Very nooby question's

Hi

I am just starting to think about getting into folding and setting up a pc for that purpose. From what I have read I have got a good idea of what I think are ok specs:

K9A2

AMD 3800+

2gb Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400

Random cheap HDD

Silverstone SST 850w

Antec 300

Two, then hopefully going on to three 9800X2

Here are the very nooby questions:

Can I fold on the CPU and GPU's at the same time. If so, is it worth me getting a significantly better CPU to fold on.

To get the money for all of this, I would be probably selling my main rig, and this would therefor become it. What effect on folding performance will it have if this is being used for web, word, and video's?

I have seen a few people talk about folding on linux, what benefit if any does that offer.

Thanks in advance

 

You can fold on the CPU and GPU's at the same time. But it is significantly better to GPU fold. I get 400ppd per core, but GPU (9800gtx) i get around 5-7kppd. I would maybe upgrade it to a 4400+.

Very little.

Linux is free, runs faster, runs better on older pc's and i've used it for 9 years.

Hope this helps.

 

For 3x 9800GX2's I wouldn't bother cpu folding as well as you'll need the cpu time available for the GPU's.
I'd also recomment at least an X3 processor for 3x 9800GX2's (the basic rule is no more than 2 GPU's per core, each 9800GX2 is 2 GPU's).

You might also want to think about a 1KW PSU as you'll need 3x 8ping & 3x 6pin connectors.

Web & word etc doesn't usually effect folding but videos can stutter a bit.

 

I run a simular rig, I have a K9A2 board with a Cooler Master 1250w PSU and 3 x 9800GX2's.

I use an Athlon 7750 Black Edition CPU (dual core) which is overclocked to 3.1ghz and I can run 6 GPU clients and a NotFred SMP virtual machine client, the 6 GPU's are all producing 4500+ PPD each and the CPU can still pull 1600-1700 ppd and its been running like this for 4-5 months quite happily

If you want to use it for other things like tinterweb / word / video then I wouldn't bother with running a CPU client and if you likely to be playing back HD video or converting then I wouldn't fold on the main GPU but you could start/stop the client on the that GPU if you need to do video stuff.

You ideally want to run windows XP for this, I had problems with vista and dummy plugs so I went back to boggo 32 bit XP and it handles the 3 GX2's fine now.

Only thing I will say is with 3 x GX2's you will need to have some damm good airflow going on, ive removed my GX2's out of their plastic cases and use Rivatuner to turn the fans up high to keep the temps down so this wont be a quiet rig!

I would look at getting a faster CPU anyway, the Athlon x2 7750 and 7850 are a bargain and easily overclockable, also a 1000w+ PSU will be needed like saspro has said.

Heres the 'guts' of my rig:

 

Coolmasta why is your cpu fan the wrong way around? lol

Surely it should face the other way
Pulling cool air in and chucking it towards your 2 exhaustfans.

 

Welcome to the fold.

Yes, you can fold on both at the same time, almost independently. If this is going to be your main rig, then get a CPU you are happy with for ordinary purposes. Per £ spend, you'll get a better increase in PPD by going for a higher spec graphics card.

The CPU clients are designed to automatically back off when another program needs resources. So you shouldn't notice any difference with web and Word. Video is more sensitive (as our eyes and brains are) and you may notice some stuttering. If you run system tray clients you can pause the folding, and resume once you've finished with other tasks.
The GPU clients also back off automatically, but I would recommend pausing before playing a full-screen video. Low res video such as utube isn't noticably different.

Free, 64-bit, better memory management (so I'm told), can run a faster CPU client.

Saspro has a lot of experience, so I wouldn't normally disagree with him. But for the record, I have successfully run four 9800GX2 cards and the classic client with a Celeron or a Athlon X2 3800. Couldn't do much else though.

+1 to comments on PSU and noise and heat from 9800GX2s.

Are you running any folding on your existing rig? Getting some experience now may help you decide what you wish to achieve in future, without spending any money. Join the World's No. 1 Producer challenge and have some fun ...

 

Thanks for all your help. Airflow wise. This is going to be in a room I am not going to be in, so lots of delta fans along with some more intake fans modded in so cooling should not be a problem. PSU wise, I will bump it up to a 1250w enermax or somthing. And regarding other usage - it will only be very light use, non HD video, only 3/4 tabs on firefox, and word 2007 all on XP, all I have anyway. Will also look into getting a better CPU.

I am folding on my existing rig before I started selling it, but only on the E8500 CPU, had it running in the background, never touched it. I dont really know what I want in future, just as much as I can get for as little as possible above £800 ish. As I am expecting money to appear quite regulally for a while so I am looking into getting a rackmount to hold all of this. What are the pro's and cons of this. Would be looking eventually into getting 4-5 rigs up and running, including my torrent machine.

 

I can answer that. The K9A2, whilst one of the best value boards available for folding, was designed by monkeys with stupid syndrome. The CPU socket is way too close to EVERYTHING to allow conventional mounting of pretty much any CPU cooler. If coolamasta turned that HSF around, the plastic fan frame would block out some of the RAM slots. I know this because I use the same CPU HSF (AC Feezer 64, right?) in one of my K9A2 based rigs.

When it gets re-cased in about 2 or 3 days time, I'll be removing the HSF and water cooling it to eliminate that problem.

 

Check out Uni's Rack Farm thread on this forum http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=168100 and also Atlas Folder's blog and postings (just google for 'Atlas Folder')

 

Can you tell from the photo whether the fan is pushing or sucking air?

 

Not completely. I've got a Scythe Mugen on one of my K9A2s, and there are no space problems. You just need to take off the fan to get to the memory, and often does one want to do that?

 

Yes. If you know how. I can.
The 2 case fans are exhausts & the cpu fan is fighting them for air

 

Spot on Uni

At the time I built this rig I was using OCZ reaper memory which has the big heatpipes on top which meant the fan on the AC freezer 64 wouldn't let me use slot 1 and 2 on the board which you need to use for the dual memory channels.

It makes no difference to temps anyway as the side of the case has 4 x 120mm fans in

 

Thanks, had a look at both of those, Atlas' rigs are really impressive, but both examples are much much bigger than what I was thinking of starting. Would really be looking at mabye 22U rack, with four folding rigs, one torrent rig, a KVM switch, and I am sure there is somthing I am missing. Could anybody reccomend me good parts for what I need?

 

What are you like with a jigsaw/dremel?

 

Epic failure. My Dad could probably handle a jigsaw ok after a bit of getting back into the hang of it, as long as the cuts dont have to be very very very accurate.

 

In Uni's thread I posted some rack cases if you want to go that route.
They need one cut made in them to support the gfx cards (one bit of metal gets in the way).
Or you can just stack cases (antec 300's stack on their side nicely in a rack)

 

I saw one working link to an xcase 4u rackmount one that you modded, after that there were links to two ebuyer ones which looked promising. Also, I saw this, might go and have a look at it, see if it is worth buying:


EDIT: He is giving the thing away now. Will get on the phone and have a speak about it.

http://brighton.gumtree.com/brighton/47/42714747.html

 

LONG POST WARNING!

Have to apologize for the lack of updates to that thread recently. I have one on the way probably mid-end of next week. I've been stupidly busy which in a way is a good thing because business was worryingly slow a while back. It just means that I don't have any free time at all. No such thing as happy medium with me it seems, always either bored with lots of free time or rushed off my feet running all ove the country!

You can. If you're talking about the fan on the AC heatsink, it can't be reversed. Must stay fitted the way it comes (unfortunately in some cases). If you're talking about the 2x 80mm fans on the rear of the case, they're still identifyable as exhaust fans. You can see where the hub of the fan is and the bars that connect it to the frame. Air always moves from the open blade side of a fan to the hub side.

As coolamasta says in another post below, it does depend on the memory modules. I am a BIG fan of OCZ reaper HPC memory (bang per buck wise, it's hard to beat) and every memory module in my farm is a reaper HPC. Those large heatpipes and heatsinks make it very hard to find a HSF that won't interfere with the memory slots on a K9A2 because of the proximity of the memory slots to the CPU socket. I'm still going to WC the rig, partly also because I want to overclock it a bit more

Loud case is LOUD!

If you are going to put all your rigs in one rack, don't leave yourself short of space for future rigs. Each ATX PC that you build will need 4 units of rack space, so at the moment you have no space left over to work with. The last thing you were forgetting was probably either a patch panel (which many large cabinets come with these days) or a switch?

 

Exactly

I have a CoolerMaster Hyper TX (Similar Fan)
And Mines mounted the otherway around.