to do....
 
I was just looking at the team list and was amazed that I have more ppd than some of these teams. Then I realized that many members on our team crank out more points than a bunch of the teams including some in the top 20. Mr. HK is outperforming the #10 spot team. Wow!

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s=&t=33#33

I am kinda crazy (I have had a computer permanently mounted in my car for the past 6 years, in most peoples minds I am certifiable!) but you SR2 owners who dedicate them fully for folding WOW. HK I don't know what to say about your setup. I think HK really stands for "Holy Krap!" because that is what everyone says when they see your ppd! "Only have a single SR2 so far" like he is contemplating what to order for lunch, only here! I know you built your farm out of spare parts when you got started and that is a mind blowing thought all by itself.

Sorry for the rant but it didn't strike me until now at just how unusual this is. I wouldn't join another folding team even if my mom started one. In some strange way I grew my IT career reading Steve's point of view on the world and the information that was linked back in the day like white papers about RAID and data destruction all influenced my path to where I am now. Those sorts of learning information isn't really posted anymore as [H] has become more focused on the gaming industry, and that is cool, but back then I learned alot just following the links on the main page.

(As a side note I have a Bachelor's in the maintenance of aircraft and now I build and maintain Linux servers so you can see what I mean)

To sum up Holy COW this is one awesome place I just hadn't really thought about how unusual and awesome until now.
 
Hells yeah. I will be investing in WC, and he can show me how.:eek:

and @nwrtarget - well said - this is the place to be. Just awe inspiring what these folks do, and how they do it.
 
MIBW.....go balls to the wall your 1st attempt....imagine the "rendering" you can get done with the 600 mhz per thread extra !!
 
may i be worthy said:
THAT is [H]ARD. :D

You know, just yesterday I was looking at the EOC stats and thought, what happened to Sazaneyes - your output had dropped off a bit and I thought "there is something wrong... or he is planning something big".

I had just done the maths, now I have a little more real world data, and for this last week in the [H]orde concluded that this week:

2 SR2's at 4.2GHz = top 3 to top 5 if run fulltime
1 SR2 at 4.2 GHz = top 18
1 SR2 at 3.6 GHz = outside top 20.:eek:

Talk about brutal - imagine buying an SR2 and finding it does not guarantee even top 20!

Yes, lets start a club, keep the riff raff out. :cool:
Click to expand...

I dont think you can top 3-5 (5th now 206K ppd) with 2 SR2, even at high clock.
you can't get 26xx all the time, 6xxx always come in between that would throw your PPD below 100K ppd.
But of course 2SR2 + 2gtx460 ( at least) then surely top3-5 :)
 
@W.Feather - it was the desire for that extra 600mhz than led down the path to the second SR2 :)

kevinksu said:
I dont think you can top 3-5 (5th now 206K ppd) with 2 SR2, even at high clock.
Click to expand...

I did come 5th for the week ending Sunday - with one SR2 fulltime, and one having 1.5 days downtime. If both had been fulltime I would have come 3rd.. that week.;)

kevinksu said:
you can't get 26xx all the time, 6xxx always come in between that would throw your PPD below 100K ppd.
Click to expand...

Agreed - but those rankings were calculated on actual real world production for that week - they already assume that happening - I did plenty of 6xxx.

kevinksu said:
But of course 2SR2 + 2gtx460 ( at least) then surely top3-5 :)
Click to expand...

I havent found a way to run my dual 460s - need smp flags to make it worthwhile, and they will EUE the inevitable 6xxx units. :(

These were my tests (before the NUMA disable trick)
original.jpg
 
Okay, so you can tether them together in Linuux? What's the point? All my programs are on Windows or Mac.
 
musky said:
In theory, this would be possible under Linux with sort of Beauwulf or Kerrigan cluster (I think that is what they are called.) I've always wanted to try it, but never have.
Click to expand...

Not possible with consumer hardware, really. At least not to the point it would be better than running separate systems.

The issue is the interconnects between systems. 24 cores talking to 24 cores would take an insane amount of bandwidth due to sharing processing information and memory transfers.

When I was reading about this stuff a few years ago, it seemed like 100Gig ethernet/interconnects were required just to get started.

Most people find $500 10Gig NICs to be expensive. 100Gig just doesn't leave datacenters, really.

That said, if someone wants to buy an IBM processing Blade rack, you could have a few hundred threads to fold on. Would only cost a few million dollars!
 
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