Cheap Sandy Bridge-EP Xeons

[TaRkA DaHl]

Once you are done fiddling around and you try running bigadv/bigbeta and let us know the total PPD you get

Power draw would be helpful too! Cheers.

[Slowlemon]

Originally Posted by Ben Lamb

Just had a couple of ideas - have you set the max power duration time limit to max time in seconds and are you running your multi at 20x or 24x - stick to 20. Plus when speedstep is enabled to allow turbo manual voltage settings for the cpus are ignored and they run with stock vids. Last thought is how good is your cooling as temps are taken into consideration with turbo. I recon this could be the problem, run with a good bit of airflow through the heatsinks and keep cpus as cool as pos. Glad the new chip arrived as these setups are nice and those C0 chips were a very good buy. Going to buzz seeing your ppd rise now - think I may need to turn an extra machine on lol.

I have the CPU ratio set to "Auto". The CPU temps are about 40degC, if I turn all the fans up to max then they drop to about 37degC but this has no effect on clock speed. Power consumption is about 240W. Which BIOS version are you using? I updated to 0703.

[faugusztin]

Default value is zero because those are the official maximums defined by Intel, and zero means you want to keep default values.

[One_Box]

Glad you have your second chip up and running.

I have no knowledge of your system but imagine it would benefit substantially from the Kraken 0.7-pre15.

Perhaps an alternative strategy would be to return everything to stock, install Kraken and then gradually tweek your settings whilst folding. When the Kraken is in use the core load displayed by System Monitor should be stable.

Good luck !

[Slowlemon]

Hi One Box

I am sure the kraken would help. I have downloaded thekraken 0.7-pre15, untared it and compiled it. When I try to install it I get "problems occurred during wrapping, no wrapping performed (code 2)". It could be because I am using FAH V7, but Tear says he has added support for V7. It could be an issue with the location of the files. I am new to Linux so it is a bit of a steep learning curve.

[Scorpuk]

Hi Slowlemon,

Where abouts did you put the kraken?

Not very familiar with v7 in linux as I went for v6.34.

[One_Box]

Sorry I only use 6.34 on my 4P system so cannot comment on V7 with the Kraken.

Perhaps it would be easier to use 6.34 where the Kraken will work without problem ?

[Slowlemon]

Originally Posted by Scorpuk

Hi Slowlemon,

Where abouts did you put the kraken?

Not very familiar with v7 in linux as I went for v6.34.

Hi Scorpuk

So far as I can make out my folding directory is /var/lib/fahclient,
thekraken-0.7pre15 (folder) is in /home/username and
thekraken (program) is in /usr/bin.

Just been reading the .txt docs that came with thekraken. In the readme it says that only a3 and a5 cores are supported and it gives instructions for installing with V7. In the change log it says that a4 support was added in version 0.7pre14.

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

I have eventually sorted this out. I needed to type "sudo thekraken -i" not "thekraken -i". I am a Linux noob .

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

I am starting to make real progress with this now. I have installed thekraken and switched over to bigadv projects. It`s started a P8101 work unit and time per frame is about 22min, that should be good for 168K PPD. Power draw is 240W so that`s 700PPD/W . I should be able to get more accurate figures when I have more data to work with.

I have not been able to test performance with/without thekraken on the same projects so I have no idea how much difference it makes. Because I have two processors running at different speeds the dynamic load balancing feature should be a big advantage. On SMP projects I was getting about 93K PPD.

Still to do:
1.Find a way to get more turbo boost.
2. Fit more case fans and/or quieter case fans (the NZXT 140mm fans make a slight buzzing sound).
3. Fit lights (maybe)
4. Move it to the lounge. I want to even out the heat distribution for winter.

[One_Box]

Your power consumption is amazing

My 4P uses 435W for 162K PPD on a 8101

[coolamasta]

Awesome mate, based on what you have done I have just gave in and purchased 2 x E5 2660 CPU's from a reputable seller in Hong-Kong, REALLY hope they are genuine and work etc although he does offer a DOA and 60-day warranty on them so should be all good!!

Just trying to decide on whether I should get an Asus Z9PE-D8 WS or pay the extra for a EVGA SR-X ??

Will be starting a thread for my findings as well

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

Progress has slowed a little bit. Average time per frame is now 22m 53s, that`s worth 158K PPD and 660PPD/W. Correction TPF is 22.53min, that`s 22m 32s, 162K PPD and 675PPD/W.

Coolamasta welcome to the madness. These 2P Xeon systems are not going to challenge an AMD 4P with high end chips but they thrash an AMD 2P. The efficiency is very good, one reason I went this route is because I could see how good the Sandy Bridge desktop chips are for folding so I figured Sandy Xeons must be a good bet. The E5-2660s should be perfect for folding.

[Ben Lamb]

Are you getting the cpus from Mr Dinsdale ? He is usualy very good but hasn't sent my last order out and is ignoring my messages. A paypal claim will have to go in soon, the E5 2660s he offers are good chips, B0 stepping and run at 2.4ghz - 2.5ghz with a fsb tweak to 104. The B0 have full virtualisation support unlike some of the later revisions which may come in useful allthough virtualbox is very poor at handling 32 threads and uses its own virtualisation process. Get the ASUS board for sure it is excellent if expensive and works very very well. The platform is very efficient and its ppd/watt makes everything else look a bit silly. If only those cpus were unlocked but no E5s are - they could run at 4.4ghz easily and the ppd at those speeds would be insane makes me so mad we have to put up with these silly low clocks.

[Ben Lamb]

Originally Posted by Ben Lamb

Are you getting the cpus from Mr Dinsdale ? He is usualy very good but hasn't sent my last order out and is ignoring my messages. A paypal claim will have to go in soon, the E5 2660s he offers are good chips, B0 stepping and run at 2.4ghz - 2.5ghz with a fsb tweak to 104. The B0 have full virtualisation support unlike some of the later revisions which may come in useful allthough virtualbox is very poor at handling 32 threads and uses its own virtualisation process. Get the ASUS board for sure it is excellent if expensive and works very very well. The platform is very efficient and its ppd/watt makes everything else look a bit silly. If only those cpus were unlocked but no E5s are - they could run at 4.4ghz easily and the ppd at those speeds would be insane makes me so mad we have to put up with these silly low clocks.

Mr Dinsdale has finaly replied and tells me my chips were damaged and is trying to get replacements so will see what happens.

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

I have heard that Scorpion49 who contributed to this thread has had to sell his folding kit to pay for hospital bills. I do not have any details but wish him all the best.

[Scorpuk]

Not so good.

Hopefully he gets better soon.

[Slowlemon]

Hi All

Ben have you been able to check the clock speed of your Xeons in Linux? I assume you did some stress testing in Windows to check out your overclock. I would be very interested to know if there is any difference. I do not have Windows installed on mine so I can`t compare like for like. From the research I`ve done I think i7z does show the true CPU clock speed.

How many computers do you have folding? Your PPD is through the roof .

[Scorpuk]

Slowlemon,

Try the folllowing in a console:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

The tail end of mine:

processor : 63
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 21
model : 1
model name : AMD Opteron(TM) Processor 6274
stepping : 2
microcode : 0x6000613
cpu MHz : 2200.000
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 3
siblings : 16
core id : 7
cpu cores : 8
apicid : 143
initial apicid : 111
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid amd_dcm aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes xsave avx lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs xop skinit wdt lwp fma4 nodeid_msr topoext perfctr_core arat cpb npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold
bogomips : 4400.00
TLB size : 1536 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm 100mhzsteps hwpstate cpb

[Ben Lamb]

Originally Posted by Slowlemon

Hi All

Ben have you been able to check the clock speed of your Xeons in Linux? I assume you did some stress testing in Windows to check out your overclock. I would be very interested to know if there is any difference. I do not have Windows installed on mine so I can`t compare like for like. From the research I`ve done I think i7z does show the true CPU clock speed.

How many computers do you have folding? Your PPD is through the roof .

Hi I did test the cpus out on a windows install before wiping it and running the linuxfah_1.3.4 install as my two main machines run without graphics to save a few watts. In windows I was getting 2.4ghz on all cores with a 90mhz bump from the blck increase. I have heard from other owners of this chip that they run at a max of 2.4ghz in windows and 2.8ghz in linux ! I have no idea what mine are running at in linux, I am happy with the ppd so havent bothered to check but will do at some point. I have to say 2.8ghz on all cores at the voltage these chips run at sounds unlikely to me and I personaly think 2.4ghz is all we will see, i base this on experiments with other chips. I am running two main rigs at the moment, 2xsandy-ep and the other is a good old sr2 with a couple of hex cores at 3.33ghz. The sr2 burns a few more watts than I like so isnt used all the time. I am toying with another rig which has a single 8 core sandy at 2.5ghz but havent been impressed by its ppd so far. When I get the money I will get another dual ep rig running but due to being skint quite often I have to switch the rigs off to save a bit of cash so you may see some high ppd for a bit and then it will fall off.
Its all a learning curve and probably like yourself started with quad core cpus and gpus and then realised only too late about bigadv16 and the insane ppd it puts out. I would like to run a 4p amd rig but the purchase price of the various parts while not bad value is just out of my range at the moment. I also think running sandy ep might be a bonus if an avx client is released but it is anyones guess if this will happen. It seems that avx gives a 2x boost but not all the Fahcore code can be vectorised so we most likely wont see such a huge boost. Its all meant to be fun and it is nice to see your machines running 100% 24/7 doing something useful plus the points system gives us some amusement and empties our pockets trying to keep up with each other which isnt good realy !

Food for thought is the next generation haswel xeons - 14 cores, 35mb cache, 20% increase clock for clock over sandy and 22nm with power saving enhancements. A couple of these will probably produce 600,000ppd+ and use 280w from the wall. Frightening isnt it and you can bet the good old ES chips will be on ebay !

P.S. just checked you folding output for the last couple of days and it looks like you have turned a couple of extras on, its not going to be so easy to overtake !