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folding question
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YES
One machine will be significantly better than two. One Dual CPU will finish each WU in half the time as single CPU Machines. So you will fold the same number of WU in the same time, but because of bonuses you will recieve several thousands of points more.
One machine will be significantly better than two. One Dual CPU will finish each WU in half the time as single CPU Machines. So you will fold the same number of WU in the same time, but because of bonuses you will recieve several thousands of points more.
unfortunately, no, not really. the SR2 is the only legitimate way to go.
Which Xeons are they? Which motherboards do you have at this point?
Telling us more detail will let us put some concrete numbers down for you to consider.
that's good.
so here's roughly what you're looking at:
those chips have nice high multipliers, so you can probably overclock them to 3.8ghz or so. maybe 4.0 if you put them in the right board.
You'll want to run bigadv, and you'll get ppd in the say 22,000 range, give or take, on bad bigadv work units, and ppd in the 30,000 range on good bigadv wu. So you're looking at 44k to 60k ppd from the two of them.
That's probably pretty darn close to what you would get from a non-overclocked 2p system like the Asus Z8NA (if I remember the model number correctly). The advantage would be lower power draw and less maintenance from the 2p system.
If you buy an SR2 and overclock them to 3.8 or 4.0ghz, you're looking at PPD in the 60k range on bad WU, but up to 80k ppd on good wu.
These numbers are all based on my memory, so there's some margin of error, but they should be pretty close.
There's another variable in the OS being used. These numbers are all based on my Windows experience. The guys with dedicated folding rigs are running linux and they're seeing about a 15-20% boost, so if you're interested in going the linux route, you can add such a boost to all of my numbers above.
so here's roughly what you're looking at:
those chips have nice high multipliers, so you can probably overclock them to 3.8ghz or so. maybe 4.0 if you put them in the right board.
You'll want to run bigadv, and you'll get ppd in the say 22,000 range, give or take, on bad bigadv work units, and ppd in the 30,000 range on good bigadv wu. So you're looking at 44k to 60k ppd from the two of them.
That's probably pretty darn close to what you would get from a non-overclocked 2p system like the Asus Z8NA (if I remember the model number correctly). The advantage would be lower power draw and less maintenance from the 2p system.
If you buy an SR2 and overclock them to 3.8 or 4.0ghz, you're looking at PPD in the 60k range on bad WU, but up to 80k ppd on good wu.
These numbers are all based on my memory, so there's some margin of error, but they should be pretty close.
There's another variable in the OS being used. These numbers are all based on my Windows experience. The guys with dedicated folding rigs are running linux and they're seeing about a 15-20% boost, so if you're interested in going the linux route, you can add such a boost to all of my numbers above.
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My advice - take it for what it is worth...
Those high multiplier Xeons tend to not oveclock all that well - if you have a board to run them in, go for it and see what you can get. I suspect you are going to run into heat issues pretty quick.
Assuming you can get to 3.8 or so, you will be in the 37K ppd range each (Linux), and will draw around 300W per machine - 74K ppd and 600W.
Put those chips in a basic dual workstation board like the Asus Z8NA-D6C and you will see in the neighborhood of 75K ppd (Linux). The big difference is that this machine will draw around 325W.
With an SR-2, you will probably be able to clear 100K ppd with a good overclock. The problem is, besides the cost of the board, you will be back to pulling close to 600W.
So, in summary:
2 - X58 machine - 74K ppd, 600W, 123 ppd/W
1 - stock dually - 75K ppd, 325W, 231 ppd/W
1- SR-2 dually - 103K ppd, 575W, 179 ppd/W
The Asus dually board is $260 new. A used SR-2 is going to be close to $500.
So it depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. Personally, I would go with a stock dually (and I have - I have been running a dual X5550 machine in tha Asus MB for quite a while now.)
Those high multiplier Xeons tend to not oveclock all that well - if you have a board to run them in, go for it and see what you can get. I suspect you are going to run into heat issues pretty quick.
Assuming you can get to 3.8 or so, you will be in the 37K ppd range each (Linux), and will draw around 300W per machine - 74K ppd and 600W.
Put those chips in a basic dual workstation board like the Asus Z8NA-D6C and you will see in the neighborhood of 75K ppd (Linux). The big difference is that this machine will draw around 325W.
With an SR-2, you will probably be able to clear 100K ppd with a good overclock. The problem is, besides the cost of the board, you will be back to pulling close to 600W.
So, in summary:
2 - X58 machine - 74K ppd, 600W, 123 ppd/W
1 - stock dually - 75K ppd, 325W, 231 ppd/W
1- SR-2 dually - 103K ppd, 575W, 179 ppd/W
The Asus dually board is $260 new. A used SR-2 is going to be close to $500.
So it depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. Personally, I would go with a stock dually (and I have - I have been running a dual X5550 machine in tha Asus MB for quite a while now.)
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Musky that is some seriously good info you're spitting out there. cruel and evil info ... I was thinking of 'demoting' my Q6600 to Server status as my server basically stores pictures, folds and occasionally is used as a jukebox for FLACs to my HT or streaming the odd DVD rip to somewhere in the house. SR2's have always seemed out of reach for a [H]order with 2 teens to feed (walking stomachs I call 'em). Now I HAVE to look for one of those Z8NA mobos and see if I can make a go of it. Hmmm, gonna hafta sell a boxen or two... No! run power under stairwell and hide from wife ...
edit: wait! put Z8NA under stairwell and run headless, OC the s*** out of it. yes... YES.... Bwaahahahahaaa!
edit: wait! put Z8NA under stairwell and run headless, OC the s*** out of it. yes... YES.... Bwaahahahahaaa!
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Ya the stock asus board is sounding more wife friendly right now. Putting linux on it might be worth doing as a dedicated folding box. Its just hard to realize I could not overclock it,custom bios maybe? I just can't justify a sr2 as much as I would like to. Not to mention summer cumming up and I need to dump between 5 and 6 grand into my wife's jeep to have it ready for wheeling. Musky I really appreciate the help and power guestements as well since we are constantly balancing our circuit breakers. On another note would I be cranking out more ppd if I stopped gpu folding on my gameing machine? I have 3 470's folding in it and one of my cpu set to -11.
The answer to your question is, not even close. 3 x 470s put out quite a few points, and one extra core on an Intel hex is not going to top that. However, 3 x 470s also pulls quite a bit of power. I am really not the one to ask on what you should and should not do with video cards. I will not do GPU folding any time in the near future, mainly because they are not even close to being as efficient as high end CPU folding. Keep in mind that my farm pulls somewhere north of 2 kW, so power usage is a big concern to me. With one machine running, it is not as big of a concern for most.
Here's another bonus for the asus board, its standard ATX so will fit into your case without any problems, easier to hide from the wife if its in the existing case
..... Unless you get a 2nd one.........Here's another bonus for the asus board, its standard ATX so will fit into your case without any problems, easier to hide from the wife if its in the existing case
Excellent! /hands rubbing together in an evilly gleeful motion/ she will never suspect another 'blinking black box' ...
I have a 970 and was folding 2x GTX570s and a GTX260. I found that setting -smp 10 actually netted a few more points on the CPU. Milage may very, but a short experiment shouldn't hurt.
as another note, I could no longer take 860W power draw that the rig was eating. Stripped it down to 1 570 and i am only folding SMP, I gave up 30KPPD, but I'm saving 500W of power.
some odd numbers and particularly some prime numbers have shown to cause issues for some reason
In fact, some of the clients will force smp 10 upon you even if you try to run smp 11.
do you literally have a dozen GPUs to install blocks on? wow
In fact, some of the clients will force smp 10 upon you even if you try to run smp 11.
do you literally have a dozen GPUs to install blocks on? wow
-smp 11 is just reduced to smp 10
look for the line in the logs that says mapping processors, it should be either right after Entering M.D. or the second line after.
[16:01:29] Mapping NT from 11 to 10
this is where the client realizes that you specified an odd number of processors and it re-maps for an even number. I'm not sure how scheduling for process threads is handled at this point, but I really do think that smp 10 is marginally better than smp 11. At the very least smp 11 is functionally the same as smp 10.
look for the line in the logs that says mapping processors, it should be either right after Entering M.D. or the second line after.
[16:01:29] Mapping NT from 11 to 10
this is where the client realizes that you specified an odd number of processors and it re-maps for an even number. I'm not sure how scheduling for process threads is handled at this point, but I really do think that smp 10 is marginally better than smp 11. At the very least smp 11 is functionally the same as smp 10.