I've been thinking about getting into folding and building a 24/7 folding rig. I was reading about the 4p systems with the Opteron chips, but I'm worried about the energy cost. What would be some good hardware to use that has good energy efficiency. My budget would be about $1000 - $1500.
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energy efficient rig
- Thread starter Oronor
- Start date
I'd personally consider going with this rig for sale, turnkey operation, all the hard work has been done for ya.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1779472
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1779472
Carbon_Rod
Gawd
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2012
- Messages
- 1,022
I don't think you could get much more energy efficient than that rig, except maybe by swapping in some low power CPUs like 6166HE's. However, while your power consumption will go down, so will your PPD as the 6166HE's are not clocked as high as the 6172's or 6174's.
The only other change you could make would be to swap the PSU with an 80 Plus Platinum rated one though that change might prove costly for little return.
The only other change you could make would be to swap the PSU with an 80 Plus Platinum rated one though that change might prove costly for little return.
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I've heard of a few people using a SOLID 850w PSU to power a 4P G34, However with the chips I have posted you would be REALLY pushing it if it even worked at all.
Most would recommend that if you are going the AMD 4P route to look towards a quality 1kw PSU.
As with any rig, the PSU is the LAST thing you want to try and skimp on.
If you are looking for less power use and slightly lower ppd for a slightly higher startup cost, definitely look at an intel rig. You'll pay for it to get up and running but the running costs would be quite a bit lower than AMD.
How about these in a 4p rig? http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Opteron...ide-/281159019239?pt=CPUs&hash=item4176622ae7
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If you're running stock clocks, 500-600w is more than enough. I ran 4x 6172s on a 650W Seasonic with no issues for well over a year. If you're getting into overclocking, that's where you need to go bonkers with it.
Octo-core really isn't a great way to go on G34. You might ring up low 200k PPD with those chips on the better WU's, low 100k ppd for the worse units.... For 61xx chips, you want the dodecas, so 6164 and up. 6166HE's can turn out 400k+ ppd on the better WU's for only a little bit more power.
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Well there ya go.
Due Note: If you are not Overclocking, you are not doing it right...
buying m33pm33ps offer is not a bad idea.
An Intel 2p is not a bad alternative, it will not generate anywhere near the same ppd, but it will be more reasonably on the power usage.
You can put together a i2p rig for less than $1500, but the final price depends on what CPU's you pick.
You can get a new Supermicro board for less than $400 on the egg.
8 x 1GB 1333 sticks can be had for around $50 on ebay.
8 GB usb stick is about $10 on the egg for a model that isn't terrible.
you have the PSU.
All that's left is hunting for some E5-26xx (2p capable) or E5-46xx (2p and 4p capable) chips on ebay. The 4p capable can be had for the same price as the 2p models and allow scaling to 4p later.
See this list for the available models:
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/59138/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-Family/server.
You are looking for max cores and GHz for the money/watts depending on your preferences.
You will probably find the prices follow an interesting curve as the most powerful and power efficient chips have a premium associated with them.
I don't have the numbers floating around on the forums for being bigadv capable, and getting good point, but I believe a total of 12 cores clocked above 2.6 GHz is the bare minimum for bigadv on a i2p.
A basic calculation on i2p should be:
cores x GHz > 16 for bigadv
But ask on the forums/IRC for confirmation that a pair can make bigadv, don't trust the words of a folding newb.
Do note the cheap E5 chips on ebay are not retail and you will be looking for Cx or QBxx chips + those chips are a legal crap area you can be enlightened about on the IRC channel.
An Intel 2p is not a bad alternative, it will not generate anywhere near the same ppd, but it will be more reasonably on the power usage.
You can put together a i2p rig for less than $1500, but the final price depends on what CPU's you pick.
You can get a new Supermicro board for less than $400 on the egg.
8 x 1GB 1333 sticks can be had for around $50 on ebay.
8 GB usb stick is about $10 on the egg for a model that isn't terrible.
you have the PSU.
All that's left is hunting for some E5-26xx (2p capable) or E5-46xx (2p and 4p capable) chips on ebay. The 4p capable can be had for the same price as the 2p models and allow scaling to 4p later.
See this list for the available models:
http://ark.intel.com/products/family/59138/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-Family/server.
You are looking for max cores and GHz for the money/watts depending on your preferences.
You will probably find the prices follow an interesting curve as the most powerful and power efficient chips have a premium associated with them.
I don't have the numbers floating around on the forums for being bigadv capable, and getting good point, but I believe a total of 12 cores clocked above 2.6 GHz is the bare minimum for bigadv on a i2p.
A basic calculation on i2p should be:
cores x GHz > 16 for bigadv
But ask on the forums/IRC for confirmation that a pair can make bigadv, don't trust the words of a folding newb.
Do note the cheap E5 chips on ebay are not retail and you will be looking for Cx or QBxx chips + those chips are a legal crap area you can be enlightened about on the IRC channel.
Very good points. I recommend you hopping into our IRC channel if possible. You will be able to get ANY questions answered there with a lot more clarity and quickness. LOTS of knowledgeable people in there and very minimal hazing now days.