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Rig Update-- Folding Qs

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:51 am
by warriorpoet
The kids are getting my current rig minus GPU (donated to another folder). I'm upgrading to a q9550, 8Gb DDR2 and a GTX280 (same H2o cooling, more soundproofing= yay me!).

Here's the deal. I want to run 2x GPU clients: one on the 280 and another on a dedicated folding card (4x electronic PCI-e slot). What's going to get me decent PPD without killing my power bill (the GTX is roughly equal to my current 8800GTX power-wise)? Anything that either comes with or can be modified with a passive cooler in a very low-airflow situation?

Here's the current idea, y'all tell me if there's a better idea or two:

CPU: q9550 (prob at 3.2-3.4GHz)
GPU: GTX 280
Folding GPU: 9600GSO w/ S2? Gigabyte 9600GT passive?

CPU2: kids' e6600 @ 3GHz running 1x SMP

I figure that has to be worth 10k/ day at least.

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:31 pm
by aristide1
Low power quads are coming soon:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/displa ... ktops.html

If you insist there is a low power Q9950, but taking the Q8200 to 400FSB will pretty much get you there for less money. Huge caches dont seem to have much payoff while folding. The article doesn't state if the power reduction is at idle, full load, or both.

Quad PCI-E slots on Intel platforms is still rather pricey. AMD quad boards can be had for half the money. But P945 chipset finally went down to 65nm process, prior Intel chipsets where still 90nm.

Consider the GTX260, which is 55nm, not 65nm process.

Can you wait a bit?
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/disp ... mours.html

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:09 pm
by warriorpoet
Nah, 280 is actually more efficient than my power-hungry 8800, and I do use it for gaming every once in a while ;)

The other use for this machine is as a recording rig, and cache does help with that, especially when processing many tracks at a time.

I'll probably have a 9600GSO for full-time folding duties.

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:48 pm
by aristide1
Careful with the 9600GSO, it should have 96 stream processors, and some have only 48.

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:04 pm
by warriorpoet
aristide1 wrote:Careful with the 9600GSO, it should have 96 stream processors, and some have only 48.
Yep, if I cant get one o' the good ones I'll go down to a 9600GT with a passive cooler. I might do that anyway, as the wattage seems a fair bit less.

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:19 pm
by haysdb
I ordered an 'Asus EN9600GT Silent' for a new rig I'm building. I'm not a gamer so I thought this was massive overkill, but now that I've read up a bit on GPU2, I wish I'd bought a card with a 9800GTX+ GPU. The 9600GT is 100% passive so won't add any noise to my system, but I've been reading that some of the 9800GTX+ cards are relatively quiet despite being actively cooled.

Since I can't return the card (I have already cut off the UPC code and sent it in for the rebate), I'll go ahead and use it and maybe buy another card when the 40nm chips come out.

This is a naive question, but I could keep the 9600GT and add a second card, a different model, right?

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:50 pm
by warriorpoet
haysdb wrote:I ordered an 'Asus EN9600GT Silent' for a new rig I'm building. I'm not a gamer so I thought this was massive overkill, but now that I've read up a bit on GPU2, I wish I'd bought a card with a 9800GTX+ GPU. The 9600GT is 100% passive so won't add any noise to my system, but I've been reading that some of the 9800GTX+ cards are relatively quiet despite being actively cooled.

Since I can't return the card (I have already cut off the UPC code and sent it in for the rebate), I'll go ahead and use it and maybe buy another card when the 40nm chips come out.

This is a naive question, but I could keep the 9600GT and add a second card, a different model, right?
Yep, as long as they are both the same manufacturer (nVidia/ ATi).

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:11 pm
by warriorpoet
Found a cheapie open box 8800gts (g92). Should be a good solution with its 128 stream processors and an Accelero S1 passive.

bonus: it's a killer PhysX card, too ;)

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:28 am
by aristide1
I had one of those, good folder, but a power hog.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:43 am
by warriorpoet
aristide1 wrote:I had one of those, good folder, but a power hog.
Not if I undervolt it ;)

Mostly I'm after the number of shaders (128)/ shader clocks; the rest is going to be fairly well underclocked.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:10 pm
by aristide1
My G92 heated up the room, I sent it back fast.

Oh I hate AMD. They 790FX chipset can handle 4 PCI-E slots with 8 lanes each, but their newer 790GX chipset? The more efficient one? I've only seen boards with that chipset with 2 PCI-E slots.

Always one step forward, 2 steps back. And the new 45nm Pheneoms still use too much power. I want a 45nm AMD dualie, perferrably a 25watter.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:00 pm
by warriorpoet
aristide1 wrote:My G92 heated up the room, I sent it back fast.

Oh I hate AMD. They 790FX chipset can handle 4 PCI-E slots with 8 lanes each, but their newer 790GX chipset? The more efficient one? I've only seen boards with that chipset with 2 PCI-E slots.

Always one step forward, 2 steps back. And the new 45nm Pheneoms still use too much power. I want a 45nm AMD dualie, perferrably a 25watter.
'should be cooler than my G80, in any case. The gtx280 and q9550 will be heating up the room ;)

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:19 am
by aristide1
Xbit Labs tested a 55nm 9800GTX, it used 76 watts.

I'm still waiting.

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:11 pm
by warriorpoet
aristide1 wrote:Xbit Labs tested a 55nm 9800GTX, it used 76 watts.

I'm still waiting.
That's the 9800GTX+, no?

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:55 am
by aristide1
Probably. What do I know?

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:23 am
by warriorpoet

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:46 pm
by warriorpoet
Adding a passive 8800GTS as we speak...

This should be the second-to-last time for the next few months the folding machine goes down for any length of time.

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:43 pm
by aristide1
warriorpoet wrote:This should be the second-to-last time for the next few months the folding machine goes down for any length of time.
Haha, how many time have I said those words?

Man plans, and God laughs.

Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 6:00 pm
by warriorpoet
I have both the GTX280 and the 8800GTS 512 folding now. Now all I need is to figure out a way to run the stinkin' SMP client with the correct config info. I'm folding anonymously right now!

edit: couldn't get the other card running without dummy plug. Will settle for 1x GPU2, 1x SMP until this weekend when I wire one up.

4k points in 12 hours, baby! :D