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I7 Boxen

C

capreppy

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2009
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
3,410
Ok. Just got approval from the CFO (wife) to put another boxen together.

I am going to take the AMD K9A2 and repurpose that box so it is a desktop. It'll have the AMD 940BE (not OC'd) and I will stick a 9800GX2 in it. I may put 2 in it.

I am going to put the spare i7 to use.

Looking at the following:
ASRock X58
Patriot 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
Suggestions on better and similarly priced products?

For Cooling, I am thinking Corsair H50. How high can I OC the i7 with this cooler? It is going into a Norco RPC-470 Case so height IS an issue. Any better suggestions for cooling?

I have an nVidia 7300GS to provide video (this is a pure BigAdv boxen)
I have a spare Corsair 750TX to provide power (again overkill, but it is a spare)
I have a spare HDD for the OS. I have plenty of OS keys (courtesy of MS TechNet)
EDIT: This IS a dedicated BigAdv so will be using Linux. Suggestions on version? I'm preferential to Ubuntu 8.04 as I am using it in my current BigAdv VM and it runs perfectly fine. LOW maintenance is what I like

Am I missing anything?

 
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I've asked about that ASRock board a few times and havent heard anything good about them for 24/7 oc'ed folding.
 
Camaroz06 said:
I've asked about that ASRock board a few times and havent heard anything good about them for 24/7 oc'ed folding.
Click to expand...

I picked one up for a core i7 860 build and it's not *bad* but if given a choice again i'd probably snag a gigabyte instead. I tend not to sneeze around the board and while it hasn't given me any problems i don't know how the rigors of folding 24/7 while under 100% load will do to this cheap board.

I love the xgima tek dark knight cooler. hands down awesome.
 
If you do go with the H50, I would love to see some pics of how everything fits, since I have the same height problem. I'll let you know this weekend if I have another viable option for you for cooling in a 4U case.

I'd go with native Linux for now if this going to be a bigadv box. Trust me, it isn't that bad to set up. Maybe go with Windows to get your OC stable, and dual boot to Ubuntu 9.10 server for folding.

 
I've got that board, no problems yet. I could probly lower my volts a tad but I'm fine with the temps
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

and I'm also using 4u cases, but I justleave the top off, helps with airflow
 
I do have an affinity for GA boards and it is just $20 more. I need to stop being such a cheap bastard :D

I would love to pick up another eVGA board as I know the BIOS already, but obviously there is a significant cost differential
 
Oo so tempting
No! Must save money for SR-2...

But I've got another case here to fill... Ahh damn, quite tempting me bro
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Best of luck with the build, capreppy! Hopefully we can have everyone in the top 10 @100k and higher by April. :cool:
 
I'll do $115 shipped for a fellow Folder putting it to good use :)
[goes to post message in Folding FS]
 
Depending on how the cookie crumbles Id like to build a SR-2 and another i7, but I forsee that taking a bit longer than I planned
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
zero2dash said:
I'll do $115 shipped for a fellow Folder putting it to good use :)
[goes to post message in Folding FS]
Click to expand...

Let me give that some thought. I am leaning towards a GA board, but that is obviously a pretty significant savings :D

The i7 has been waiting for me to find the time to build and obviously the funds.
I AM planning to do an SR-2 build but that'll be later in the summer.
 
Minor Update:

i7 Boxen is not going to be dedicated.

AMD K9A2 w/940BE is going to wife and I will stick an eVGA 8800GTX (spare) into it. It will no longer be folding as I can't rely on my wife to turn on folding when not in use nor do I want to hear about performance issues if she forgets to turn it off :D

i7 will have 2 x 9800GX2 which is currently in the K9A2. I understand I will take a hit on PpD on the Big WU, but I am ok with that for now. Contemplating selling the 9800GX2's to fund my upgrade to the SR-2, but that will be several months off. My wife actually said if you can afford the SR-2, then I don't have an issue with you getting it. I did tell her I wanted dual HexaCore Xeons to go with it and that it will cost a good chunk of change (nearly $3K) and she didn't blink. This would be an upgrade to my sig rig which is used for gaming as well as development work and obviously folding. It is already under water and it can definitely handle 2 CPUs. The GTX285's will stay as nothing gamewise is even pushing it.

I've sent a PM to zero2dash regarding his ASRock X58 so will likely go that route. If that falls through, then I'll pick up the GA MoBo. I am a little concerned about the rash of bad reviews for this board of late. I have used quite a few GA MoBos in the past and have never had any isues. Anyone here running this MoBo?

I am going to go with the H50 for cooling, but am curious about installation. The case I have has 80mm fans in the rear and not 120mm. I'm going to have to figure out where I can stick the Rad & Fan combo. If I don't go with the H50, anyone have any suggestions for a short (shorter than a TRUE or similar) HSF capable of cooling an i7 @ 3.8 to 4.0?

I will lose 4500 PpD from the AMD 940BE (really doesn't run SMP2 well), but gain probably 20 to 22K PpD from the i7.
 
wow, my SR-2 is gonna be dual quads, I don't want to think about dual hex!!
 
Question: Can I run a BigAdv VM with just 6GB of RAM?

I am taking 6GB of RAM from my Sig Rig and putting it in the new boxen. As I am looking to build an SR-2 in a couple of months, I didn't want to have to spend $150 for a set of sticks for this one.
 
In a 6GB Boxen, what is the concensus on how much RAM to allocate to BigAdv VM?
 
capreppy said:
Question: Can I run a BigAdv VM with just 6GB of RAM?
Click to expand...

You may have trouble with anything other than xp64 (I noticed in another thread you mentioned using 7x64). I can't say what the ram use at boot will be from a clean installed/lean 7x64 (with no other apps), but I believe it's probably going to be 700-800mb if not more. Bigadv is going to take up 5gigs (conservatively)....figure more than 4600mb but no more than 5000. First time I ran bigadv I left the VM on 4600 and it ended up crashing; someone (I believe it was Tigerbiten) said he figures it's more like 4800mb but I think he gives 4900....I figured what the hell, I gave mine 5000...never had a problem since.

Running xp64 with bigadv going in a VM I have about 816mb free on mine (running 6gigs). That includes an updated xp64 with Avast running (since MSE does not support xp64).

If you would run xp64 you'd be fine with 6gigs, or if you ran native *nix you'd be fine.
I don't know about running Vista or 7 though....I would say definitely not enough with Vista, and probably borderline on 7.
 
You can run win 7 on 6gb and give the VM 5gb. The system will run fine, it won't be snappy. But fine for basic use.

I did this on my main rig untill I got more RAM, and then built Nexus.

Win 7 is very aware of it memory usage and will cache anything it isn't activly useing if RAM is scarse. I have boxen all over the house running 7 x64 with 1gb of RAM and they run fine.
 
Thanks guys. I'll keep this in mind. Hoping for the best so I don't have to plop another $150 on this build.
 
Worst case try it anyway. :)
I think it'd be ok, especially if it's a dedicated folder where you won't have much overhead.
I almost want to try this now after Kendrak said it worked ok, but then again mine's crunching along fine in xp64, no reason for me to shut 'er down for a new os install really. :eek:

If it doesn't work ok for whatever reason, just grab an Ubuntu 64 iso off their site and run with that. ;) I would have done that myself but I wanted to have native logmein access (with the app in the taskbar).
 
Only reason I can't go Native Linux is GPU2. I am planning to sell off my 9800GX2's in a couple of months and will reduce my GPU2 count from 9 to 3 (just leaving the 3 x GTX285's). If I sell off now, my net PpD will go down pretty significantly as the 3 x GX2's account for nearly 30K PpD. I don't have the funds for the SR-2 rig yet.
 
capreppy said:
Only reason I can't go Native Linux is GPU2. I am planning to sell off my 9800GX2's in a couple of months and will reduce my GPU2 count from 9 to 3 (just leaving the 3 x GTX285's). If I sell off now, my net PpD will go down pretty significantly as the 3 x GX2's account for nearly 30K PpD. I don't have the funds for the SR-2 rig yet.
Click to expand...

Unless you have ATI cards mixed in there (and it sounds like you don't), native Linux will still work for you. It isn't that bad to set up.
 
musky said:
Unless you have ATI cards mixed in there (and it sounds like you don't), native Linux will still work for you. It isn't that bad to set up.
Click to expand...

I hve been trying to keep up with the linux threads. I'll probably start in Windows and then move to Linux (dual boot?) once I know that I am rock solid steady.
 
You mentioned using an H50 in your rig, and that should do you *okay*. Thats what I run in 4 of my boxen, including my i7-920 @ 4GHz. With room temps of 68, I get load temps around 76 or so with a push-pull fan config running A3's in Windows. I'd feel a little better with a dual fan radiator to give the coolant a little more time to circulate as well as pass through more cooling fins though. Probably looking at a Swiftech setup for my new build (MB & RAM now on order).
 
My Norco Case has 120mm Fans next to the MoBo area and I will be looking to install the H50 there. I will try push-pull config, but don't know if I have space to do so. I'll know more on Thur when I start breaking things down to do the install.

I would love to go with a larger RAD, but for $70, I was ok with a simple solution. My Sig Rig was a lot of fun to put together, but didn't want to put that much effort into this dedicated boxen. Plus space issues (4U Server Case) limited my HSF options. I figured the H50 was going to be my best option.

I'm shooting for 3.8 or so on the dedicated boxen. We'll see what temps are like and if very good, then I'll punch it up to 4.0. My 920 in my sig rig can hit 3.8 on stock voltage so we'll see.
 
unless you have good cooling. 2x 9800GX2 with i7 is a bad combination.
Else you can put up some good ppd with this setup.

-smp 7 and 4 gpus would yield at least 40K

good luck
 
kevinksu said:
unless you have good cooling. 2x 9800GX2 with i7 is a bad combination.
Else you can put up some good ppd with this setup.

-smp 7 and 4 gpus would yield at least 40K

good luck
Click to expand...

I tried smp 7 the other day with the VM in my sig rig and could NOT get it to download a Big Adv. As soon as I changed it back to smp 8, it picked one up no problem.

Even if I am only getting 20K PpD out of the VM, I'd be ok as the GX2's should get close to 10K PpD each. It should average out to 40K PpD out of this box. Eventually, yes I will be getting rid of the GX2's and moving to more efficient (and less heat producing) GPUs, but I don't have the funds to move to do that right now.
 
capreppy said:
I'm shooting for 3.8 or so on the dedicated boxen. We'll see what temps are like and if very good, then I'll punch it up to 4.0. My 920 in my sig rig can hit 3.8 on stock voltage so we'll see.
Click to expand...

Running 3.8 should be no problem then. I bumped my voltages up just a bit to be safe, but was still getting only 63-65C temps under load on the H50 at that speed. The H50 should do fine for you at that speed.
 
I'd love to do a full loop one of these days...air's just so much cheaper. :)
If I go water, I go full blast; I don't want a cpu only combo kit like the H50 or the Swiftech Compact H20..I want a triple rad, cpu, both gpus etc. the whole ball of wax. ;) I change hw too much though (although I've seen people say having water keeps them from doing that...hmm). :D
 
I am really excited about this build. I've not actually built anything new in 12 months. Plus I'll be re-arranging parts all over the place so should be fun. In addition, my brother in law is staying at our place (he's between jobs) and I'm putting him to work breaking some of boxen down and helping me to organize all of this stuff and then getting them put back together.

If all goes well, by Saturday, I should have all of the boxen rebuilt and back in the server cabinet and my wife's box up and running.

She's pretty excited to get a new desktop (well at least new to her and plenty fast for what she needs). I've been trying to figure out a way to get this box run F@H when not in use, but the problem is her work schedule. She's a bit of a night owl and she can work till 3 or 4 in the morning when I am out of town and during the day, my brother in law (who is going to start working for her temporarily) will probably be using the box during the day.
 
Parts are in. Will be breaking down Red Dragon (K9A2 w/2 x 9800GX2) shortly once they complete the WUs they are currently running. Once that is out of the case, the i7 will go in with one 9800GX2. I'll OC and get everything settled and then add the second GX2. It is possible, I may just keep one in there for now and then sell off one of the GX2's. I would take a hit on PpD from the GPU, but will make up some on the SMP. Plus it is starting to get warm already and getting rid of one GX2 will help reduce some of the heat. Last summer my office was a sauna and I will be working from home more (at least through june or july).
 
AMD 940BE | K9A2 w/9800GX2 has been repurposed as my wife's desktop rig. She's pretty happy with it and she says she will try to remember to turn on F@H when she isn't using it. That's about all I can ask.

As an FYI, I did try to start the second GPU client on Win 7 x64 without a dummy plug and it will not work. SLI is turned on and will see if turning it off will work. I don't think it will.

I'll be working on the i7 tomorrow and hope to have it up by end of day. I just need to setup the H50 and then plop it into the case. It'll have the 9800GX2 as well, but based on the my experience above, I may only be able to get one of the GPUs up and running till I can get a dummy plug. I MAY put the 8800GTX with the i7 and then sell of one of the 9800GX2's. Losing 5K PpD from the one core on the 9800GX2 would be made up by the difference in PpD from the i7 (or at least close to it).

Things are looking good for me to break 100K PpD :D
 
capreppy said:
AMD 940BE | K9A2 w/9800GX2 has been repurposed as my wife's desktop rig. She's pretty happy with it and she says she will try to remember to turn on F@H when she isn't using it. That's about all I can ask.
Click to expand...
You could always check the system from time to time when no one is on. ;)

As an FYI, I did try to start the second GPU client on Win 7 x64 without a dummy plug and it will not work. SLI is turned on and will see if turning it off will work. I don't think it will.
Click to expand...
Most people including me have had no luck in getting the second GPU working without a plug.

I'll be working on the i7 tomorrow and hope to have it up by end of day. I just need to setup the H50 and then plop it into the case. It'll have the 9800GX2 as well, but based on the my experience above, I may only be able to get one of the GPUs up and running till I can get a dummy plug. I MAY put the 8800GTX with the i7 and then sell of one of the 9800GX2's. Losing 5K PpD from the one core on the 9800GX2 would be made up by the difference in PpD from the i7 (or at least close to it).
Click to expand...
With the atrocious lambda units now flooding the GPU clients, I'm sure you'd be pleased with the reduction of heat as well. I am getting fed up of the lambdas; they wreak havoc on the single-slot and dual-GPU cards. Best of luck with the build. :cool:

Things are looking good for me to break 100K PpD :D
Click to expand...
Awesome! Someone should start a thread to create motivation for everyone in the top 10 to break 100k PPD. :cool:
 
Well minor setback.

The Corsair H50 does NOT work well in a Norco RPC-470. There is no where to mount the 120mm fan & rad anywhere that makes sense. Tried to let it free flow, but the heat is unbearable.

Just ordered a Noctua NH-12P with 140mm fan. I know this will fit as I've got a similar cooler on my Q6600. When this arrives, we'll give it another try. I need to get this up on Thursday as Friday is busy and Saturday is new car day (wife has given me ok to pick up new car as my lease expires in 45 days).

I am currently running Win7 x64 on the new boxen, but think I will go back to WinXP x64 with it so I can run 2x9800GX2's in it. One of them is currently in my wife's rig, but will put the 8800GTX in there and put 2 x 9800GX2's in the i7. This configuration WILL put me over 100K PpD and whatever I get out of my wife's rig is gravy.

By end of summer, I will be doing my sig rig refresh. I will be moving to an eVGA SR-2. If business is good, 2 x E5520's. If business is doing really well (which I suspect it will), then we will be splurging and going with 2 x E5650's (the hexa-core).
 
She's ALIVE. The Noctua HSF is doing its job well and I've put 2 x 9800GX2's in there so I don't lose the production. HFM.net is showing roughly 109K PpD. I also have two borgs that I can't monitor, but they are producing roughly 3.5K PpD so overall, just over 110K PpD :D :D
 
capreppy said:
She's ALIVE......
Click to expand...

So, what MB did you end up putting that rig together on, and what kind of clock speeds are you running, if you don't mind me asking? I've got a second 17-920 that I just put together a day or so ago, and it's been at 3.8 since hour three. I'm planning on moving it on up to 4 GHz tonight if I get time to tweak on it some more... ;) Then might be time for another bigadv....
 
ASRock x58 Extreme.

I am at 3.8 right now but no real time to tweak. Maybe tomorrow I will have time. Most likely next week. We'll see how stable are first. She just went up last night
 
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