47 replies to this topic

[maestro949]

I haven't kept up on the GPU folding but have an opportunity to throw some horsepower@it shortly as I'm building an 8GB vista 64 rig for another project.

What two video cards would give me the most PPD for under say $500 (~$250 per video card) for this setup?

[chungenhung]

Is this rig only for folding purposes?
if yes, your components are too overkill.

[brokenportal]

How much can you get me one of these 4 gpu rigs built for? How much will I have to send you at a normal rate, and how much can you get it built for me for at this 30% off parts rate?

Also, my boss also owns a computer business. Can you list the parts I would need him to use to build it for me? Ill send the parts list through him and get a bid too. He might charge me commercial prices, Im not sure.

[maestro949]

Is this rig only for folding purposes?
if yes, your components are too overkill.

No. It'll be used for 64-bit development / testing of Vista deployed apps but will be idle most of the time thus a good candidate for doubling as a folding rig. So really I'm just looking for the two best cards (or single monster card) I can throw into it to max PPD. $500 max for the card(s).

Edited by maestro949, 01 November 2008 - 10:50 PM.

[chungenhung]

Is this rig only for folding purposes?
if yes, your components are too overkill.

No. It'll be used for 64-bit development / testing of Vista deployed apps but will be idle most of the time thus a good candidate for doubling as a folding rig. So really I'm just looking for the two best cards (or single monster card) I can throw into it to max PPD. $500 max for the card(s).

Then 9800GX2 sounds like a best bet.
I've got one, and it is doing 11k - 12k PPD
so, slap in both, then you've got 22k+ PPD.
Make sure you have the 8 PIN PCIE connector

[chungenhung]

How much can you get me one of these 4 gpu rigs built for? How much will I have to send you at a normal rate, and how much can you get it built for me for at this 30% off parts rate?

Also, my boss also owns a computer business. Can you list the parts I would need him to use to build it for me? Ill send the parts list through him and get a bid too. He might charge me commercial prices, Im not sure.

at the moment, 3 GPU system is the cheapest. as you can run it on regular board, and power supply.
if you do go 4 GPU, you will need a really good PSU.

also, I would take gigabyte board over the biostar board.

[maestro949]

Is this rig only for folding purposes?
if yes, your components are too overkill.

No. It'll be used for 64-bit development / testing of Vista deployed apps but will be idle most of the time thus a good candidate for doubling as a folding rig. So really I'm just looking for the two best cards (or single monster card) I can throw into it to max PPD. $500 max for the card(s).

Then 9800GX2 sounds like a best bet.
I've got one, and it is doing 11k - 12k PPD
so, slap in both, then you've got 22k+ PPD.
Make sure you have the 8 PIN PCIE connector

Thanks. With the 9800GX2s and swapped out the mobo for EVGA. Here's where I'm @ with this:




Which Gigabyte board would you recommend?

Edited by maestro949, 02 November 2008 - 06:31 PM.

[chungenhung]

Gigabyte is known for their solid capacitors for a long time.
basically any P45 board will be good enough. Remember, you don't need SLI for GPU folding.

[poser]

Hi chungenhung. I bet you have 'ingested' a great amount of useful information about building folding@home rigs. Would you like to help me?

Do you use cases? If so, why? Is it more efficient energy wise to not use cases and then use one big cooler than 3-4 little case coolers? What systems you have? Why did you abandon the thought of AMD?

I've been folding for now with just ATI 3870. I will sell it, crappy PPD/W and PPD/$. I haven't realized that I've suffered probably quite a lot because of the electric bill.

You have had a lot of 8800 GT's I gather. They are energy efficient. Have you decided not to use many 9800 GX2's because of the electric bill / price or other reasons like cooling problems? I would like to use them because of the big PPD but I shudder at their relative inefficiency compared to 8800 GS and similar cards. We're talking about hundreds of dollars of difference in the electric bill in two years.

The system I would go ahead first would be a mb with space for preferably 4 double size cards - are those expensive? I would first buy only 1 card and when I get more money, buy more. But I read that PPD goes down if you don't have all same cards, is that true? And a quad core because the rest will be running Rosetta. Is it possible to use XP64 to feed 4 9800 GX2's with one core? Can I play games with XP64 (or are there other real problems)?

Please remind me of other important POV's I haven't considered here.

Edited by poser, 04 November 2008 - 09:22 AM.

[chungenhung]

Hi chungenhung. I bet you have 'ingested' a great amount of useful information about building folding@home rigs. Would you like to help me?

Do you use cases? If so, why? Is it more efficient energy wise to not use cases and then use one big cooler than 3-4 little case coolers? What systems you have? Why did you abandon the thought of AMD?

I've been folding for now with just ATI 3870. I will sell it, crappy PPD/W and PPD/$. I haven't realized that I've suffered probably quite a lot because of the electric bill.

You have had a lot of 8800 GT's I gather. They are energy efficient. Have you decided not to use many 9800 GX2's because of the electric bill / price or other reasons like cooling problems? I would like to use them because of the big PPD but I shudder at their relative inefficiency compared to 8800 GS and similar cards. We're talking about hundreds of dollars of difference in the electric bill in two years.

The system I would go ahead first would be a mb with space for preferably 4 double size cards - are those expensive? I would first buy only 1 card and when I get more money, buy more. But I read that PPD goes down if you don't have all same cards, is that true? And a quad core because the rest will be running Rosetta. Is it possible to use XP64 to feed 4 9800 GX2's with one core? Can I play games with XP64 (or are there other real problems)?

Please remind me of other important POV's I haven't considered here.

For anyone looking for best bang for your buck, there's only 2 routes you can go:
First route:
AMD x2 3800 CPU
MSI K9A2 Platinum (4 PCIEx16 slots)
2x1GB RAM
4x 9600GSO

Second route:
Intel celeron E1200 dual core
Jetway J775GT2-LOG (3 PCIE slots)
2x1GB RAM
3x 9600GSO

My experience:
If you are going to run a 4 GPU system, you need a really good power supply, providing enough power on 12V rails (at least 3 rails)
If you are running only 3 GPU, any decent power supply will do. As 9600gso don't eat too much power.

9600gso is the best card, because they are dirt cheap and product 4500ppd per card. AMD or Intel system is only of personal preference. For AMD, the CPU is cheaper, but the MSI board is expensive.
For Intel, the CPU is more expensive, but the Jetway motherboard is dirt cheap.

9800GX2 is not feasible, as they are very expensive and you would have a hard time removing the heat. I run my computers open case.
You must have the same GPU in the system, or else you will get really low PPD.

Edited by chungenhung, 05 November 2008 - 08:20 AM.

[sentinel]

Hi chungenhung. I bet you have 'ingested' a great amount of useful information about building folding@home rigs. Would you like to help me?

Do you use cases? If so, why? Is it more efficient energy wise to not use cases and then use one big cooler than 3-4 little case coolers? What systems you have? Why did you abandon the thought of AMD?

I've been folding for now with just ATI 3870. I will sell it, crappy PPD/W and PPD/$. I haven't realized that I've suffered probably quite a lot because of the electric bill.

You have had a lot of 8800 GT's I gather. They are energy efficient. Have you decided not to use many 9800 GX2's because of the electric bill / price or other reasons like cooling problems? I would like to use them because of the big PPD but I shudder at their relative inefficiency compared to 8800 GS and similar cards. We're talking about hundreds of dollars of difference in the electric bill in two years.

The system I would go ahead first would be a mb with space for preferably 4 double size cards - are those expensive? I would first buy only 1 card and when I get more money, buy more. But I read that PPD goes down if you don't have all same cards, is that true? And a quad core because the rest will be running Rosetta. Is it possible to use XP64 to feed 4 9800 GX2's with one core? Can I play games with XP64 (or are there other real problems)?

Please remind me of other important POV's I haven't considered here.

For anyone looking for best bang for your buck, there's only 2 routes you can go:
First route:
AMD x2 3800 CPU
MSI K9A2 Platinum (4 PCIEx16 slots)
2x1GB RAM
4x 9600GSO

Second route:
Intel celeron E1200 dual core
Jetway J775GT2-LOG (3 PCIE slots)
2x1GB RAM
3x 9600GSO

My experience:
If you are going to run a 4 GPU system, you need a really good power supply, providing enough power on 12V rails (at least 3 rails)
If you are running only 3 GPU, any decent power supply will do. As 9600gso don't eat too much power.

9600gso is the best card, because they are dirt cheap and product 4500ppd per card. AMD or Intel system is only of personal preference. For AMD, the CPU is cheaper, but the MSI board is expensive.
For Intel, the CPU is more expensive, but the Jetway motherboard is dirt cheap.

9800GX2 is not feasible, as they are very expensive and you would have a hard time removing the heat. I run my computers open case.
You must have the same GPU in the system, or else you will get really low PPD.

That's great detail Chung. Is the 8800 (GT whatever at say 512mb) equivalent to the high end 9600's ?

[chungenhung]

That's great detail Chung. Is the 8800 (GT whatever at say 512mb) equivalent to the high end 9600's ?

8800GT will get you a little bit higher PPD. but their cost does not justify the benefit.
No, 9600gso is always inferior, as they have only 96SP, VS 8800GT 112SP.

[sentinel]

That's great detail Chung. Is the 8800 (GT whatever at say 512mb) equivalent to the high end 9600's ?

8800GT will get you a little bit higher PPD. but their cost does not justify the benefit.
No, 9600gso is always inferior, as they have only 96SP, VS 8800GT 112SP.

Cool, just getting back up to 11/12k ppd afer going on holiday and bloody Microsoft updates causing automatic reboots on both my gpu's. My only other available PCIe seems to be burnt out fro a faulty card..

[sentinel]

That's great detail Chung. Is the 8800 (GT whatever at say 512mb) equivalent to the high end 9600's ?

8800GT will get you a little bit higher PPD. but their cost does not justify the benefit.
No, 9600gso is always inferior, as they have only 96SP, VS 8800GT 112SP.

OK Time for a bit of ARBITRAGE.

You (US) guys can get 9600 dirt cheap ie $50-70.

Cheapest I can get a 9600 (We're talking about GSOs BTW) in the UK is £70 ie $110.00 today.

If one of you can get me 2 9600's stateside and mail them to me, I'll pay the cards, postage and throw in $10 for general hassle, packaging etc. Whatdoyousay? As mentioned before, Idon't even own a high end game, let alone play them. Then I'll put them to work (by buying a new PC for the job.

If New Egg shipped internationally w wouldn't have to do this! Bottom line is that innovation needs to be commercial as well as technical, so come on guys, lets get in the top 50 and stop screwing around.

Sentinel

[chungenhung]

Perhaps those in the USA can buy parts and send it offshore! I will start a topic on that.

[narcolepticnan]

I have an old IBM laptop that runs Windows XP. It's very slow so I was wondering if I could make it faster. Can't afford new laptop.
Thanks

[chungenhung]

I have an old IBM laptop that runs Windows XP. It's very slow so I was wondering if I could make it faster. Can't afford new laptop.
Thanks

READ THE TOPIC BEFORE POSTING!
How is your question related to multi GPU?

[orion602]

8800GT will get you a little bit higher PPD. but their cost does not justify the benefit.
No, 9600gso is always inferior, as they have only 96SP, VS 8800GT 112SP.

hi
I have just read on folding forum that you are going to buy new Fermi card(?)

I was thinking about the same (only not sure if the single GPU which will be released first or wait another 1-2 months for 2x version). I know its hard to predict now but whats your guess how many PPD it could get?

should be much more effective for Watt than gtx295.

many top folders are going to upgrade so I expect significant jump in overall folding@home performance this year (and of another distributed computing projects)

[some time ago I read on atlas folder's blog that he also waits for fermi release.. and he's currently making some 500 000 ppd i think]