Help give ideas on Future Farm

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EvilAlchemist

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Messages
2,732
It is time for me to start planning my future farm.
I will have $2500.00 to spend in a few months on my new setup.

Since I will have all systems in a server rack, using exotic heatsinks are not available.
(Only 4U or smaller if not using the stock cooler)

I already have 3 x Norco 4U cases here at the house so that is more $$$ to put toward the systems.
( I can buy more cases so don't limit $ to just 3 systems - Cases are $80.00 each for additional)

Lets here your suggestions to get the most out of the cash I will have.

Also remember, I live in TN which has a 9.25% sale tax (Newegg charges) so keep that in mind ..... (We have no income tax here if you are curious)

So, lets here those suggestions for CPU only & GPU only based systems.
 
Well, naturally you'd get the most out of GPU-heavy systems. However, since you'll be doing this a few months from now, you'd probably be better off waiting until the next generation of nVidia cards. They should give a nice increase compared to current cards, and even if they end up being prohibitively expensive, they should still end up bringing down the prices for the current generation of cards.
 
Few months? Prices change a lot in that time.

The new GPU client may come out, Fermi may finally see the light of day, and so forth :D.

4U... does the case have a general front to back fan setup?

EDIT: Zero82z was faster.
 
Well, in that case, some crazy HSF is not needed. The stock ones will do fine.
 
EvilAlchemist said:
Also remember, I live in TN which has a 9.25% sale tax (Newegg charges) so keep that in mind ..... (We have no income tax here if you are curious)
Click to expand...
Price check Amazon and Tiger prior to hitting purchase @ newegg.
Neither charge sales tax in California. :)
 
Also the Egg pulled their ads from the [H]. Amazon still has ads here but their selection can be limited. What kind of power do you have available to this rack? Is there space for multiple PSUs for each motherboard or do you need to have big singles for each one?
 
Don't forget bing!! Sure, it's like the MIR from hell, but I've got over 300$ back so far

I would say scrounge up what you can to build 3 4way rigs and just wait, get everything but cards and PSUs
Fermi is coming real soon and so is the new clients, so since this is a month or two down the line, I'd say plan on those, but buy the other stuff while you wait (once you get the $$ that is)
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
My hope is that we will see the new GPU client, and *gasp* it might actually use an ATI card fully.

Also, in a few months you might be able to get 275s for just over $100 and 260s for well under if NV is still ppd king.

I would look hard at mobos that might be a bit more, but give you options on the CPU and GPU front. They also often have better resale value.
 
you'll want to look for the upcoming fermi cards, they should do ~40k ppd.

Add in an overclocked i7 with bigadv bonus for another 30k, $2500 could probably get you 200k ppd from a single machine.

Not sure if this is possible with 4U with the heat.
 
404 - File not found said:
Add in an overclocked i7 with bigadv bonus for another 30k, $2500 could probably get you 200k ppd from a single machine.
Click to expand...
and if you go with a 1366-based i7, you can get even more PPD when Gulftown comes to town early next year.
 
How about

3x MSI 790FX-GD70 paired with Athlon II x4 630's
Plus 12 GTX 275s
 
Depends where and how you shop....

I love my 275, but the ppd for cost, a used 260, for $100 +/- depending on modle will crank more ppd per buck than most anything out there. 7k with a good OC.

It's also a good use of the system. 8800GS push great ppd for around 40 bucks, but it isn't an efficient use of a multi PCIe board and highend PSU.
 
Incase you dont buy from fellow [H]er's..... heres a few things I found at newegg.



ASUS P7P55D LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131404 x3
ASUS ENGTX260 GL+/HTDI/896MD3 GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814121337 x3
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115214 x3
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231193 x3

The CPU, mobo and vid card actually came as a combo deal. These will allow you to do both CPU and GPU folding using stock heatsink for the cpu.

All in all, came out to be $1,952.88, which with your sales tax at, say a round 10% would be $2,148.16 which gives you enough cash to add another gpu or two to the sale so you wont pass $2500. Not a bad setup, could give you some nice PPD too.
 
I think MAX ppd today is not what one should be looking for. Expandability should be the focus. It truely sucks when you have an extra $100 to spend on your folding rig and can't do much with it.

Different direction.....

Motherboard:
ASRock X58 Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813157155
This board has 4 Pcie slots for furture expansion.

CPU:
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920
Item #: N82E16819115202
Pure horsepower! Guys are getting good ppd with these cpus.

Memory:
CORSAIR XMS3 3GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Item #: N82E16820145221
3 gigs of ram is enough and Corsair is a great brand.

Power Supply:
CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91
Item #: N82E16817139007
Went with the tried and true 1000W PS. This thing can run almost and two video card on the market. Again for furture expansion

Video Card:
ASUS EN9600GSO/DI/512MD3/V2 GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB
Item #: N82E16814121320
Cheap, good ppd per $ and cheap.

One of these setups is about $875.40 through Newegg. So 3 setup would be about $2,613.76

Now if you can afford $60 here, $60 there, you can buy more of the 9600GSO's and improve your ppd. The power supplies can handle 4 for these no problem. If by some chance you get a small windfall of cash and want to buy a higher end card, your good to go. Now if you expand and have to get another PS to run more powerful cards you buy this:
Thermaltake Toughpower Power Express 650W for $99 at Amazon with free shipping. This PS can handle all dual cards.

If you like your boxen in a case.

Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811129058
This case has 8 expansion slots in the back for use with 4 dual slot video cards.
 
for the price you could get 8800 GT's, I picked mine up for 60$, 1 up for 50$ if you buy them used
 
Sounds like you may be using something similar to the Norco RPC-470. I have a couple and love them.

Try the Thermalright AXP-140. It will keep just about any CPU cool and will fit inside this case very easily.

I agree flexibility is key. The x58 provides CPU punch as well as slots. Kinda hard to beat. The MSI K9A2 is still a good choice (I have one and love it), but I like intel better :D


 
I'm more of a value guy. If you use last gen Quads you get 2/3 the power for 1/3 the cost.
 
capreppy said:
Sounds like you may be using something similar to the Norco RPC-470. I have a couple and love them.
Click to expand...

Norco RPC-450 but darn close guess ... ;-)

FutureSystems.JPG


I know it will cost more money, but I am looking at getting one of the New Seasonic 80+ Gold Rated PSU's.

I am loving the suggestions .. keep them coming ... it is giving me some great ideas
 
To me, it is a hard decision.

Going CPU only gets lower PPD, but setup time / maintenance is very very low.
Build System + notfred = Running

Going GPU is more involved but higher PPD.
System is also more "upgradable" in the long run.

It is hard to choose when we have no information on GPU3 or SMP2 clients yet ..
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151208

Something of this nature to start with. You could build an entirely CPU-driven folding farm with this board, then add in GPUs as the cash, clients, and hardware become available. This board has 4 double-spaced PCIe slots, plus two more in between with x4 link speed.

Worst problem here is the lack of overclocking potential on the CPUs and cost of CPUs.
 
CPU Only Folder:
$99.99 - Intel BOXDP55WB LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$289.99 - Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
$49.99 - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit
$199.99 - SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD
$19.99 - LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive
---------------
$659.96 Total
 
Evil: if you are going the i7 route, please resist the temptation to go with the P55 chipset. Stick with X58. There will be no CPU upgrade path for socket 1156. With 1366, X58 chipset, you will at least be able to upgrade to Gulftown (6 core CPUs) next year.
 
Tobit said:
Evil: if you are going the i7 route, please resist the temptation to go with the P55 chipset. Stick with X58. There will be no CPU upgrade path for socket 1156. With 1366, X58 chipset, you will at least be able to upgrade to Gulftown (6 core CPUs) next year.
Click to expand...


That is assuming that the X58 will be compatible with the next generation CPU's which I don't think they will be.
That is the same situation the Pentium 4 --> C2D --> C2Q 65nm --> C2Q 45mn progression.
Each new series needed a new motherboard (for the most part)

It also requires an additional $120 - $145 upfront costs on each system.

But it is something I will keep in mind.
 
if you are going to put 300$ into a CPU, I'd suggest building 1 dual xeon rig, the 5520's arent much more, and you could probly snag some here, Ive seen a few go
This way you could build a 16 core rig and collect on those Big units, and after smp2 youd still have a bitchin system. You'd also have 4 slots for GPU's

If you are planning on future upgrades and SMP, 2 X58 boards and 2 Gulftowns (i7 920s for now) would produce 2 nice ass units, and you could populate those with 8x 216 260's in the mean time to put up some decent numbers

this is assuming the chipset supports gulftown, but you could always just resell if it doesnt

EDIT, ya, you just got that too
 
EvilAlchemist said:
That is assuming that the X58 will be compatible with the next generation CPU's which I don't think they will be.
Click to expand...
Intel reps have already stated, at IDF 2009, that Gulftown will be a drop in replacement on X58 boards. Motherboard manufacturers just need to issue a BIOS update. They had one on display at IDF 2009 and it was a socket 1366 on an X58 board. Gulftown on X58 is affirmative.
 
avoid that 512 GSO, they are the crippled ones
no offense to K
The best low dollar GPU is the 88 for single slot, and a 260 for duals
I'd worry more about building a upgradable system rather than which cards to put in

Hell, you could build a shit ton of empty computers and populate one GPU per paycheck, it will add up real fast and next thing you know your doing crazy numbers

8 K9A2's = 800$
8 CPU's = 500$
spare Ram and HDD's = pocket change
PSU's will be the big $$ item
32 8800 GT's will run you about 1600$ or so over the next X months, and it will net about 160k

I know this is not what you were going for and is WAY over budget, I'm just trying to illustrate to you that I think it would be better to devise a backbone now and fill it later
 
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I guess the other major question is how much of a role will hyper threading make in the future of F@H
 
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