My farm tweaks

[Xilikon]

I'm making this tread to outline the incoming home farm tweaks I will be doing in the next week. I wanted to have some opinions to optimize the ppd output with the best bang for the buck.

Since I wanted to downsize the work farm to the point the only computers I will be folding is my own office PC, spare laptops (using WiFi so I won't tap on the corporate network) and a few computers on the bench during pre-deployment preparation and troubleshooting sessions. There is a few computers borged like my coworkers computers and a few PC in the corporate classroom that I will retire for sure. Since I wanted to still float above the 50k ppd mark, I need to compensate the losses with my home farm changes.

Current farm :

Q9450 @ 3.5 GHz + GTX 260 (WC)
Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz + 8800GTS 640MB (WC)
Q6600 @ 3.4 GHz
Q6600 @ 3.3 GHz + 8800GT
Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz + 9800GT
T7200 laptop
PS3

This farm produce a average of 45k PPD with the balance coming from work. I want to improve it to over 50k on average from home.

Here's the planned changes :

-Order 2 8800GS cards (XFX for 91.00$ deal)
-Order a Corsair VX550W since one of the boxes will have 2 cards.
-Remove the t7200 laptop (this will help me fund the changes, sold to a friend who will start college soon).

I will move a 8800GT or 9800GT from a box to my file server (the one without a video card) since I wanted just 1 card due to the amount of stuff in it (VMWare with 2 SMP instances + VM of Endian Firewall + daily computer backups) all under WHS, which is from W2003 Server, same as XP with the same restrictions. After this, the box which lost the GT will become the multi-gpu box with 2x 8800GS and the new power supply. The old 380W will be sold to another friend who bought a 8800GT recently but his crappy psu cannot handle it.

I'm doing this mainly to improve the PPD while keeping it at around the same power envelope (the laptop consume about 60-70W and each 8800GS is about 55W so in the end, I'm just consuming 30-40W extra). Laptop loss = 1000 ppd loss but with the 2x 8800GS, I gain about 9000 ppd so the net gain is 8000 PPD, enough to get over the 50k PPD mark.

Is there a better idea to do instead of my plan ? Remember that the new parts is already ordered but the order can be modified before tuesday (not shipped yet).

 

[jws2346]

Hey Xilikon, I hope this is not too far off topic I have a EVGA 8800GS with the shaders OC'ed to a Riva Tuner 1745 and the fan is on a Riva Tuner "fixed duty cycle" of 80%. (my core stays a little less than 50c with an ambient about 24c to 26c) I get 4500 or better ppd, but to get this ppd (4500+) the Q6600's cores for the WinSMP client have to locked to #'s 0-2 with at an affinity set to "low" and for the WinGPU2 client, the core is locked to #3 (I think that's default) and the affinity has to be set to "BelowNormal". All done by Riva Tuner v2.90.

The main question I have is it seems to me whenever the WinSMP completes a WU, DL's and starts another WU I have to go back and set the whole process up all over again or it reverts to about 3500 ppd to a little less than 4,000 ppd (affinity, core locks, fan speed). I'm pretty sure that's what happens Thinking it probably has something to do with the freshly DL'ed WinSMP WU and knowing your proclivity at folding. Do you think I'm not setting something in Riva Tuner right or, if there is, I need a newer version of Riva Tuner

Thanks for any help from anyone.

FOLD ON!

 

[Tigerbiten]

I'm also going to be tweaking the farm but I'm aiming for +100k PpD.

I'm going the 2 vid card per computer route.
Bar 9800 Eeyore which has 4 9800GX2's ........

My setup will be 2x 9800GXT+'s in a Q6600 system under XP.
You can run at least 3 GPU clients on one CPU core under XP without any loss of points.
So both GPU clients will be running on CPU core 3 and the 2x VM's will be running on cores 0-2.
Each box will do ~15k PpD and pull ~350 watts out of the wall.
2x Q6600's will do ~8-10k PpD and pull ~350 watts, so I'm gaining 5-7k PpD for the same power.

I'm going to try a low power System.
2x 9800GTX's power by a LE-1620 under either XP or Vista.
Probably XP as it has a lower ram useage.
Drop in 2 Gb ram max and I'm hopeing for ~12k PpD from under 250 watts drawn as the CPU wont be stressed.
If I hit under my target with the power draw, I may get over 50 PpDpWatt.

Targets.
Run 6 computers and get .............
Points:- 40k + 13.5k + 15k +15k +15k + 12k = 110.5k PpD.
Power:- 900 + 400 + 350 + 350 + 350 + 250 = 2.6 kW.
The whole farm should run at over 42 PpDpW.

Luck ............

 

[Tigerbiten]

The main question I have is it seems to me whenever the WinSMP completes a WU, DL's and starts another WU I have to go back and set the whole process up all over again or it reverts to about 3500 ppd to a little less than 4,000 ppd (affinity, core locks, fan speed). I'm pretty sure that's what happens Thinking it probably has something to do with the freshly DL'ed WinSMP WU and knowing your proclivity at folding. Do you think I'm not setting something in Riva Tuner right or, if there is, I need a newer version of Riva Tuner

XP or Vista ??
If XP then try SMP Seesaw Pro.
Use it in conjuntion with the enviomental variable to isolate the GPU on one core.
Then the only other programs that will use that core are programs that you move onto it.
This should keep the SMP client locked to the other 3 CPU cores.
But be warned to computer may get a little more laggy doing this.
SMP Seesaw Pro is not signed for Vista.

Luck ................

 

[drgnfang]

I'm using Bill2 on both my vista boxen and it is working great. 98gx2 is hitting 5.3k per core per day. I'll be rebuilding in a few months to try and hit 60k ppd before the end of the year.

 

[Xilikon]

Hey Xilikon, I hope this is not too far off topic I have a EVGA 8800GS with the shaders OC'ed to a Riva Tuner 1745 and the fan is on a Riva Tuner "fixed duty cycle" of 80%. (my core stays a little less than 50c with an ambient about 24c to 26c) I get 4500 or better ppd, but to get this ppd (4500+) the Q6600's cores for the WinSMP client have to locked to #'s 0-2 with at an affinity set to "low" and for the WinGPU2 client, the core is locked to #3 (I think that's default) and the affinity has to be set to "BelowNormal". All done by Riva Tuner v2.90.

The main question I have is it seems to me whenever the WinSMP completes a WU, DL's and starts another WU I have to go back and set the whole process up all over again or it reverts to about 3500 ppd to a little less than 4,000 ppd (affinity, core locks, fan speed). I'm pretty sure that's what happens Thinking it probably has something to do with the freshly DL'ed WinSMP WU and knowing your proclivity at folding. Do you think I'm not setting something in Riva Tuner right or, if there is, I need a newer version of Riva Tuner

Thanks for any help from anyone.

FOLD ON!

At home, I'm WinSMP-free so I cannot really answer your question. However, bandwidth usage shouldn't effect folding but since it's WinSMP, it might be possible that it's reset. Tigerbiten made a excellent suggestion, as well as drgnfang to use a software to reset the affinity so it remain set properly even when the cores is shut down and restarted.

 

[jws2346]

Wow Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll certainly give that "Seesaw Pro" a try (I'm currently using WinXP 32 w/SP3 on my Q6600 GPU2 boxen) . I knew I could get first hand information from the more knowledgeable folders on the [H]orde. Thanks

Now for another off the wall question, probably off topic too . What do you think of the port of GPU2 from Windose to Linux ? I started reading about it at
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=568721&highlight=Linux+GPU2

I feel sure people like Shellnut2 of OC.com and the knowledgeable people of the [H]orde will make it much less complicated to do, but as it is right now, what is the consensus from our ([H]orde) gurus?

I can't remember where I was reading the "How to for GPU2 in Linux", but sheech , it seems very complicated (at least to non guru individuals like me) Like compiling Wine, linking about 20 different files, DL'ing some gimongus files, etc (it was a great "How To", I wish I could find it again )

I wish Stanford would write a "stand alone" program for GPU2 because then (it seems a 177 NV "folding capable" driver for Linux is out there), like Xilikon, I could be WinSMP free also. (I fold LinSMP on my other Q6600, but when I finally get the PNY 8800GT I ordered yesterday I'll have to put Windose back on it unless you think the Linux port would be efficient. (I know LinSMP beats WinSMP for points with no hands down)

Thanks for the previous great replys.

FOLD ON!

 

[Tigerbiten]

The offical folding forum thread on "GPU under Wine" is Here.
I gather it folds at the same speed as under XP, but the wappers been tweaked so it only uses around 15% of the CPU core time.
I think I understand what you do and how it works, but I dont think my Linux is up to the job unless there is a hand holding walk through.

Plus I run the SMP Linux clients inside VM's, so I can get away with running the GPU clients under Windoze.

Luck ...........

 

[Xilikon]

The offical folding forum thread on "GPU under Wine" is Here.
I gather it folds at the same speed as under XP, but the wappers been tweaked so it only uses around 15% of the CPU core time.
I think I understand what you do and how it works, but I dont think my Linux is up to the job unless there is a hand holding walk through.

Plus I run the SMP Linux clients inside VM's, so I can get away with running the GPU clients under Windoze.

Luck ...........

Same here, all my home boxens run a flavour of Windows but SMP is all under Linux with VMWare... I guess I should write a good guide to install VMWare and running Linux.

 

[Tigerbiten]

Same here, all my home boxens run a flavour of Windows but SMP is all under Linux with VMWare... I guess I should write a good guide to install VMWare and running Linux.

You can update-expand-alter my Guide as you need, if you want to.
Make it more universal and not just for CentOS.
Also adding a noob guide to useing Finstall, with the flags, would probably be helpfull as thats the easiest way I know of getting the Linux client installed as a service under Linux.

I've just ordered the last parts I need for this round of farm tweaks.
A couple of new PSU's because the old Seasonic's did not have enough PCIE connectors to run dual 9800GTX+'s.
Also a couple more 9800GTX+'s to fill the 3rd Q6600 MoBo's PCIE slots.

Luck .........

 

[oraldlight]

I've just ordered the last parts I need for this round of farm tweaks.
A couple of new PSU's because the old Seasonic's did not have enough PCIE connectors to run dual 9800GTX+'s.
Also a couple more 9800GTX+'s to fill the 3rd Q6600 MoBo's PCIE slots.

Expecting cold weather? That's a fair bit of heat being generated there. So your the reason there's global warming...lol.

That will be an impressive boxen, when you get it sorted out.

 

[Tigerbiten]

That will be an impressive boxen, when you get it sorted out.

Not really.
It will only do ~15k PpD and pull ~380 watts fully loaded.

Now Eeyore does ~40k PpD and pulls 500 watts idle, 900 watts folding ..........

Started to make the new shelves for the blades to fit on.

Luck ............