F@H: Do the most good for $1000?

S

swoody

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
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Hello, world!

It's been quite a while since I've been active with folding, and there have definitely been notable changes!

I am looking to build a rig to get back into the fold again, and am hoping to do as much good for the project (not necessarily just PPD) that I can for $1000.

It seems like GPU may be the way to go these days? This will be a dedicated rig, so ther variables - power usage, OS, cofiguration, etc - are all non-issues.


Thanks in advance fellow [H]orders!

Woody
 
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Maybe a low energy CPU board and a big nV card like GTX 780Ti. Adding a good power supply, install Ubuntu 14.04 (with CUDA for the new future of newer ocores).
The charming thing with Linux and nV you get only core 17 with good bonus points (compared to core 15). Around 200kPPD to what I read (myself have only GTX 780 with 148kPPD avg).

Once a bit money is left you could add smaller GPU card like 750TI (but that one don't yet run under Linux)

That said: you might want to wait until nV shows us was the new Maxwell GPU series can deliver. Still not fully clear when they will come out but October (wild guess) could be possible. The expectation is faster card with much lower TPD/consumption in comparision.

Since I'm a nV guy I do not know much about AMD GPU, others might jump in
 
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Thanks Christian! I've been working with server hardware the past several years and am very rusty when it comes to desktop equipment.

Do you have any suggestions on the remaining hardware specs (RAM, CPU, Mobo, PSU) I would need to be able to handle the 780Ti and core-17 workload? Any specific hardware in particular? Does this combination require a large amount of RAM similar to the dual-CPU SR2 setups that used to be real popular?

Other than cost, is there any reason you suggested going with a smaller secondary GPU when money allows? Would there be any problem to running 2, 3, or even 4 GTX 780Ti's on one system?


Sill very much open to any ideas or suggestions to look into.

Thank you again!
Woody
 
as per your first post and title you indicated $1000; thats why the proposal to "fill up" with a smaller GPU. If if you can buy 2, 3 or 4 GTX780TI: nothing wrong with that. Just slightly above $1000 (or you must have a hell of good source);


Still keep in mind you need one CPU core per GPU card; maybe one core I would reserve for OS. What I have in my GPU rig is an i7-2600S; you could go a bit lower then that but with four GPU maybe not too much. RAM for GPU folding is not that important; I would assume that 8 GB should be enough. BA-CPU folding is different.

Another concern is to find a nice mother board to drive four GPU's; with respect to PCIe-lanes. 8 bit each should be there to avoid too big lost on performance.

But four GPUs generate lots heat. you need to make sure to have proper thermal concept with fans or a/c, In Winter you might not need a room heater anymore. In general operational cost for power will increase.
Four such card close to each other might call for reiser cards and lift the card above the motherboard. Now we sure left the $1000 range.
 
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CV, thanks again for the reply.

That's what I figured was your reasoning behind recommending the smaller card. I was thinking about doing a single GTX780TI now, using a better CPU / mobo setup which would at least handle four PCI slots at 8x, having the rig be under $1000 total, and then adding more 780TI cards as finances allow.

I am familiar with all the "perks" that come with a system like this. My last "decent" folding rig was similar, but with the end-goal of using four 9800 GTX+ cards. A dremel to the case and a handful of Ultra Kaze fans kept things in order :) I may wind up running this one naked, with riser cards as you mentioned. We will have to see how curious my cats get around this rig.
 
swoody said:
We will have to see how curious my cats get around this rig.
Click to expand...

It isn't curiousity as much as how much they like the heat output and where the random tail ends up. Fan grills can help with the later and good positioning can help with the former.

The advice you've had regarding GPUs for maximum cost/benefit is good. The next generation of client, ocores, currently in closed beta, is being optimised for GPUs first. Currently it does not scale tremendously well on CPUs, but that may change in the future as the BA projects end early next year. I can only hope.
 
Maybe a low energy CPU board and a big nV card like GTX 780Ti. Adding a good power supply...
Click to expand...

Anyone want to help me spend my money and put together a shopping list? :D I'm never very good at these things :confused: I'm not sure what kind of specs (RAM, CPU, PSU) would be required for this build, if these new work-units will require lots of RAM like the bigadv units, etc.

Also, with the new NVIDIA cards just around the corner, would it make more sense to hold off on buying the GTX 780ti at this time? I'm wondering if one of the new models will offer better bang for the buck.

What I'd like to get going:
- Mobo support for folding quad GPU's (three more to be added in future)
- Loosely budgeted around $1000 for naked, bare-bones system and first GPU
 
swoody, when new cards are around the corner, it is always better to hold off. Not knowing what will be released isn't such a big deal. But when they are, you can either get the latest greatest or get the current gen cards at discounted prices. Maybe even get them used as others are upgrading. So, I think it is safe to hold off if GPU's are your desired route.
 
I'm trying to get into Folding... I have a 295x2 and a 290x in Trifire but they put out WAY too much heat for me to deal with--my loop can handle it, but the room and my house start to heat up pretty quickly and overwhelm the air conditioner, imo. I'll be downsizing most likely to something that doesn't waste so much energy in the form of heat. Probably that will be 980s?
 
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