Equipment for a bare bones dedicated folding rig

tjmagneto said:
Welcome to the i7 party! That 930 is going to get you some great clocks with the Spirit. Take the time to do the stability checks as you ramp up the OC and watch the magic happen when you get your first bigadv done. Completing my first bigadv and seeing the results posted one was like opening presents on Christmas morning. :D
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Thanks for the welcome to the party, but I would prefer to have stayed with AMD. Not my fault that their "next gen" architecture is still a full year away(Bulldozer). I will not be very aggressive with the OC's, and that is mostly because I think that I should have spent the money for a decent case. I decided at the last minute to reuse an old Coolermaster mid-tower case that is actually extremely tight. Me and my sales rep at the Micro Center made some measurements, and the Cogage is literally going to have a paper thin clearance between it and the PSU mounted above. This is a tight case, and now I am regretting it because I was trying to be cheap and save a bit more money on this build.............

I'll find out tomarrow if they get done by then how well this case can handle those temps.
 
amdgamer said:
I'll find out tomarrow if they get done by then how well this case can handle those temps.
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If you're worried about temps and want a guaranteed decent OC, just leave the side panel off this case. It is actually better than having a larger case since most of the heat will have a huge area to escape. Actually, a lot of people run their systems without cases at all.
 
APOLLO said:
If you're worried about temps and want a guaranteed decent OC, just leave the side panel off this case. It is actually better than having a larger case since most of the heat will have a huge area to escape. Actually, a lot of people run their systems without cases at all.
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I noticed that there are people who run their boxen naked, but it just wouldn't feel right. Then you have the dust issue as I don't like dusting a computer case. There is always a chance you could damage something, and it requires a lot of compressed air which is only cheap if you catch it on sale at MC. The good thing about this Cogage cooler though is that it has a tower like heat sink which means that dusting it clean should be easier than your standard type of heat sinks.

Damn, just got a cal from MC as I am typing this and apparantly they are having trouble fitting everything in. They said it is really tight and that they won't be able to save my old Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, although I guess that isn't a big loss since this rig will be a 24/7 folding rig. Anyone here who lives around Cincinnati want a free standard PCI based Sound Blaster X-Fi platinum? It is one hell of a sound card as you will never want to go back to on board audio ever again.
 
Thanks for the welcome to the party, but I would prefer to have stayed with AMD. Not my fault that their "next gen" architecture is still a full year away(Bulldozer). I will not be very aggressive with the OC's, and that is mostly because I think that I should have spent the money for a decent case. I decided at the last minute to reuse an old Coolermaster mid-tower case that is actually extremely tight. Me and my sales rep at the Micro Center made some measurements, and the Cogage is literally going to have a paper thin clearance between it and the PSU mounted above. This is a tight case, and now I am regretting it because I was trying to be cheap and save a bit more money on this build.............
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If you have good airflow a mid-tower is often better than a full tower.
 
amdgamer said:
I noticed that there are people who run their boxen naked, but it just wouldn't feel right. Then you have the dust issue as I don't like dusting a computer case. There is always a chance you could damage something, and it requires a lot of compressed air which is only cheap if you catch it on sale at MC. The good thing about this Cogage cooler though is that it has a tower like heat sink which means that dusting it clean should be easier than your standard type of heat sinks.

Damn, just got a cal from MC as I am typing this and apparantly they are having trouble fitting everything in. They said it is really tight and that they won't be able to save my old Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, although I guess that isn't a big loss since this rig will be a 24/7 folding rig. Anyone here who lives around Cincinnati want a free standard PCI based Sound Blaster X-Fi platinum? It is one hell of a sound card as you will never want to go back to on board audio ever again.
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they are building your rig for you?
 
lehmann said:
they are building your rig for you?
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Yup, I don't do system builds anymore. I have a severe fear of technology and no longer trust myself or my hands. Seems lame, but I get really scared when handling computer components now. My hands start shaking and it is like I have some sort ot acute phobia. I don't know what brought this on, but I think it started right around when I was modifying the oil filtration system in my Ford Taurus back then and accidently drilled clean through a $2200 wiring harness. I should have had common sense and checked to see what I might be drilling through, but no I drilled clean through it and ultimately found an electrician who soldered the wires back together for me for about $400
 
Well damnit........looks like I won't be getting my folding rig tonight afterall. I talked with the Micro Center tech and they can't figure out how to get my Netgear Rangemax WN311 working that an above poster recommended as being compatible with Linux. She told me that it won't install in XP for some reason, and I have just now found out that Netgear has no drivers for the 64bit version of XP as their driver will only work on 32bit versions.

Crap........I may have to end up paying for an OEM copy of Windows 7 after all as i'm not finding a single wireless card that actually has drivers for XP x64 right now :mad:
 
XP 64-bit is legendary for horrible hardware compatibility. To be honest, if that's your benchmark for hardware compatibility you're going to have a lot of hardware that you're cut out from buying.

If you want, it is probably worth it trying a distribution of Linux such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Mandriva.
 
I agree with Pedantic above. There are many people here with a lot of years of Linux under their belt and can guide you if need be. Although not nearly as experienced as some, I can also help you get started. If this is a dedicated machine build and no GPU clients will be running, there's really no better current option than native Linux for -bigadv.
 
Mr. Pedantic said:
XP 64-bit is legendary for horrible hardware compatibility. To be honest, if that's your benchmark for hardware compatibility you're going to have a lot of hardware that you're cut out from buying.

If you want, it is probably worth it trying a distribution of Linux such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Mandriva.
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I actually just burned myself a bootcd from Ubuntu's website for the x64 version of 9.10. That was why I had them dual partition the drive as I was eventually going to give Linux a try. I just want it to be running Windows for the time being as this Linux stuff really looks like it is going to take a lot of time to figure out. I am hoping that there is someway I can avoid having to buy another copy of Windows as I believe Micro Center charges $109 for the cheapest x64 version of Win 7.

After I found out how horrible driver support was in XP x64, I actually went right back to XP 32bit Pro edition. I thought it was going to be fine for my purpose, and would have been perfect if I didn't need this boxen to have a wireless connection to my router. My router is in my computer room and my computer room is way too hot during the summer even with the window unit on full blast.

Maybe i'll just take delivery of my new computer tomarrow and spend the entire evening down there with my laptop trying to figure out how to install and get Linux running. However since we know that they will bring the goodies like -bigadv natively to windows at some point, perhaps I should just go ahead and buy another copy of Windows 7 x64 and run a VM for now........
 
APOLLO said:
I agree with Pedantic above. There are many people here with a lot of years of Linux under their belt and can guide you if need be. Although not nearly as experienced as some, I can also help you get started. If this is a dedicated machine build and no GPU clients will be running, there's really no better current option than native Linux for -bigadv.
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Thank you everyone for your offers of help. I have a copy of Ubuntu 9.10 right now burned to a cd, so I may attempt it tomarrow. What I like so much about you guys here is that you guys literally bend yourselves over backwards to try to help the newer folks. I just hope that the humble amount I can contribute to our team will help us. I never thought i'd be actually having a Intel based computer built just for the process of folding. My gaming rig is going to get jealous as it only got a Phenom.........
 
I'm not an expert with Linux but it was fun to give it a try. I had it up and folding pretty quickly, just follow the guides. Another thing is that I was shocked to see the ppd I was getting from a bigadv running on my 980x. Then I had to go back to Windows. :(
 
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amdgamer said:
Thank you everyone for your offers of help. I have a copy of Ubuntu 9.10 right now burned to a cd, so I may attempt it tomarrow.
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Don't use 9.10, install 9.04 instead. There are issues with 9.10 and folding. It is not recommended at this point, unfortunately.
 
tjmagneto said:
I'm not an expert with Linux but it was fun to give it a try. I had it up and folding pretty quickly, just follow the guides. Another thing is that I was shocked to see the ppd I was getting from a bigadv running on my 980x. Then I had to go back to Windows. :(
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You have no idea how close I came to buying a 980x based on what you posted in that other thread about being able to run two -bigadv WU's at the same time. The sales guys at Micro Center work on comission and I think he really would have been happier if I went that route. However, i'm still finishing grad school right now so Tiger hunting will have to wait till i'm done and have an actual decent paying job. As a general rule, I try to make sure any hobby I engage in does not cause me to have to pay interest to the credit card bank. Thankfully Uncle Mao is giving me a far better tax return than I expected, thus allowing me to prespend some of it for a boxen :D
 
APOLLO said:
Don't use 9.10, install 9.04 instead. There are issues with 9.10 and folding. It is not recommended at this point, unfortunately.
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Thanks so much as I wasn't aware of an issue with Ubuntu 9.10 and F@H. However, would I still be able to get my WN311 Netgear wireless card working with Ubuntu 9.04? I know someone here mentioned that 9.10 will auto-detect it, but I wonder about previous versions. Not even here, but browsing other forums have also lead me to believe that wireless is really a PITA in Linux.
 
amdgamer said:
Thanks so much as I wasn't aware of an issue with Ubuntu 9.10 and F@H. However, would I still be able to get my WN311 Netgear wireless card working with Ubuntu 9.04? I know someone here mentioned that 9.10 will auto-detect it, but I wonder about previous versions. Not even here, but browsing other forums have also lead me to believe that wireless is really a PITA in Linux.
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I'm sorry, but I have no idea about network drivers and Linux. I can only advise on folding-specific matters. I have seen it posted here and elsewhere that 9.10 is problematic with folding. What exactly the issues are, I don't know, I just see people stating to avoid it if one intends to fold.
 
9.04 Ubuntu will detect your RangeMax. You do need to run all of the updates first, so you need a wired connection temporarily. Once it is up-to-date, go to System - Administration - Hardware Drivers (edit: this is what it is called) and you should see two proprietary drivers available. One says something about Broadcom and the other says something about fwcutter. Use the Broadcom one. It will need to download, so you still need a wired connection until it is installed. Once it is installed, reboot and check your network applet. You should have wireless options, and left-clicking should allow you to pick a wireless network in range.

9.10 had the right driver recognized without an update, but you still need a wired connection to get it to work. The same holds true with 10.04 (and 10.04 doesn't fold, so don't use it.) I could never get 9.10 to utilize all 8 recognized cores, but 9.04 used them just fine.
 
Also, Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit recognizes the RangeMax card by default as a Broadcom wireless device. It worked as soon as I got Win7 installed.
 
Lol, I'm two buildings down from the sharronville MC on army training, is that the one your going to? I just wentthere yesterday to buy fans and I'm going back today to pick up a 930 for kendrak
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Vaulter98c said:
Lol, I'm two buildings down from the sharronville MC on army training, is that the one your going to? I just wentthere yesterday to buy fans and I'm going back today to pick up a 930 for kendrak
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Tee hee
 
Good for you K, you'll see this first probly, they got 2 in stock atleast, PM and let me know

small world ain't it? Just sold something FSFT the guy was 2 streets over lol
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Vaulter98c said:
Lol, I'm two buildings down from the sharronville MC on army training, is that the one your going to? I just wentthere yesterday to buy fans and I'm going back today to pick up a 930 for kendrak
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Hahaha, yeah that is the one i'm heading to. The bad thing is that they have a 1 unit only limit on the 930's for obvious reasons. Guys wish me luck as i'm heading to MC to pick up my computer. The poor gal at the MC cannot do anything more for me as she said she can't even get half of the motherboard's features working in XP x64. I think i'm just going to buy a copy of 7 and get it over with......
 
I think you need a new MC girl :)

I was there at lunch at today, and I'm going back when I get out of this class

HazMat, woo!
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Vaulter98c said:
I think you need a new MC girl :)

I was there at lunch at today, and I'm going back when I get out of this class

HazMat, woo!
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To be honest, I don't blame her as driver issues were the reason why I stopped using XP 64 and went back to the regular XP 32 bit. Horrendous compatibility issues as well as it didn't run 32 bit programs very well either. The only game that OS was good with was Far Cry AMD64 edition.

Well I just got back from Micro Center and I have picked up an OEM version of Windows 7 Home x64. I am going to get that install under way as -bigadv is coming to windows natively at some point anyway. I just don't want to lug that computer up to my computer room to hardwire it to my router to set up the wireless on Linux right now. Maybe i'll fool with it at some future point though.
 
40 hour here, going to be the Enviro Guy at my unit, got another class after this, but we need someone in the unit to atleast be HazMat current, and everyone else is deployed or over a year old

And Damn, we must have been in the store at the same time, I just got Kendrak's 930 (considering not going SR2 now but alas, I will wait it out) and a new surge protector / line conditioner for the rack (finally got all my cases in the rack before I came down here.

And on that note, I'm pretty sure XP64 has gotten better since you last use it, all my rigs run XP64 right now, even my gamer, and I've had no issues, no slowdowns. 7 will do you good tho to
 
Vaulter98c said:
40 hour here, going to be the Enviro Guy at my unit, got another class after this, but we need someone in the unit to atleast be HazMat current, and everyone else is deployed or over a year old

And Damn, we must have been in the store at the same time, I just got Kendrak's 930 (considering not going SR2 now but alas, I will wait it out) and a new surge protector / line conditioner for the rack (finally got all my cases in the rack before I came down here.

And on that note, I'm pretty sure XP64 has gotten better since you last use it, all my rigs run XP64 right now, even my gamer, and I've had no issues, no slowdowns. 7 will do you good tho to
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Ok, i've got Windows 7 Home Premium x64 setup now. OMG, Microsoft deserves the Nobel prize for this OS. I have never experienced such an easy OS installation ever before in my life. Everything works perfectly! My gaming rig has Ultimate on it, but I had the Micro Center folks put it on since it was part of the installation anyway. This OS is awesome!

BTW, do you guys think i'll need some sort of antivirus program for this folding machine? It isn't like it will be using the internet very much since it is a dedicated folder.
The Netgear Rangemax works perfectly, but it got borked when I ran a few windows updates and stopped working. I realized that an optional update was screwing with it so I restored a previous point and ignored that update.

Ok, my next task is to find a stable overclock. Wish me luck as i'm going to use Maximumpc's guide as Cecil's guide left too many details out. Once I get that figured out, time to figure out running a VM so I can start running -badasses on this thing.
 
-badasses LOL

and I thought that guide was pretty good, butthey updated so things may have changed

Either way, post if you need help!
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Damn, I think I have run into two limitations in my quest to overlock. Max stable overclock I can get is 3.66ghz with bus speed of 175x21. Anymore, and the sytem won't post. Even at this frequency, I have to run 1.35 volt to keep it stable during torture testing and it is hitting 84-85 degrees.

My case is likely the culprit as the Cogage is supposed to be a very good cooler. Now i'm gonna drop the voltage a bit and downclock to see if I can get temps under control :(
 
amdgamer said:
Damn, I think I have run into two limitations in my quest to overlock. Max stable overclock I can get is 3.66ghz with bus speed of 175x21. Anymore, and the sytem won't post. Even at this frequency, I have to run 1.35 volt to keep it stable during torture testing and it is hitting 84-85 degrees.

My case is likely the culprit as the Cogage is supposed to be a very good cooler. Now i'm gonna drop the voltage a bit and downclock to see if I can get temps under control :(
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These i7 run hot. It's normal.

80+ is ok. It's when the temp goes over 90 that I get a bit freaked out. Now Zero will come in and say the chip wont let it's self be damaged, and that is true, I just like to keep it close to or under 80C.
 
Kendrak said:
These i7 run hot. It's normal.

80+ is ok. It's when the temp goes over 90 that I get a bit freaked out. Now Zero will come in and say the chip wont let it's self be damaged, and that is true, I just like to keep it close to or under 80C.
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What concerns me is that i'm looking at what other 930's are getting in terms of overclocks, and I appear to be requiring much more voltage than most people. I'll try 3.5ghz to see what voltage will let me be stable there........

As for voltage, I am running 1.325 right now to see if this will keep me stable at 3.67ghz, but it is still running at 84 degrees C right now. I'll let it run while I have my dinner to see, but summer isn't even here yet so these temps are not good.

For my other stuff, the overlock is forcing my memory to run at 1400mhz @ 1.6 Vdimm, QPI voltage is at the same as cpu voltage, and I have IOH voltage set to auto in the motherboard as I have no idea what that is.
 
I don't have an i7 system and can't really help out with the particulars. Try running the system with the case open to determine if the limiting factor is temperature and not something else. While doing that, check the temps to see what the difference is. This is as much out of curiosity as anything else but who knows, it just might help with the OC.
 
Dont forget, the i7's have had cases of "bclk holes" (pun intended) where they wouldnt run, I can't recall seeing an i7 that hasnt hit 3.8, and those were on 920's, in theory you could go lower on the bclk becauase the multi is one higher

I'd go back thru that other guide and try combining both, and post ALL your voltages here, Zero will tell you how much room youve got

Also, what TIM did you use and how was it applied? How much air gets to whatever side the TS pulls from? Whats the ambient?

While those of us with optimal setups can maintain good temps (high 60's very low 70's) but those are ideal conditions and these CPUs can handle much more
 
I think i've got the machine stable now running in the low 80's consistently at 3.67ghz.

Cpu volt is 1.2685
Vdimm is 1.60
IOH volt is auto
QTI volt is 1.275

Ambient temperature right now is in the mid to high 60's in the room it is folding in. That overclock will probably have to come down once summer gets here. Anything less than those volts - 0.1 fail the prime95 torture test. After I found a stable voltage, I added just a little extra since folding is much more demanding than prime95.
 
Which thermal compound did you use or did the staff at MC applied one of their own? Are you using the OEM fan from the GoGage True Spirit HSF?
 
APOLLO said:
Which thermal compound did you use or did the staff at MC applied one of their own? Are you using the OEM fan from the GoGage True Spirit HSF?
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Hi, I believe they used the thermal compound that was included in the Cogage box. It said on the box, thermal compound included. Yes, they used the fan that was supplied with the kit. Do you think maybe a higher speed fan will help?
 
amdgamer said:
Hi, I believe they used the thermal compound that was included in the Cogage box. It said on the box, thermal compound included. Yes, they used the fan that was supplied with the kit. Do you think maybe a higher speed fan will help?
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Definitely. Whether to replace it or not depends how good the OEM fan that comes with your cooler is. Another option is a dual fan push/pull setup. Regarding the compound, I have no idea how effective the included one is. Depending on HSF manufacturer, they range from poor to great, so YMMV. Everything affects temps and tinkering with various possibilities will fine tune your setup. God knows I've been through this countless of times with a new computer...
 
APOLLO said:
Definitely. Whether to replace it or not depends how good the OEM fan that comes with your cooler is. Another option is a dual fan push/pull setup. Regarding the compound, I have no idea how effective the included one is. Depending on HSF manufacturer, they range from poor to great, so YMMV. Everything affects temps and tinkering with various possibilities will fine tune your setup. God knows I've been through this countless of times with a new computer...
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Once I get that room cleaned out, I am going to try running it naked first to see what happens. I think the case is the problem as I can feel the heat pouring from the metal. When I put my hand up against motherboard end, it is really hot.

Gotta clear that room first so that there is nothing that could cause damage by accident. You guys have no idea how bad of a computer packrat I am. I have everything from when I was little including my first computer, my first upgrades, even my old double speed CD-ROM drive with Pro-Audio Spectrum sound card are somewhere in a box. What doesn't fit in that room, is out in storage :eek:
 
amdgamer said:
I think the case is the problem as I can feel the heat pouring from the metal. When I put my hand up against motherboard end, it is really hot.
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OK, well that would possibly concern me but admittedly I have 0 experience with i7, and don't know if this is acceptable or normal. All my systems are barely warm on that side of the case, and I run OCed dual processor machines...
 
APOLLO said:
OK, well that would possibly concern me but admittedly I have 0 experience with i7, and don't know if this is acceptable or normal. All my systems are barely warm on that side of the case, and I run OCed dual processor machines...
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I suppose hot is a relative term the way I used it. I should have said warm instead of hot. However hot compared to my gaming rig which is arguably not a fair comparison since that is a HAF932 full tower case compared to this dinky thing.
 
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