Need LOTS of help setting up 2p with questions

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mdmccordmd

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Hello [H] friends. Mike McCord from MaxPC. Trying to setup a linux 2p boxen I know very little about. Here are some questions, just answer by number, ha! 1. Can "regular desktop" DDR3-1600 memory be used in a 2p server-type board (am going to run Xeon in socket 2011)? 2. When installing Ubuntu, do you use Ubuntu Server or "regular" desktop Ubuntu 12.04 for a dedicated folding boxen. More questions after these two get answered. Appreciate a quick response on the memory, Egg has 10% off on it next 48 hours! Thanks my friends.
 
1) That is very board dependent, any idea on the board you want to get?
2) Your preference, do you want a GUI or not? Will you do it for anything other than folding? (From your post it seems not), You will probably be fine with either setup, Server will possibly have less overhead.
 
1) Most 2p socket lga2011 boards I've seen will work fine with regular ddr3 ram but it's always best to double check the board specs before you buy it.

2) This depends how familiar you are with the linux command line. If you aren't that comfortable with it just go with the regular desktop version.
 
I've just set up the Z9PE-D8 with E5 Xeons and it was very easy. The board seems to like just about any RAM above 1.5v, it will not run XMP or overclock to XMP speeds on low voltage (1.35v) RAM. I'm not sure what board you want to use, but with this one bumping up the TDP short duration limit to 130w allowed the chips to run full turbo speeds while folding 24/7.

I have it running Ubuntu 10.10 and I can say as someone who hasn't used linux is over 10 years until now, it is a HUGE pain in the butt. I've spent probably 10 to 12 hours just trying to get HFM.net to run with no success, and most guides are outdated because of the rapid changes in software. All I can say is be prepared to be extremely annoyed for most of the OS setup process.
 
Kendrak said:
Why 2011 and not G34?
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Hi Hal 1,
I recently started folding and after a couple of false starts ended up with a 4P dedicated folding rig using Supermicro H8QGi+-F, some low cost 6128's, 16 x 1 GB ram DDR3 1333 Cl=9, musky's 212+ fan mod. Unit is stable at 240 OC (20%) uses Ubuntu 10.10 OCNG Bios and is currently running U 8101's at 200,000 PPD. When I want to upgrade I can use all the other 61xx's and 62xx's depending on budget. This is a dedicated folding rig. I also use HFM.net and found it to be a breeze to set up. Guides from Musky are great and if you follow them you will do great! You can also start with just 2 CPU's
Best regards, Charlie:D
 
LigTasm said:
I'm not sure what board you want to use, but with this one bumping up the TDP short duration limit to 130w allowed the chips to run full turbo speeds while folding 24/7.
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Very interesting I'd actually been wondering if there was a way to force the E5 chips into running at full turbo speeds 24/7. Is there an easy way to verify that the chips are running at full turbo (other than seeing if TPF times improve)?
 
tkam said:
Very interesting I'd actually been wondering if there was a way to force the E5 chips into running at full turbo speeds 24/7. Is there an easy way to verify that the chips are running at full turbo (other than seeing if TPF times improve)?
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Let E5 chips (ES or retail) run at full all-core turbo speed 24/7 is very easy if your BIOS setting is right and your Linux kernel supports it.
You could verify it by using a tool like turbostat, i7z, or by a tool provided by tear:
http://darkswarm.org/freqcheck.sh
 
Your right looks like most of my E5 boxes were already running full turbo. My one box wasn't though, turbo was apparently off by default in the bios of the SM X9RDL Should get a nice little ppd boost now though - going from running at 2.3ghz to 2.6ghz.

Btw I really like i7z - very nice tool, provides tons of info.
 
I noticed my E5's only run at 2.4ghz turbo under windows with the same BIOS settings as I use in Linux, I have not specifically been able to verify they do in fact run at 2.8ghz in Linux but my power usage jumps from 275w at the wall to 345w at the wall and my TPF goes up accordingly, so I'm assuming that its happening. All it took was setting the energy saving more to high performance and the short duration TDP limit to 130w (95w chips).
 
To answer the question, the board is a Supermicro MBD-X9DRL-3F-0. Looking at it, seems a bit tough to mount the heatsinks, will have to study up on it. Any suggestions? Also how much memory is enough to run -bigadv now without bottlenecks? Is 16Gb enough for a dedicated folder on this board? How about 32Gb? or more? I appreciate the feedback very much.
 
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According to the board's product page: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRL-iF.cfm , desktop non-ecc ddr3 memory is compatible with this board. I think 16GB memory is enough for running bigadv projects, but you need to buy 2GB x8 (not 4GB x4) to let them be able to properly work in 4-channel mode.

mdmccordmd said:
To answer the question, the board is a Supermicro MBD-X9DRL-3F-0. Looking at it, seems a bit tough to mount the heatsinks, will have to study up on it. Any suggestions? Also how much memory is enough to run -bigadv now without bottlenecks? Is 16Gb enough for a dedicated folder on this board? How about 32Gb? or more? I appreciate the feedback very much.
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I think It would be strange if under Linux the chips could run at higher turbo frequency than Windows, they should just be the same.
What is the exact spec of your E5 chips and what is the all-core turbo frequency it should be?

LigTasm said:
I noticed my E5's only run at 2.4ghz turbo under windows with the same BIOS settings as I use in Linux, I have not specifically been able to verify they do in fact run at 2.8ghz in Linux but my power usage jumps from 275w at the wall to 345w at the wall and my TPF goes up accordingly, so I'm assuming that its happening. All it took was setting the energy saving more to high performance and the short duration TDP limit to 130w (95w chips).
Click to expand...
 
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And always, and this is VERY important, ALWAYS, Bake it!
 
mdmccordmd said:
To answer the question, the board is a Supermicro MBD-X9DRL-3F-0. Looking at it, seems a bit tough to mount the heatsinks, will have to study up on it. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

The hyper 212's will fit just fine I believe both the evo and plus versions now come with the necessary hardware for socket 2011.
 
Well, I had several of the older 212's here so i had to order the 2011 socket clamp for it. Glad to know it will fit, seems a bit tight on one side, perhaps not. I have DDR-3 1600 memory here to use. Interesting that Intel says the E5-2620 does not support 1600 memory, only 1333 from their website. Hope it works out.
 
I ordered the "socket 2011" clamp for the older 212s but it did not fit the spacing on my SM board. Tech support claimed the spacing is different for "consumer" vs "server". I sent them back and just modified the stock brackets with a Dremel, which I should have done in the first place. All you have to do is grind down the nubs that align the screws for other socket sizes, so the screws can slide in between those spacings.
 
The most important setting for long-term stability is making sure Team=33!
 
Hmm the 212 evo's I got recently don't have a clamp, just a set of riser screws that go into the socket that allow the existing bracket/clamp to screw into them.
 
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