Folding Rig setup help

I

Ice_Burg

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 18, 2003
Messages
1,856
Ok, so over the Thanksgiving holiday I purchased:

P8Z77-v Pro
Intel 3770K
MSI N660 TF 2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 2GB
Corsair Obsidian 550d
2x ARCTIC Freezer 13 with 92mm PWM Fan ( 1 to use with system below )

I have on the way now
ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB


My old rig is
P5N32E-sli
Q6600 - stock intel cooler
8600GTS

My question is this: Given the equipment listed above what would you think is the most efficient way to fold for [H] in terms of PPD?

My thoughts are to load the new system up with the two newest graphics cards and turn them and the i7 loose folding. But, if putting one of the new cards in the old system would increase PPD then that is what I will do..

Your opinions please. Ask any qestions if you have them.
 
Well, right now Fermi cards (400/500 Series) are getting better PPD than Kepler cards (600 Series). The host computer they are in doesnt really matter so I would say look for some high end Fermi's for cheap(used) and put them in your old system and have that system fold GPU only. Then with your new system fold GPU and CPU.
 
extide said:
Well, right now Fermi cards (400/500 Series) are getting better PPD than Kepler cards (600 Series). The host computer they are in doesnt really matter so I would say look for some high end Fermi's for cheap(used) and put them in your old system and have that system fold GPU only. Then with your new system fold GPU and CPU.
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Not really wanting to buy more cards.. rather optimize the hardware I have in the 2 systems..

the current system with the i7 and 660 is at about 31k PPD the secondary system needs a cooler upgrade before it can CPU fold..
 
Oh, sorry I though you were saying you were going to get 2 more cards when you said

Ice_Burg said:
My thoughts are to load the new system up with the two newest graphics cards and turn them and the i7 loose folding.
Click to expand...

But I see what you meant now.

In that case, then you would probably get the best PPD/watt by putting both cards in the i7 3770k system, and cpu+gpu fold on that. The Q6600 wont really do much, it would be under 10K ppd, so you could cpu fold on that if you wanted, but for the power use it may not be worth it. As far as the 8800GTS goes, I am not sure if they even support the newest GPU units, and it will probably also use quite a bit of power for the ppd as well.
 
I highly doubt you can do this, but...

Run the two Keplar cards in the Q6600 machine, and only fold on the GPUs. Run the 3770K with the on-board graphics and only fold on the CPU. From an efficiency standpoint, this is the way to go. From a "why did you really buy the new stuff?" perspective, I doubt you would want to do this - I assume you want good GPU performance in your new machine, hence you would need at least the 660ti in it. If that is the case, put both cards in the new rig and shut down the Q6600 completely (or until you find one or more good used Fermi cards.) SMP is not worth doing anymore, so don't waste the power on the Q6600 unless it is driving video cards.

**NOTE - this is with the current state of the F@H project, and may change completely at any point and for no particular reason.
 
Thanks for the input. I will keep my eyes open for some Fermi cards for cheap cheap for the q6600 system then. I will say this. I am not a gamer. If that kind of goes against the [H] in some way then ... oh well. I just like building systems that last me for years and when I am not using them for videos or surfing or work or whatever then.. use the cycles for some good purpose. Right now I like to get my geek on with some folding.
 
eh, OC the Q6600 to at least 3GHZ (easily at 1333FSB) and you will get 8-10K ppd day-in day-out if you don't mind sucking a little juice from the wall. (For team 33 I hope). GPU fold with a used fermi might drop it to just a steady 8K ppd but its hardly noticeable. It all helps in the end.
 
Ice_Burg said:
Thanks for the input. I will keep my eyes open for some Fermi cards for cheap cheap for the q6600 system then. I will say this. I am not a gamer. If that kind of goes against the [H] in some way then ... oh well. I just like building systems that last me for years and when I am not using them for videos or surfing or work or whatever then.. use the cycles for some good purpose. Right now I like to get my geek on with some folding.
Click to expand...

That doesn't go against us at all :) We are pretty friendly in here (the DC forum especially) and we welcome anyone participating in DC projects.
 
Toconator said:
eh, OC the Q6600 to at least 3GHZ (easily at 1333FSB) and you will get 8-10K ppd day-in day-out if you don't mind sucking a little juice from the wall. (For team 33 I hope). GPU fold with a used fermi might drop it to just a steady 8K ppd but its hardly noticeable. It all helps in the end.
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This Q6600 has been a PITA to OC. I installed the freezer 13 last night and saw a massive drop in temps so I wil ltry it again soon. It has been running steadily for years at 2.6 Ghz which is around 10% OC. I would love to see it get steady at 3ghz though. running crucial ballistics ram and 8600 GTS with corsair HX 620 so it should be good to go now that the cooling is better. Lets hope so anyway. Last night it was showing right at 8k ppd just the way it sits.
 
3Ghz should be easy on a Q6600, I use to run those suckers at 400FSB all day long (3.6Ghz). You just need to make sure you have pretty good ram so it can take the clocks and use the lowest ram divider. Make sure you give the chipset northbridge some extra voltage and perhaps some extra cooling as well. You should be able to get it to 3.0 pretty easy with 333 fsb. What board is it on?
 
I will give it a go again soon. I really don't want to risk corrupting my OS install though since it has my work related apps and things loaded. It has Vista Business 32 bit loaded since Vista came out in beta... Hate to break my streak now. :)
 
Ice_Burg said:
This Q6600 has been a PITA to OC. I installed the freezer 13 last night and saw a massive drop in temps so I wil ltry it again soon. It has been running steadily for years at 2.6 Ghz which is around 10% OC. I would love to see it get steady at 3ghz though. running crucial ballistics ram and 8600 GTS with corsair HX 620 so it should be good to go now that the cooling is better. Lets hope so anyway. Last night it was showing right at 8k ppd just the way it sits.
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Those nForce 680i's were good OC candidates back when S775 was young. It supports the 1333 FSB of later CPU's too so that's the first thing I'd try. Try a 9X multiplier @ 333 for what should be an easy 3.0 GHz. My C2Q6600 (G0 stepping)actually ran fine @ 8X400 = 3.2 GHz when it was my main gamer but I reduced it to 9X333 when it was my server for safety and stability. Needed 1.31v CPU , 1.66v PLL and 1.39v NB for 3.2 GHz but I am running Intel X38 chipset. I OC'd some C2D6600 systems for folks back in the day with nForce chipsets and only needed a titch more CPUv but ymmv. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. I will give it a go as soon as I can make the time for it. Looking forward to it.
 
Ok, my ASUS 660 came in today and is now folding away... so, with the i7 3770k and two GTX 660s I am now getting around 75k PPD on two 76xx wus and 1 6980 wu

For those interested, i am running the monitor off of the iGPU 4000 intel and the other two cards are just folding.

my old system (Q6600) is folding SMP and maybe 3k PPD depending.

it is possible... that if the right deals come along i could add some keplers to that system as well after the holidays.
 
Welcome Ice_Burg! Glad to see extide and toconator got you fixed up..Just out of curiosity, why did you buy two 660s if you do not game at all? Do you do work that uses gpus (Photoshop etc)? Just curious, but welcome again!:)
 
Ice_Burg said:
Ok, my ASUS 660 came in today and is now folding away... so, with the i7 3770k and two GTX 660s I am now getting around 75k PPD on two 76xx wus and 1 6980 wu

For those interested, i am running the monitor off of the iGPU 4000 intel and the other two cards are just folding.

my old system (Q6600) is folding SMP and maybe 3k PPD depending.

it is possible... that if the right deals come along i could add some keplers to that system as well after the holidays.
Click to expand...


3K seems awfully low for your Q6600. Mine is getting 7500 ppd right now and looking thru the HFM history I see a range of 6700-9100 ppd with most settling around 7800. You might want to double check your config on that one. btw did you manage to OC it at all? A simple switch to 1333 FSB shouldn't corrupt anything for a quick attempt. Just boot and let it fold as a burn-in test :D
 
ccityinstaller said:
Welcome Ice_Burg! Glad to see extide and toconator got you fixed up..Just out of curiosity, why did you buy two 660s if you do not game at all? Do you do work that uses gpus (Photoshop etc)? Just curious, but welcome again!:)
Click to expand...

Its quite simple really.

To Fold with.

There should be an optimized core come out for keplers at some point so I went with two of those based on power efficency, cost (rebates) and performance.

I do have some video editing software etc for the gopro I use when I am out riding etc..
 
Toconator said:
3K seems awfully low for your Q6600. Mine is getting 7500 ppd right now and looking thru the HFM history I see a range of 6700-9100 ppd with most settling around 7800. You might want to double check your config on that one. btw did you manage to OC it at all? A simple switch to 1333 FSB shouldn't corrupt anything for a quick attempt. Just boot and let it fold as a burn-in test :D
Click to expand...

It is running at 2.67 ghz.. I have not done anything else with it yet. Depending on how work goes this week I may have time to focus on it this weekend though.. I will update here when I do.
 
Well, The Q6600 system I am utterly disappointed with.
crunching an 8027 wu for a whopping 858 PPD

the 8600 GTS gpu won't run stable at all now.
I do have another 660 ti on the way to go in this box though.

I tried OCing tonight and 3ghz was bootable but it was no where close to stable. Even with voltages set to auto it would randomly blank the screen and hang altogether. I am not sure where to begin trouble shooting the stability issues.
 
Ice_Burg said:
Well, The Q6600 system I am utterly disappointed with.
crunching an 8027 wu for a whopping 858 PPD

the 8600 GTS gpu won't run stable at all now.
I do have another 660 ti on the way to go in this box though.

I tried OCing tonight and 3ghz was bootable but it was no where close to stable. Even with voltages set to auto it would randomly blank the screen and hang altogether. I am not sure where to begin trouble shooting the stability issues.
Click to expand...

Try setting the cpu voltage to 1.4v and start from there. Make sure you are dropping the multiplier on the ram too, as if your ram is running too fast it will be unstable for sure.

Essentially, more voltage = more stability, but also more heat. You need to be able to cool that extra heat or you lose that stability boost. See if you can find out what the default voltage is for your northbridge, and bump it up a bit. The northbridge may start to get pretty hot , you may want to add a fan blowing on it if there isnt one already.

Basically giving it enough voltage is the key to making it stable, However you can run into a few walls. If you cannot keep it cool, that is one, and also at some point even tons of extra voltage will not make the cpu stable, even if you can keep it cool. The core2 cpu's, even the 65nm ones can generally get to 3.6Ghz with enough voltage and proper cooling. 3.0-3.2 should only take a bit of extra voltage, but It will take some voltage, I doubt it will run those speeds at stock volts.

One thing to keep in mind is this more voltage = more stability thing doesn't necessarily apply to ram. I mean, it does, BUT it is really easy to fry your ram with too much voltage. I would stick with whatever your ram kit is specced for.

The nForce chipsets can run linked mode, which is like intel chipsets and use a divider to get from FSB -> ram speed. For example, if you have DDR2 800 and you are running 333 FSB you would want a 6/5(1.20x) divider. The math works like this: DDR2 800 runs at 400Mhz, and 333 * (6/5) = 400. I usually just ran 400 fsb and ran the 1:1 divider, which is the lowest divider (1.0x) on Intel chipsets. Using a 1:1 ratio also gets you the best ram latency as both busses are always synced up.

Then, nForce chipsets can ALSO run in UNLINKED mode. This means you are free to set the FSB and ram speed independently. In my experience this mode is a lot more difficult to get stable, so I would avoid it. Also you can increase the ram latency because the busses wont be synced up and one will have to wait for the other, etc.
 
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