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A good motherboard for F@H

Discussion in 'bit-tech Folding Team' started by MrGumby, 29 Apr 2009.

  1. MrGumby

    MrGumby CPC 464 User

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    Hi guys. Im looking at building up a couple of folding rigs and was wondering about using tri sli motherboards such as the Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i.
    Do all the cards need to be identical? And also is there some good cheap psus to run them?

    Any help is much appreciated.
     
    Last edited: 29 Apr 2009
  2. bagman

    bagman Minimodder

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  3. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Setup is easiest if the graphics cards are the same GPU, but (I guess) different manufacturers would be OK. Some cards simply won't mix ~ the critical thing seems to be having the same number of shaders.
     
  4. cgcox1

    cgcox1 Obessed Folder! Me? Surely not!

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    Also pay great attention to the amount of PCI-E lanes available on the motherboard. The best way to get the most out of your motherboard is to use 9800gx2's or (if only i had the money) gtx290's, i found though that these would'nt work in x8 slots. So two of the 9800gx2's would'nt work in my P35 motherboard but work fine in a X38 motherboard. So i only have two PCI-E slots and yet get 4 gpu clients working. Also with a 9800gx2 you still get SLI, as the SLI is done on the card, on an Intel chipset motherboard (pre-X58), only SLI though not quad SLI.

    If you have a new system i7, you could get 6 or 8 GPU clients working as they come with 3 or 4 PCI-E slots, and have SLI. But as i said before check the lane availibilty.
     
  5. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    That's interesting. My P5K Premium works fine with a pair of 9800GX2's. P35 and only 4 lanes on the second PCI-E slot, I think. Which P35 board did you have a problem with?
     
  6. cgcox1

    cgcox1 Obessed Folder! Me? Surely not!

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    Asus Blitz Formula.
     
  7. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    The MSI K9A2 Platinum is the mother of all affordable folding boards.

    THere's a DFI i7 board sometimes cheap on OCUK but the rest of the kit to build it ramps up the price.
     
  8. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    That's interesting too. I wasn't aware that the DFI X58 (full size) mb's had 3 PCI-E 16x slots double spaced.

    I keep looking longingly at the Asus P6T WS Revolution. It's under the 300 quid mark now - which is still bl**dy expensive for a mb.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 30 Apr 2009
  9. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    Bargain i7 with lots of slots.
    Although it's still cheaper to build with the K9A2
     
  10. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    That's even more interesting. 'Interesting' seems to be my word of the day! ;)

    7 slots - 4 PCI-E 16x slots double spaced. My only problem is ASrock. 2 RMA's and bios engineers that make the folks at Asus look world-class. Buggy ACPI bios and Linux is not a lot of fun. But that's a generalisation. This particular board might be fine.
     
  11. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Just found a review of the ASRock on Phoronix. Latest bios and recent Linux distribution required.

    Looking closely at this board, I'm impressed by the fact that they have moved the USB and firewire headers from the end of the board to the side, so they are not blocked off when using the fourth PCI-E slot. That's been a bit of a bug-bear for me on both Asus and Gigabyte boards recently.
     
  12. MrGumby

    MrGumby CPC 464 User

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    Cheers for all the replies. Yeh there are some interesting combos. Ive found some XFX 8800gs's 384mbs for £35 a piece. Do they have good PPD rates?
     
  13. saspro

    saspro IT monkey

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    Not bad ppd at all, good price as well
     
  14. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Don't get too excited - if you look at the P2P Asus 'support' forums, you'll find people who cannot run more than 3 graphics cards, or if dual GPU cards, no more than 5 GPUs. That was the situation a few weeks ago, and there may be a new BIOS since then, but would you take the chance at that price...

    I'm hoping Asus will have learned enough from this board, to make the P6T7 do everything it promises.
     
  15. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Snap them up quick, they used to be the best PPD/Watt cards around.
     
  16. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Errrr.... That's not good. I wonder if a bios update does sort it out. (ISTR that a bunch of x58 boards had problems running even a pair of 295's. That was 'fixed' with bios updates.)

    Too late for me, anyway. I hit the button on the ASRock board. I found a posting where a chap did have one running 4x GTX295. Fingers crossed.
     
  17. MrGumby

    MrGumby CPC 464 User

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    I found 13 of them!
     
  18. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    Where? Are they single slot?
     
  19. MrGumby

    MrGumby CPC 464 User

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    yeh single slot
     
  20. JackOfAll

    JackOfAll What's a Dremel?

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    So that just leaves the one question. ;) Where can you obtain XFX 8800gs's 384mbs for £35 a piece?
     

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