11 replies to this topic

[maestro949]

The good news:

With my new battlestation operational I've got a second rig (my old machine) I could turn into a folding machine for the team. Its specs:

• Board: Asus A8N-SLI Premium (1.02)
• CPU: AMD Opteron 185 (Denmark) 2.6GHz
• Memory: 2 GB DDR (PC3200) RAM
• Juice: 500W Power Supply

The mother board has two PCI-E slots so I could toss 2 video cards into it granted i could get enough juice to them.

The bad news:

I have zero time to research what it would take to beef this up most efficiently. I'd be willing to throw $300 @ this towards video cards and if needed, a new power supply. Does anyone have a few cycles to do the groundwork for the most PPD for that pricepoint? If not, I'll look @ it over xmas...

Edited by maestro949, 28 November 2008 - 09:53 PM.

[chungenhung]

The good news:

With my new battlestation operational I've got a second rig (my old machine) I could turn into a folding machine for the team. Its specs:

• Board: Asus A8N-SLI Premium (1.02)
• CPU: AMD Opteron 185 (Denmark) 2.6GHz
• Memory: 2 GB DDR (PC3200) RAM
• Juice: 500W Power Supply

The mother board has two PCI-E slots so I could toss 2 video cards into it granted i could get enough juice to them.

The bad news:

I have zero time to research what it would take to beef this up most efficiently. I'd be willing to throw $300 @ this towards video cards and if needed, a new power supply. Does anyone have a few cycles to do the groundwork for the most PPD for that pricepoint? If not, I'll look @ it over xmas...

If you can get 9600gso for less than $60, then that is the best PPD.
Next is the 9800GT. You don't really need a new power supply if only running 2 GPUs

[maestro949]

[quote name='chungenhung' post='280357' date='28-Nov 2008, 05:01 PM'][quote name='maestro949' post='280352'
If you can get 9600gso for less than $60, then that is the best PPD.
Next is the 9800GT. You don't really need a new power supply if only running 2 GPUs[/quote]

Would I be pushing it to go with a 9800 GX2 and a 9600GSO?

Edited by maestro949, 28 November 2008 - 11:24 PM.

[chungenhung]

you cannot mix video cards. ALL cards must be the same or same stream processor in the same machine. Otherwise you will get really low PPD.

[maestro949]

ok. good to know. thanks for the tip.

[maestro949]

I was able to get 2x9500 GTs for virtually nothing so I popped those in and they are up and running. No idea how well they'll do for points. They are both working on project 5760. Isn't there a tool for predicting point output?

[sentinel]

I was able to get 2x9500 GTs for virtually nothing so I popped those in and they are up and running. No idea how well they'll do for points. They are both working on project 5760. Isn't there a tool for predicting point output?

Hi chap

Here's a professional review for your cards; regular and OC'd.

"Utilizing a new software package for our testing environment, the Folding at Home application, the 9500 GT performs admirably. With project 5506, valued at 480 points, the stock 9500 GT is capable of reaching 4 minutes and 17 seconds per step; which works out to be about 1,672 points per day according to the popular FahMon 2.3.2B software. Overclocking the 9500 GT to 700 MHz core (1750 MHz shader) and 550 MHz memory, sees the amount of time per step drop to about 3 minutes and 27 seconds; thus resulting in an average of about 2,007 points per day. As GPGPU computing becomes more popular, strong architectures and their scaling become even more important. We were pleasently surprised to see a gain of 335 points with our little 9500 GT, all the while maintaining complete system stability."

[maestro949]

Thanks sentinel. Not bad regarding the point production.

[dnamechanic]

... Isn't there a tool for predicting point output?

Maestro, you may be using FahMon already.

FahMon displays current PPD, and then it can predict PPD based on history of your machine(s).

It is very good tool for monitoring multiple CPUs and multiple computers folding progress.

And, according to others, it also works well for GPUs folding progress.

FahMon will show separately your PPD from GPUs and CPUs.

This is a post that describes & illustrates some of FahMon's features.

It takes only a few minutes to download and setup.

[maestro949]

Thanks dna...

If you can get 9600gso for less than $60, then that is the best PPD.

chungenhung - Where do you get 9600gso's for $60?

Edited by maestro949, 30 November 2008 - 11:25 PM.

[poser]

I would keep in mind efficiency. Cards get old fairly quickly so the more you can save money, the better. That means you should care about PPD/W because when you have multiple computers there's a real difference in electric bill within 1 year between a low and high PPD/W card.

With a MB supporting 4 GPU's, I would definitely go with cheap cards, with 3 slots, probably still but with 2 slots I don't know. You better look up the table in the thread I linked to in the PPD/W thread and think if you have too expensive gear to justify getting only around 13,000 PPD (with the GSO's/GT's).

The site is Newegg. I'm not American and I know their prices better than you do

I now asked a question about the performance of 9600 GSO's with new WU's at foldingforum and will report back soon.

[poser]

Next is the 9800GT. You don't really need a new power supply if only running 2 GPUs

Please give a link to the PPD/W performance of 9800GT. The other 9-series cards haven't had good PPD/W...

Edited by poser, 04 December 2008 - 07:14 PM.