• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Options for Single Slot GPU

C

capreppy

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2009
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
3,410
I'm looking at options for another boxen. I've been giving some thought to the Asus P6T6 Revolution with 6xPCIe slots. They'll run at x4 speeds (I believe).

What are my options for a single slot GPU folding capable card. Is heat going to kill me with the single slot cards? Is there even a fan on a single slot card?

My thoughts for even looking at this as an option. I've got room for 2 more 4U boxes in my server cabinet. I have to have all of my boxen inside the server cabinet as these are requirements set down by the wife. I'm trying to maximize the PpD while taking this into consideration. I am also looking at another MSI K9A2 / AMD PII 940BE Combo and just stuff it with 3xGTX295's (or yes, I would go 9800GX2, but frankly will NOT buy a refurb and finding a new one is a total PITA).

Even with the cost of the Asus Revolution & Core i7, the overall cost would be cheaper than going the 3xGTX295 route as 2 single cards will be much less than the cost of one GTX295. Now the PpD will be less obviously, but how much lower?
 
8800GT/9800GT is the best option for single-slot cards. However, PPD will be lower than 3xGTX295s and even 3x9800GX2s. Not worth it IMO.
 
I thought that might be the case :(

Oh well. I'll continue my search in the direction that I was going.
 
From reading the folding forums thead on the p5902 protien, I get the GTX295 will do around 7k PpDpCore and the 9800GT will do around 4k PpDpCore.
6x 9800GT will do ~24k PpD and run around 40 PpDpWatt.
3x GTX295's will do around 42k and run around 50 PpDpWatt.

In the long run the GTX295's are a better bet.

Luck ............ :D
 
Yeah. That is what I am thinking. Unfortunately, even with the 'eggs volume discount, it is still $1,500 for 3xGTX295's. A good chunk of change.

I am considering it, but at $2500 for the box (would have to run a 1200W PSU), that is obviously a lot of money. The 42K PpD jump would be nice though :D

I am considering going the i7 route. I'm not particularly pleased with the WCG output of the AMD PII 940BE. I expected more out of it. It's currently OC'd to 3.5 (stock HSF and voltage) and frankly my Q6600 is producing more @ 3.2. In the couple of days that I ran my current i7 920 (at stock everything), it was doing some serious WCG production (especially with hypertheading on).
 
Well one should NOT go into a Microcenter when bored!! My wife had a 2 hour appointment with a client in Addison, TX. She wasn't feeling well and asked me to drive her to the appointment. I said sure (it was Saturday and wanted to spend some time with the wife). The MicroCenter in Richardson, TX is 5 minutes away from her appointment.

I needed to buy a cheap fan controller to tie me over until I can figure out how to install/configure the T-Balancer BigNG that I'm using for my new sig rig. They STILL have the Core i7 920 on sale (bastards, tempting me like that). It took me 45 minutes to get help as they were busy as all get out and were understaffed. So while waiting for help (I knew what I wanted, knew that they had it, but I couldn't find it for the life of me), I kept staring at the i7 920 that was sitting behind the closed glass door.

I finally got helped and got the fan controller and a couple of miscellaneous things (like more AS5 since they didn't have MX-2). The sales guy asked me if there was anything else and I said yes. I want an Intel Core i7 920, please. DAMN IT!!! I have no self control.

Well I guess I know I am going the Intel route for my next build. Need to figure out which MoBo now (probably will go with either the MSI or Gigabyte for the dedicated boxen). Will probably go 1 x GTX295 initially (or all 3 if my next consulting contract pays well enough).
 
(un)Fortuanately the closest thing we have around here is BestBuy. Closest Fry's is 3 hours away in Houston, so I don't run into those situations. NewEgg, however, is a WHOLE different story. Go to replace a mouse, and end up with vid cards and hard drives (or a whole new build if I'm unlucky). Last time I was on the Egg, I was looking for some memory for my 9450 and ended up with a i7 920 build...
 
I have a double wammy. There is a MicroCenter (45 minutes away at least). There are 3 Fry's in the area. There is also a CompUSA about an hour away (still in the metroplex). Thankfully I live on the side of the metroplex without easy access to technology. The closest Fry's is 25 minutes away (if it was closer, I'd be in a boatload of trouble)
 
I'd kill for a Fry's around here. My wife even likes it (took her to one when we were up in Seattle). I would be broke, however...
 
Woah capreppy, it sounds like you've got all your bases covered in the IT department.
(3x Frys and a Microcenter ) :eek:

I've only got 1x Frys down the road. I've been saved from being a permanet fixture in the "poor house" because the closest Frys is a couple of hours away on the local "milk run" (only kiddin', I think our bus system is fantastic for a non driver like me ;)) I use the egg for everything but WC'ing. For WC'ing ( which I love :p) I use Petras Tech Shop unless they're out of stock and I'm in desperate straights. If that's the case I use Performance PCs, SVC's, Sidewinder's or one of the shops suggested on the XS forum. :)

Mainly just for folding, do you think a i7 over a past tech Q6600 G0 would be the better performer or just concentrate more on the GPU end of things (say around $500 or more bucks) In other words would the i7 be more beneficial in the long run. (Hyper Threading, bigger WU's, DDR3, etc) I was just concerned about the 130w TDP. have you had any problems cooling your i7 (yeah I know, I need to see an old gypsy fortune teller :rolleyes:) Anybody please :)

EDIT: Remember the largest PSU's I have at the moment are a OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W and a Zippy Emacs GSM-6600P G1 600w :(

DCing for the CURE
 
jws2346 said:
Mainly just for folding, do you think a i7 over a past tech Q6600 G0 would be the better performer or just concentrate more on the GPU end of things (say around $500 or more bucks) In other words would the i7 be more beneficial in the long run. (Hyper Threading, bigger WU's, DDR3, etc) I was just concerned about the 130w TDP. have you had any problems cooling your i7 (yeah I know, I need to see an old gypsy fortune teller :rolleyes:) Anybody please :)
Click to expand...
Tobit was getting almost 10k PPD with his i7 rig while running the LinSMP client a while back. Running with several Linux VMs through VMWare in Windows (since you're limited to two cores per VM with the free version), I would predict at least 6-7k PPD if not more. A Q6600 will hit at most 4k PPD running two LinSMP clients in VMs. I'd say that an i7 is quite beneficial when it comes to CPU folding.
jws2346 said:
EDIT: Remember the largest PSU's I have at the moment are a OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W and a Zippy Emacs GSM-6600P G1 600w :(
Click to expand...
You would need to purchase a more powerful and higher-quality PSU in order to sufficiently power a fully decked out i7 folding rig with multiple GPUs. For running a single GPU, your Zippy PSU would be sufficient (I would trust it more for a higher-power system than I would the StealthXStream). However, anything more than that and you would need an upgrade.
 
Yeah. The i7 seems to be a little better for a couple of reasons:
- Better F@H SMP Production (or WCG in my case)
- Better stability with 3xGTX285's or 3xGTX295's which I will likely be doing. I remember all of the issues that Sunin ran into trying to get 3x9800GX2's up and running on a socket 775.

I am NOT impressed with the WCG production of my AMD PII 940BE. I am contemplating switching out the MSI K9A2/AMD PII 940BE combo with Asus P6T MoBo (can be had for $240.00 after rebate) and obviously already have a spare Core i7 920 (I can always get another one later). I would then only need DDR3 ram (3x2GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 are $99 at the 'egg right now).

Anyone interested in an MSI K9A2/AMD PII 940BE combo? I'd be willing to part with it for: $300 shipped (right now on the 'egg, these are $200 for the CPU and $129.99 the board after rebate).
 
It was mentioned a while back that the ASUS P6T6 revolution board runs all of its slots in x4 mode. This is incorrect. It has the nvidia NF200 chip on it which adds another 16 PCIe lanes. I know that it can run at least 5 slots in x8 mode and possibly all 6. so with 6 slots populated it would be either x8 x8 x8 x8 x4 x4 or x8 across all 6 slots.

I thought about using those PCIe flexible ribbon cables and a tandem mount setup to connect 5 or 6 dual slot cooled, dual GPU cards to 1 mother board just to prove the concept, but that is way more investment than I can make.
 
flogge said:
I thought about using those PCIe flexible ribbon cables and a tandem mount setup to connect 5 or 6 dual slot cooled, dual GPU cards to 1 mother board just to prove the concept, but that is way more investment than I can make.
Click to expand...

I hit a limit of 8 monitor outputs under Vista Home Premium which is only 2.5 dual cards.
Thats why I had XP Pro on my quad GX2 rig.
So I'm not sure that driving 10-12 monitors is possible under Windoze.

Luck ......... :D
 
The revolution is wayyyyy too much for me. I don't want to have to get 2x1200W PSU's to drive that thing :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top