joining the ranks, input on ideal folding rig

M

mikey976

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
1,635
so i just started folding at home for team 33 and HardOCP (seti/f@h) i have my primary rig running all night and day when im not home.

Currently have this setup will add 1 rig a month to see increase in electrice bill.
q9450 stock clocks
8gb gskill ddr1000
bfg gtx280
cpu is watercooled and been running about 24hrs and hasn't gone over 47c at full load.

now i am running boinc seti@home on the cpu and fold@home on the gpu
what kind of points should i been looking at daily?

also,
i have access to LOTs of highend/latest and greatest gear at work that mostly sits unused till somethign rolls around that it needs to be used. have plenty nvidia/quadro gear old and new. (ie: just put together a dual x5520 xeon rig with 12gb in ram, 16 cores of fun) and as of monday it will be doing absolutly nothing.

what would an ideal headless smp/multi gpu rig be?
and could i use a quadroplex? if my boss lets me use one of the many that are laying. around

if i could id like to do 1 maybe 2 machines to run all the time for the cause (cancer / aliens). more if i have space for it


sorry for long post.
im not look for anyone to tell me how to set up the clients as the guides are plenty useful for that. just looking for input as to what parts would yield best/consistent results

Thanks for reading, all info greatly appreciated
 
On a rig with enough CPU power you can set up a VM that will fold (F@H) the -bigadv units and get a HUGE bonus in ppd. (An i7 cranked to about 3.2 or a 8 core Xeon system is what is needed)

Then you can drop GPUs ontop of that. It is quite possible to get a rig doing 50k ppd or more.
I like GTX 275s, but if you can get used GTX260s that is the cheapest option.

GPUs it is simply to get the fastest NV card (ATI runs at about 1/2 speed) that you can get your fingers on and keep adding them till you run out of room or power. Keeping the GPUs the same cuts down on errors and issues.

 
Kendrak said:
On a rig with enough CPU power you can set up a VM that will fold (F@H) the -bigadv units and get a HUGE bonus in ppd. (An i7 cranked to about 3.2 or a 8 core Xeon system is what is needed)

Then you can drop GPUs ontop of that. It is quite possible to get a rig doing 50k ppd or more.
I like GTX 275s, but if you can get used GTX260s that is the cheapest option.

GPUs it is simply to get the fastest NV card (ATI runs at about 1/2 speed) that you can get your fingers on and keep adding them till you run out of room or power. Keeping the GPUs the same cuts down on errors and issues.
Click to expand...

Ok good to know would higher end gpu's yield more? ie gtx 285/295's
 
Last edited:
yeah they would be the GTX 285 doesnt yield enough to cover the extra cost.. the GTX 295 will since its basically 2 GTX 275's.. but now that nvidia's pulling them off the shelves they are starting to get harder to find..
 
mikey976 said:
Kendrak said:
On a rig with enough CPU power you can set up a VM that will fold (F@H) the -bigadv units and get a HUGE bonus in ppd. (An i7 cranked to about 3.2 or a 8 core Xeon system is what is needed)

Then you can drop GPUs ontop of that. It is quite possible to get a rig doing 50k ppd or more.
I like GTX 275s, but if you can get used GTX260s that is the cheapest option.

GPUs it is simply to get the fastest NV card (ATI runs at about 1/2 speed) that you can get your fingers on and keep adding them till you run out of room or power. Keeping the GPUs the same cuts down on errors and issues.

QUOTE]

Ok good to know would higher end gpu's yield more? ie gtx 285/295's
Click to expand...

At that point you have a cost question. Your paying to get more ppd, but the cost starts to get out of line for the amount of ppd your getting.

A GTX295 should only be used when your trying to cram as much ppd in a single box.

GTX 260's can be had for just over $100 and they can give ya 7k ppd when OCed
GTX 285 can push about 9k. for that extra 2k, your paying for it.
GTX 275 will do 8k OCed
Click to expand...
 
I run 2 GTX275's and average between 15kPPD-20kPPD, depending on the WU. But that's with the shaders,processor clock as they call it now, bumped up to 1655 on both cards.

BTW, Welcome to the [H]orde :D.
 
again everyone this is at no cost at all. these are all parts my company has laying around.
(i work for an nvidia partner)

i have alot of really highend gear at my disposal that isnt doing much other then sitting on a HSPC testbench collecting dust.

and thanks for the warm welcome everyone
 
If that's the case......

i7's (or their Xeon kin) and GTX295's till you run out of room in the case.
Stack them as high as you can
When you start blowing the circuit breaker, start a new stack on a different circuit.
Repeat till you run out of parts, money, space, or cooling.

Fold [H]ard!
 
If you are going to run Folding at Home on work gear, GET PERMISSION IN WRITING from the boss.
People have lost jobs by starting to fold on work computers without permission.
Once you have writen permission then it sounds like the sky's the limit.
Find out what type of power draw they will happily support because it can quickly add up as you add boxen.

Anything fast with 16 cores or better then run a Linux OS with -bigadv work-units.
Anything with 8 cores can be either a pure -bigadv box or a bigadv + GPU box, it depends on how you get 8 cores and what speed you run at.
It depend if the points gained from the GPU client outweigh the points lost from the -bigadv client.
A single i7 is prob best as a pure bigadv box.
A dual Xeon box can run both without loss.
Anything less than 8 cores, try to run as many GPU clients as you can fit on the MoBo.

Luck ........... :D
 
No worries Tigerbiten i know exactly what your saying but i have full consent from my superiors to make a few boxen. only thing that will suck is every machine wil need a gui with browser so i can authenticate internet access 1-2 times a day
 
well so far just to make sure i can get the clients to work properly i set up a test rig to run over the weekend

C2D E6600
Evga 780i
3gb pc9384 ddr2 modules
3x gtx260 core216's
powered with a pc p&c 1000w psu

so we will see how that performs over the weekend

also what os is best for multi gpu rigs, i have to have a gui cause every few hours i have to manually authenticate the internet. is xp fine for a 3 gpu setup, cause i am testing it out on win7 x64
 
Win XP does not require dummy plugs on the cards not hooked up to a monitor.

Win Vista/ Win 7 does.

Because of this some people have never switched over dedicated folding boxen. I just make up dummy plugs as I need them.
 
Kendrak said:
Win XP does not require dummy plugs on the cards not hooked up to a monitor.

Win Vista/ Win 7 does.

Because of this some people have never switched over dedicated folding boxen. I just make up dummy plugs as I need them.
Click to expand...

Can a DVI-VGA dongle be used as a dummy plug? I know I shoud start a new thread on this, but I havn't actually recieved the new (dual gpu! - dual PCB) card, yet.

Or does it have the be the multiresistor setup?


Thank you!
 
Dummy plugs:

dummy.jpg


VGAPinout.jpg
 
Last edited:
Let me join my fellow [H]ard Folders on the board in welcoming you to the team! Looks like you've got some great starting gear available, and the tips have already started flowing in, so you'll be ramping up in no time. Great to have you on board! :D
 
Kendrak said:
Win XP does not require dummy plugs on the cards not hooked up to a monitor.

Win Vista/ Win 7 does.

Because of this some people have never switched over dedicated folding boxen. I just make up dummy plugs as I need them.
Click to expand...

Makes me wonder if there is a registry value that could be set vs dummy plugs.
 
what kind of results would i yield with 8800ultra's?
i seem to have a crate full of them

currently putting out 31kppd between 3 gtx260s, a gtx280, and a 8800gt 512mb.
the 280 and 8800gt are mine

tomorrow i plan to put together triple gtx280s and triple 8800ultras

will update soon
 
mikey976 said:
what kind of results would i yield with 8800ultra's?
i seem to have a crate full of them

currently putting out 31kppd between 3 gtx260s, a gtx280, and a 8800gt 512mb.
the 280 and 8800gt are mine

tomorrow i plan to put together triple gtx280s and triple 8800ultras

will update soon
Click to expand...

Nice man. You'll crank out some PPD with that farm.

Fold On!
 
well so far systems are

System 1
e6600 - smp vm
780i
3gb ram
64gb ssd
3 gtx260s - 3 gpu clients
Click to expand...

System 2
e6600 - smp vm
680i
2gb ram
64gb ssd
2 gtx 260s - 2 gpu clients
Click to expand...

System 3 - 16 cores of fun
dual Xeon 5520s - 2 8core smp clients
12gb ram
64gb ssd
will be adding gtx295 - 2 gpu client
Click to expand...

hitting about 41kppd so far not including the dual xeon system

looking to add another
e6xxx
680i
2-3gb ram
64gb ssd
3 8800 ultras cooled with a coolit
 
Last edited:
Well you seem to have found a very nice pace for adding boxen ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top