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Overclocking the Supermicro H8QGi/6

Discussion in 'bit-tech Folding Team' started by Christopher N. Lew, 12 Mar 2012.

  1. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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  2. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    I've still got a quad-processor server lying around in my bedroom at my home in a flight case but it's too noisy to have on in the house. IIRC it's got four Tigerton core processors in it.
     
  3. gero1369

    gero1369 Ummm...Wha?

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    I'll eventually be putting one together (hopefully sooner rather than later). The horde has some crazy awesome folders and just all-around tech duuds!
     
  4. phoenicis

    phoenicis Retired Chimp

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    The new BIOS is a touch of genius and, thankfully for me, fairly idiot proof. With a 15% OC on 6174s and it's ability to apply tighter spd timings, I'm now seeing 589K ppd on a 6903.

    You're going to have to live with an [H] splash screen though guys ;)
     
  5. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Those are nice numbers, what sort of power is the rig pulling at the wall?

    Well, at least it won't show for very long - I can always look away.:D
     
  6. phoenicis

    phoenicis Retired Chimp

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    Hi Christopher, hope you've been keeping well.

    The rig's moved from 550w folding at stock speed to 610w with the OC applied. So over 100K ppd improvement at the expense of 60w from the wall. The best bit is that temps are only 40-45 degrees C using the smaller of the Noctua coolers - there may be more to give when I summon up the nerve.

    What are you building?
     
  7. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    Hi Phoenicis, thanks for your interest.

    As usual, I've been considering a machine that will quietly sit in the corner and get on with the folding. I'm not absolutely committed yet, but I thought a 'low energy' 4P 12-core folding machine might be interesting. Supermicro H8QGI+-F board, the one without all the unnecessary slots and controllers; 1.35v memory ~ I'm hoping that I can get away with 2 x 2Gb for each CPU without impacting folding performance; possibly the Opteron 6166 HE 1.8 GHz processors; gold efficiency PSU.

    The same Noctua coolers that you have, I picked up the 12cm version and immediately thought it was way too heavy for a vertical board. It's good to hear how well they are working for you.

    I do have the occasional moment of doubt ~ perhaps going for best PPD/kWh would be more sensible. At some point I will try and work out where the sweet spot is for running P6903 WUs so your numbers will be useful as a known point on the graph. But the price of the 6166 is such that I can contemplate buying four of them, or probably just two at first to see what sort of numbers I get in reality. There are so many variants making up the power figures that it seems actual experience is going to be my best guide. But then if it were straightforward there would be less fun actually building these machines...
     
  8. phoenicis

    phoenicis Retired Chimp

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    Sounds like there's some serious fun on the way. You've selected the same no frills m/b I went for. The HE chips are supposed to have additional voltage headroom and so the 6166HE is likely to be a great choice for maximising ppd/w.

    The only thing I would caution on is using less than 4 sticks per CPU (effectively dual channel per CPU die). On these boards, single channel has a significant impact on folding performance. If it would help, I've got 16 sticks of basic Kingston ECC 1 GB memory I'm not using. The only thing is they're 1.5v and CL9 so aren't going set the world on fire. PM me with a postal address if you could use them.

    ps Vertical? As my [H] compadres would say 'Not nekkid then?':D Would be interested in which case you're planning on using Christopher.
     
  9. Christopher N. Lew

    Christopher N. Lew Folding in memory of my father

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    I've been crunching the numbers - are you completing 6903 WUs in less than 24 hrs? That's an amazing milestone.:jawdrop:
     
  10. phoenicis

    phoenicis Retired Chimp

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    Not a great sample size as I only ran one unit but the tpf was 12m39s and it finished comfortably under a day including upload time :)

    Unfortunately, it seems I was a little optimistic on temps. With the warm weather this week they have creeped up to around 50 degrees and I got my first HT retry. I think I'm going to dial back from a 230 clock speed to 225 for summer running. This drop may be slightly compensated for by perhaps achieving tighter memory timings at that speed (CL6 rather than CL7).

    Something I forgot to mention was that if you buy anything but low profile RAM, the smaller Noctuas will be a tight fit. I had to rotate the heatsinks and raise the fans a bit to clear the fins on the RAM I went with.
     
  11. StreetSam

    StreetSam Minimodder

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  12. debs3759

    debs3759 Was that a warranty I just broke?

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    They are 4P capable Interlagos chips (Interlagos is the server class Bulldog chips, so MIGHT have the same performance problems as Bulldog itself). 6100 series may be better unless the system is going to be cooled by a good custom watercooling setup.
     
  13. phoenicis

    phoenicis Retired Chimp

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    I've not got any first hand experience with Interlagos but the 6100 series are apparently much better suited to folding than the 6200 IL chips as well as being more power efficient. The ILs are best avoided if for no other reason that the OC gurus at [H] will only develop a supporting BIOS for them, and I quote from the Q & A, "When AMD makes a Family 15h CPU that doesn't suck".
     

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