Help on building a Farm

[silent bob]

OK guys , I am tired of having cases all over the place . I plan on going with Rackmount. I do plan on going dual core AMD 939.
I am looking for a decent mobo and psu
This build is going to happening after the first of the year
I am not familiar enuff with Linux so I guess I will be purchasing XP Pro for all rigs
I guess I just need a direction to head to for mobos . I am favorable to Asus but ... Have any of you used these Foxconns, Jetway , Asrocks? ECS blows imo

[Adak]

I'd re-think that. AMD's use substantially more power than C2D's, give less folding performance, produce more heat, and socket 939 is already an orphan socket.

Think about C2D, SMP on 64 bit Ubuntu (which is whacked out easy with a few tips), one more time. It's a potent combo, and what I use (although I don't have a rackmount or "cases everywhere", by any means. I have 3 C2D dedicated folders, and one which mostly folds for others, but sometimes for me; sometimes it just plays games. :)

Adak

[Seven]

I would check out Wedo's excellent thread on building a farm. I would also evaluate what you're planning on doing with the rackmount really quickly in your head...

-How many layers am i going to have
-Fully functioning rigs or am I having a common shared server so I save on hard drives
-How am I cooling all of this
-Where is this going
-Integrated graphics on the mobo for ease of maintainance?

I was thinking about this, but you also should check out some cheaper chips. Honestly, if you're looking for the most PPD, i would check out going the zerg route with a bunch of old P4s. 2 or 3 P4s with a cheap mobo will outdo a single 939 or new C2D, AFAIK.

7

[Sleepy_Steve]

The biggest question i have is how many rigs. At first, and then latter expansion??

I would recomend a headless farm. Can control it from a single XP Pro rig, and it will boot all the nodes in linux.
Then of course plan for whatever networking hardware you will need.

I, like you, have faith in asus mobo's... But I also think I would go for which ever mobo is most cost effective.

[eaglescouter]

Headless is most definetly an appropriate goal for a farm of any size. Make certain that your MOBO will boot up if there is no keyboard, mouse or monitor connected. Some motherboards will freeze up and fail to boot if they dont see these components attached.

KVM's can do the job, but are not inexpensive, and that money could be used on a faster cpu for the farm, so use something free like VNC.

Dont forget to get a decent network switch to connect up all the systems to your network.

XP Pro? Why not run XP Home at a lower expense? Or if you are going to build a bunch of boxes PM me for a much less expensive method (fully legitimate) of acquiring legal copies of Windows XP Pro. (although there are free versions of *nix too)

[silent bob]

as far as networking I already have a 24 port hub , so that is not an issue , I own a 4 port KVM , not an issue . I was unaware of teh power consumption tho. thanks
I have played with Ubuntu a little bit and to get it working one time is OK but if for some reason the rig gets shut down , not by me I am a 24/7/365 kind of user ,I couyldnt get it running again , plus other issues , bad psu fried mobo and I think chip may be ok but dont have a mobo to check with .
I did read a bit of the PXE boot? is that the correct term? but the headless is something that just blows my mind atm, and I dont know if I would have th patience for troubleshooting . My g/f calls me A.D.D. boy and I tend to agree most of the time .
I was looking at Intel . I dont want old stuff , if I buy I am getting all new .

I will check Wedo's post on the farm . I wanted to originally set up 4 or 5 rigs , but if I go diskless,headless I can afford more , but I am very definate on the rackmount case and I found a hookup for Rackmount Racks 42u setup .

I want to say thank you to all who have posted , this is going to be my new years resolution is to get a nice FaH farm by mid spring . 10-12 rigs if possible . I want all the same hardware , exactly the same on every rig .

[eaglescouter]

Let me know if you find a deal on 2U ATX rackmount cases :)

[silent bob]

well in pricing everything out it comes to 287 shipped per layer , so I may only start with 5 layers of Intel lovin 3.2Ghz procs with 256mb memory.
I plan on running these stock so it will only be another 16 gig
Eagle I will scout around for some 2u'ers lol get it Eaglescouter sorry just in one of those moods real whacky type

[pscout]

I just used wall mounted wire shelving for my rack ... looks ghetto compared to a real rack but is much less expensive and available. It is also very flexible with the tracks on the wall being very adjustable. You can get different widths to allow setting rigs up in different orientations to allow for hsf and gpu exhaust. Leave space between sections to allow for easy vertical cable runs.

I hang most of my psu's from the shelf above the mobo. They pump out considerable heat. I have also started hanging the hdd's since it makes it much easier to work on 1 rig without disturbing its neighbors. You can go diskless to save some $ and power, but it is very inconvenient/troublesome when things aren't working right.

It is all mounted on a wall adjacent to my office so it makes for short cable runs to my office for kvm's.

I have 4 kvm's for my 16 rig's - 1 8 way trendnet tk801r, 2 4 way trendnets that came with bundled cables for less than the price of 4 cables, 1 2 way kvm that i use between 1 of my 3 lcd monitors and its kvm so i can run dual monitors on my main rig. Don't use mice that need drivers or the kvm's (and you) will get confused. I have a separate mouse for my main rig, not thru the kvm's.

I have used vnc when i had rigs scattered in other rooms ... it has some advantages like cut and paste between rigs, but the convenience of kvm's can't be beat.

I have my rack in an adjacent storage room on the common wall with my office so i put 3 cable run opening through the wall.

I put 2 cheap 8 way switches on the rack and run them back to my central wiring in my office which has the rest of the switches, routers hubs and firewall I use for the rest of the house and the internet.

I also found that static ip is the only way to go unless your nic's are homogeneous. It can be a real pain and time consuming to get all rigs connected after a power outage if you use dhcp for them.

My rack room has a window which i have turned into powered vents which i can reverse depending on outside temps. Lots of air circulation is a must, especially if you do any gpu folding .... otherwise you will get hot spots which will destabilize your rigs if OC'ed ... all but 1 of mine are.

I have a floor fan and a box fan for general air circulation. I hang the box fan from the ceiling - in the cool months I have it blowing the hot air out the door to heat the rest of the house. In the hot months it blows cooler basement air the other way towards my window exhaust fans otherwise the top layers get too hot.

My farm is all intel ,,, 4 p4 HT prescotts, 1 smithfield 830, 6 920/930's, 4 6600's and a 6400. 5 GPU's also. So there is a lot of heat especially since they are OC'ed.

I laid 4 dedicated 15A circuits - 20 A would be better but my old full breaker box could not take 20A breakers ... I had to use half width 15A ones.

I also have a 1/2 completed geothermal watercooling setup waiting for me to complete it. Not urgent now that winter is here, but I was saved last summer by only 1 really hot month here.

As to AMD vs Intel ... go for homogeneity as much as possible to make support and servicing easier for yourself. If you like to OC, then have some variety but too much will drive you nuts if you have too many rigs - especially when you have failures or ned to adjust things due to temps. I started with abit's mostly in 478 days, but I have only added asus since then for the presslers and conroes. I have multiples of p5ld2, p5wd2 (+ -P, -E) p5b (-d) and 2 older as8's.

WXP vs linux ... i run as a workgroup ... have just started linux and kubuntu seems like it might integrate ok ... it includes samba and nfs but i am currently thinking samba on the linux boxes may work best ... but i really haven't got this figured out yet.

Depending how many rigs you intend to have, some of the factors I mentioned may be less or more important.


/edit it took me so long to post this I didn't see your last one ... I hope the 3.2 intels you are going with are dual cores - pentium D's are cheap but e6300's aren't much more and will be more efficient - although there may be a tradeoff with no OC in your plans. If you are setting up 5 ht rigs, it will be pretty inefficient in terms of ppd and electric vs dual cores compared to either conroe or pentium D.
Big cache helps a lot on some wu's also.

[silent bob]

I want neat and clean , I thought about that , the adjustable shelving but the wires and stuff all over just bothers me .

OK my next question is :
do the psu wire splitters still work for powering 2 mobos off 1 psu ?and what do you guys think the minumum should be if I did that ?

[davekusa]

Specs on that 287 per layer and where you're buying it from.
Inquiring minds what to know?

[LandShark]

as many had said/adviced, for nice and neat, yes, you can't beat a nice rackmount tower filled with 2u/4u server cases!! but for the price, I had go for somethign much cheaper (and could be as nice imho). caseless will save you at least $50/folder on average! or you can build a nice tower/cabinet to host all your folder (like me (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=436837)). mine cost me less than $150 included all the 120mm fans (intake and exhaust), lights, etc.

I use a 8 port kvm switch to control my folding cabinet's machine. but also use vnc to control them when I'm in my bedroom from my laptop and/or to control other rigs that's in other part of the house (e.g. htpc in the living room, etc.).

cooling and power is the main concern when you are having more than 1/2 dozen machine all running full load at the same room!!!! it might not seems much when only have 2, 3, 4 rigs running full load w/in a room, but anything more than that, you will start to run into power consumption problem (which I'm having), and cooling problem in the hot summer (especially where you live will see 90+F a lot!!). from my past experience of having lotta machine running w/in a room (previously seti, now folding), winter time isn't a good time to build a home farm!! 'cos the nice and cold winter will fool you about the heat all those rigs will produce in the hot summer!!

even tho I'm an Intel guy, so I could be basis, but I would still recommend Intel folder for you. they consume a bit less power than AMD (at least right now) thus easier to keep cool. and typically will produce more ppd even from the same price range layer. also, trying to keep down the difference of all the rig (e.g. mainly mobo) will help you troublshooting or maintainece a lot easier down the road. once if you found some reasonable o/c and priced mobo, stick with it unless you like to keep on testing, tweaking new mobo. also try to max up a bit with cpu and gpu folding to balance out your output in the long run too!

I would suggest quality folder over more slower folder 'cos at the end, space + power/cooling $$ will be your main limitation even given you have a lot of $$ to spend. I bet most room in a typical house can't handle more than a dozen full loading machine w/in the same room unless you upgrade the power circuit and cooling power.

[silent bob]

PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006
CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819112211
Mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128314
Memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145477
case http://www.arrowmax.com/product_info.php?cPath=30_32&products_id=50
all that equals 277.72 but I dont have shipping on the case .

[davekusa]

That is very cool. I might swich all my cases over to that.

[eaglescouter]

Celeron for the cpu??? That will require more boxes and more electricty to do the work of fewer higher caliber cpu's.

[silent bob]

Celeron for the cpu??? That will require more boxes and more electricty to do the work of fewer higher caliber cpu's.

Ok what would you suggest? 6300 , 6400?

[pscout]

If i were you i would only build 1/2 as many and pay twice as much per layer.

Overall ouptut will likely be higher and electric should be lower.

and only half as many boxes to manage.

[silent bob]

Celeron for the cpu??? That will require more boxes and more electricty to do the work of fewer higher caliber cpu's.

Ok what would you suggest? 6300 , 6400? I really dont want to spend alot of cash on CPU , the 20 pin mobo's are kinda cheap , and so are the psu's

[eaglescouter]

Cheap yes, but to some degree you get what you pay for. Somewhere there should be estimated production levels for different cpu's, take that and a price list, do a price per point assessment to determine the sweet point.

(I'm a seti guy, but the principal is the same)

[pscout]

Ok what would you suggest? 6300 , 6400? I really dont want to spend alot of cash on CPU , the 20 pin mobo's are kinda cheap , and so are the psu's

If you are not going to OC then 6400 although 6300 isn't far behind. Both 6300 and 6400's oc very easily but do need a half decent mobo to OC. They will both do a modest oc with no voltage increases usually.

[silent bob]

If i were you i would only build 1/2 as many and pay twice as much per layer.

Overall ouptut will likely be higher and electric should be lower.

and only half as many boxes to manage.

so 500-600 per layer? and fewer layers ? are the C2D's worth it for farms?
I am gunna have to think about that

[Sleepy_Steve]

But that mobo wont take a conroe by the looks of things.

I personaly would go for better stuff, as eventualy you will run out of space and power in for the rack.

EDIT: Im with Pscout who said "half as many rigs that are twice as expensive" -- basicly sums up my thoughts, but it looks like i got distracted watching a movie on comedy central before i hit the submit button for the post :D

[eaglescouter]

I built 4 cheap crunchers a while back, then discovered that together they could not match the production of a more modern cruncher that cost as much as the 4 combined. If I had saved on the 4 vs 1 for hard drives and ram, then it was even more economical to build using faster more modern components.

[pscout]

Depends on the wu's ... but if you try your hand at the smp folding with kubuntu like i started this week, you should be near 1000 ppd on them bonus wus. My oc'ed 6600's are over 1400 ppd. Silver has a 6300 at 2.9 and Ihrsetrdr has both a 6300 and 6400 smp folding by now- the extra cache doesn't seem to matter on these atm so i expect they are getting over 1000 ppd.

Dgromacs and Ribo's will also shine on them. 1495's sparkle on them. The floating point on the c2d's is one of the things that kills every other cpu by comparison. Any Wu's with SSE will fly.

Nothing shines much with the tidal wave of patty melts atm ... but wu mixes change over time.

1 conroe replaced the output of 3-4 northwoods, or 2-4 prescotts, or 1-2 pentium D's depending on wu mix. I never used a cely since I have always gone for more power per box than more boxes. I have capped myself at 16 so I am always looking for more efficiency via current technolgies to grow production. And just wait till you see an electric bill for a large farm :eek:

/edit ... or put a x19xx video card to gpu folding in one of the hopefully good airflowed boxes and get 500-800 ppd from it alone! And combined with a dual core cpu, there is still a cpu core for folding.

[Adak]

If you were folding nothing but Ambers - then no, C2D's would be a waste of time and money.

But hopefully, you're looking at folding serious SMP pointage! There is simply no better play for a farm being planned or built, today.

And in SMP folding, the C2D's rock. You can estimate 1/3rd more points for the same price point, and use less power (and produce less heat), as well.

500 - 600 ppd? That's peanuts for SMP folding, imo. I dearly love AMD and have bought several cpu's from them over the years.

But now it's Intel's day in the sun. Personal folder, or farm.

Adak

[Junebug]

I know when we were considering a farm, it came down to economics...the most points per dollar. We were about to buy a bunch of XP 2500/2600s and run them at 2350 MHZ on good quality but cheap last geneartion motherboards. We even had the test rig up and running, when we got a good deal on a "used farm".

For us, even as sexy as A64s were at the time, they did not have the bang for the buck...for the money, you could make more points with the last generation stuff. We did not calculate power costs into it and they may make a difference for you.

I drool over the points that people are making with the conroes, but when you look at what the motherboards and chips cost it adds up pretty quick.

I just bought a couple of Pentium D's. I am using crappy ECS boards right now and not getting much of an overclock, but I wonder if a good mother board and a pentium D would not be the cheapest combo on a system cost basis right now.

As far as Linux, we knew very little. We started trying it on our test system. The farm we bought came using Overclockix and that has worked very well for us. The only issues we had were certain motherboards get cranky about PXE booting...make sure the board you plan to use supports this.

Headless is definitely the way to go to get the best economics...and PXE booting saves you the cost of the hard drive and the power to run it.

Make sure it is easy to service your system. ours is hard to work on. If I had built it I would have put each layer on a pull out drawers so it could be serviced. Our system is built into a plexi shelving unit with PSUs hung off the back. It looks rather ghastly with cables running everywhere but it runs well.
But it is very hard to get in and trouble shot systems (cheap PSUs and a few bad motherboards over the past few years).


Good luck with your farm!

Junebug

[silent bob]

well my original plan was to start with a 1500 dollar investment and through out the year add another 1500 to it so 3k for the year not including power consumption just hardware .
I am going to do some number crunching on new later system parts and see what I come up with . If I do latest greatest , my budget will be blown real quick .
Question: can newer units benefit from 1 psu to run 2 mobos?
Question: do teh latest mobos support PXE?

6600 and 6800's are out , the D's look appealing atm and teh 945 or 955's also but do I want to get DDR2 ? Trouble shooting would be tough as all my supplies atm are DDR . I have 4 512mb sticks laying around for exactly that purpose . Since I am not gunna OC them would it be worth it just to buy Dells? or CDW's?

[Joe Camel]

i guess LS hit most of what i would have said in his post (#12) ...

i built my home FARM last year around this time and everything was "cool" , then came summer and i ran into MASSIVE overheating problems. i had already been running a SMALL window AC unit to help cool my basement (this is in addition to the central air) but 3x Intel 630's overpowered that unit in no time. i was forced to upgraded to a portable (12k BTU) unit.

my electric bill quickly become a more important cost factor than the rigs themselves.
not only was i using electricity to power the FARM, i was also using lots to cool it.

ive just (about) finished my latest upgrades: switching over to all C2D's
not only do they out produce the 630 by a LONG shot but they run cooler and use less electricity.



i would defiantly suggest @least thinking about Yonah CPU's ... decent production with EXCEPTIONALLY low heat output and electrical usage.
mobo's will be your "problem" component going that route but no plan is perfect ;)




HERE (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=413610) is my thread for the initial (630) build

and HERE (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=484485) is my upgrade thread




i run mine on a 4-port KVM, "caseless" in a DIY "rack"

this is in WINTER mode: AC off and pulling in nice cool winter (Ohio) air :santa:



http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/7063/pict0047kf7.jpg



GOOD LUCK!! :beer:

[davekusa]

I've decided to just upgrade my P4's with x1950 AGP cards when they hit 200. The next system I build well be a 4 core and I will slowly remove the slower P4's in my farm.

[silent bob]

or do I just say the heck with it and get a bunch of htese? http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IBMNVPIV22-1B&cat=SYS

**edit**
well in minor crunch , I got the units down to 280ish per layer no cabinet of any kind

Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail 98.99
Thermaltake Silent PurePower W0009R ATX 420W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, CSA, TUV, CE - Retail 39.99+7.64shipping
G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail 100.99+4.99 shipping
ASRock 775i945GZ Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945GZ Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail 59.99 + 6.13 shipping


So I figure 512 in each rig and here is my breakdown per layer

66.12 - mobo x 5 = 330.60
47.63 - psu x 5 = 238.15
98.99 - proc x 5 = 494.95
105.98 - memory x 3 = 317.94

total for 5 rigs will be $1381.64 divided by 5 = $276.328 per layer

now the rigs will have 512 but I would buy 3 dual channels and 1 extra for troubleshooting

how do you think that would work?

[pscout]

well i am sure for 1500 you could build at least 2 c2d rigs and maybe 3 with more economy/less OC'able parts.

The smp numbers quoted earlier were conservative based on todays beta wu's but they are in beta and have bonus points. Still, 2 oc'ed c2d rigs will slaughter the p4's which can't run smp. Even if the bonus gets trimmed and the ppd is cut in half, you will still be farther ahead ppd wize and electric /cooling wize with fewer modern rigs. The entry price is higher but 1500 will go a long way in bulding 2-3 decent c2d rigs.

I hear you on spares tho ... but there are mobo's that will run ddr memory with c2d's - don't expect them to oc much tho since they are targeted at an econo market.

Pentiim d's or amd x2's would be a second choice.
Both are capable of running smp if you chose to go there yet could start off on windoze. I dual boot mine ( not sure if you can do that on PXE ) so i can run whichever os is most suitable to current wu mix.

Planning a farm is no simple matter. I didn't plan mine at the outset ... it has just grown over 2 years. As it grew i went from cased and scattered rigs to what i have now. You at least are starting with a plan :thup:

[silent bob]

yeah most of mine have been build a computer and let it fold , but I want to get a little more organized here . few more questions , you keep mentioning SMP and C2D's . c2d's are Conroes? but what is smp ? bah I will go and hunt down the answer on smp. OK SMP is Dual Core http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-SMP.html and c2d's are Core 2 Duo . I guess that didnt take that long to use the SEARCH button

I will look around for DDR and c2d mobos

[Joe Camel]

our classifieds are a GREAT place to get parts... you might not get it all @ once, but if you keep a close eye, and take your time, you can pull together a sweet rig or two ;)

[LandShark]

or do I just say the heck with it and get a bunch of htese? http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IBMNVPIV22-1B&cat=SYS

**edit**
well in minor crunch , I got the units down to 280ish per layer no cabinet of any kind

Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail 98.99
Thermaltake Silent PurePower W0009R ATX 420W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, CSA, TUV, CE - Retail 39.99+7.64shipping
G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail 100.99+4.99 shipping
ASRock 775i945GZ Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945GZ Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail 59.99 + 6.13 shipping


So I figure 512 in each rig and here is my breakdown per layer

66.12 - mobo x 5 = 330.60
47.63 - psu x 5 = 238.15
98.99 - proc x 5 = 494.95
105.98 - memory x 3 = 317.94

total for 5 rigs will be $1381.64 divided by 5 = $276.328 per layer

now the rigs will have 512 but I would buy 3 dual channels and 1 extra for troubleshooting

how do you think that would work?

I would sugget to change the cpu and mobo to 3 x E6400, (for example) 3 x Gigabyte DS3, keep PSU and Memory, but only needs 3 each.

trust me, this 3 Conroe layers will DESTROY 5 of your Smithfield layers in no time and will let you SAVE more on cooling/power bill!!! and you will keep yourself open in upgrade option in the future should you go quad core (it support Kentfield), or drop in a R600/G80 for GPU folding.

as I've said in my earlier reply, in a home farm, quality will outproduce quantity (especially w/ limited budget)!!! and remember to keep cooling/power cost in mind when you expand the farm!!
our classifieds are a GREAT place to get parts... you might not get it all @ once, but if you keep a close eye, and take your time, you can pull together a sweet rig or two ;)
yup!! keep an close eye in our classy section. often time you'll have quite a few good stuffs!! I picked up most of my GPU folder from there. also, just picked up another DS3 for $120 shipped! ;)

[silent bob]

I have done the classifieds before , and I like them but I think for this I want all new and all retail . My last 3-4 rigs came from classifieds and I love all them , but this not something I want to mess with , not playing . Retail or nothing .
OK here it goes :

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - 218 shipped x 3 = 654
GIGABYTE GA-965GM-S2 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel G965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - 123.12 shipped x 3 = 369.87
G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail 105.98 shipped x 2 = 211.96
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply 115/230 V - Retail - 47.63 shipped x 3 = 142.98

OK so that still looks to be under the 1500 . that setup totals out to 1378.81 divided by 3 = $459.60 per layer with extra ram stick

I had to change the psu because the old one was a 20pin not 24 but the price is the same so...
Do I have the nod of approval from the gods of Fah?

ok now to the serious matter what kind of ppd should I expect ish on current WU's , you guys were saying 1000ppd/rig? or is that per core ?or total for 3 rigs?

[LandShark]

I have done the classifieds before , and I like them but I think for this I want all new and all retail . My last 3-4 rigs came from classifieds and I love all them , but this not something I want to mess with , not playing . Retail or nothing .
OK here it goes :

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - 218 shipped x 3 = 654
GIGABYTE GA-965GM-S2 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel G965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - 123.12 shipped x 3 = 369.87
G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail 105.98 shipped x 2 = 211.96
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply 115/230 V - Retail - 47.63 shipped x 3 = 142.98

OK so that still looks to be under the 1500 . that setup totals out to 1378.81 divided by 3 = $459.60 per layer with extra ram stick

I had to change the psu because the old one was a 20pin not 24 but the price is the same so...
Do I have the nod of approval from the gods of Fah?

ok now to the serious matter what kind of ppd should I expect ish on current WU's , you guys were saying 1000ppd/rig? or is that per core ?or total for 3 rigs?
not sure if you have any old pci video card laying around, if not, you can get one for about $20. I would spend extra $20 per motherboard for the DS3 instead of the S2. w/ the DS3, you shouldn't have any problem to o/c the cpu to/around 400FSB, which = 3.2ghz!! and @ 3.2ghz, you'll get from 450+ppd/layer (2 core total) to 1800+ppd per layer(!) depends on the WU that you'll get. I would say average will be somewhere around 600-750ppd. if you go Linux SMP folding, it will be reasonable to assume each layer will produce 1400ppd for you all day long (ATM)!!

and it's JUST 3 rigs of power and cooling consumption with room on your rackmount tower to build more in the future!

[Joe Camel]

i agree with LS on the mobo but IIRC you weren't going to OC. if that the case then the mobo's will be fine but if you plan to OC they will hold those chips back.

[pscout]

The 6400's are such good oc'ers that it would be a shame not to. So I go with gary on getting a more oc'able mobo - JoeC found his s3 to be not so great as i recall.

I am not familir with your mem so not sure how high it will oc and it may be your limiter if the mobo isn't.

Most (all?) c2d oc's on 965 based mobos need to have the memory running 1:1. So not sure if i would expect to fold at 400 fsb with that mem unless it will run at 800. Still, an OC in the 300's with a 6400 will produce very nice results.

I am going to try to put together a very basic "how i set up kubuntu for SMP folding" on my 3 c2d rigs. The first rig only took a day or so with not a large amount of reading. Not bad for my first linux. Subsequent installs were faster. Not sure yet how mobo/hardware differences affect this.

For Kubuntu, you don't need much of a hdd ... people are running it on < 2GB drives. I set mine up for dual boot with wxp but if the smp wu's stay anywhere near as nice as they are, i will never likely boot windows on them for folding.

The only thing i use windows for on them is that is where all my oc'ing is done since i have/know the tools. Hopefully, i will be able to find some equivalent tools that run under linux.

[LandShark]

I am going to try to put together a very basic "how i set up kubuntu for SMP folding" on my 3 c2d rigs. The first rig only took a day or so with not a large amount of reading. Not bad for my first linux. Subsequent installs were faster. Not sure yet how mobo/hardware differences affect this.
.
I'm looking forward to your "how to" guide!! ;)

[Seven]

I would say a few OCed e6400s would be great. That way you can dial in your cooling and stuff in the winter, then pull back on all rigs and relax it a bit for summer. Still, insane pointage either way.

7

[silent bob]

if you go Linux SMP folding, it will be reasonable to assume each layer will produce 1400ppd for you all day long (ATM)!!

and it's JUST 3 rigs of power and cooling consumption with room on your rackmount tower to build more in the future!:eek: :eek: :eek: :drool:

1400ppd each layer !!!!! just insane

[LandShark]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :drool:

1400ppd each layer !!!!! just insane
and think how many slower machines you'll need to acheive what those 3 conroes can do?!! got my point?! ;)

[pscout]

SMP folding is certainly attractive right now ... and since i sort of committed myself to writing up the kubuntu thing i think i will load it up on one of my presslers 930's.

On ribo's (when you can get em) my good 930's will do 4.2 ghz where they can get 700-800 ppd. They get more on 1495's but they are too rare to consider. I recall when we had a lot of Dgro's they were getting over 1000 ppd ... but they are pretty small and irregular these days.
Problem with the presslers is you don't usaully get such good oc'ers at low V settings. I have a few nice ones that were only ever available oem as c1 steppings. I have b1 steppings that will do 4.2 but they take over 1.4 V and very good cooling to do it ... and consume more electric.

So once i get one of them smp folding i will have a better comparison. But the reason for me looking to smp fold on them is just to see if i can increase production on what i already have. Eventaully i expect i will start to retire them as new stuff comes out later next year. Before that i will be retiring the last of my HT prescotts. 1 quad c2d would retire all 4 of them, as well as the lone 830 and possibly 920.

Be careful not to get expectations too high for continued 1400 ppd from the smp folding ... i wouldn't be suprised to see the bonus points diminish once they come out of beta. That is why i suggested something closer to 1000 ppd as a longer term expectation. But that is all just my guess.

I don't want to confuse you or sell you ... just trying to share the stuff i have experience with so you can make the best decision for yourself.
But atm, the main thng i am spending time and money on is smp folding on c2d's with potentially a bit more in the new year if decent priced agp gpu folders come avaalable. I think i already have my quota of pci-e gpu's.

[silent bob]

well I guess I could live with 1000ppd too I guess since it is for a good cause ( my stats) well after vacation I will start my project . and hopefully I can sell my Jeep and get a few more , but only 2 if I sell it tho . I thank all of you for all you fantastic information , and hope to try and pass some of you in the near future

[MICT158]

silent bob,

When you get ready to build your farm, you can go ahead and send me the components that you buy and I will configure and test them out for several months. I would hate for you to get some bad equipment. :)


And this has NOTHING to do with the fact that you are right behind me in the points. If you were thinking that, I am vaguely insulted. :D :D

[davekusa]

ds3-965P or ds3-965G? Does one oc better than the other.
Onboard video vs non video?

And what kind of ram?

All this time I thougnt you guys were using the E6600.

This might not cost too much to upgrade.

Where's that IDIOTS guide to smp/linux/(add acronyms for linux stuff I have no idea about here)?

BETTER YET/ HOW ABOUT:

The "PSCOUT one click install linux/SMP installer"

I get: All the hardware plugged in, down load you installer, burn it to a CD, install it and start SMP folding!

[PaciFIST69]

ds3-965P or ds3-965G? Does one oc better than the other.
Onboard video vs non video?


I heard the 965P was a lot better for OCing.

[S3CUR3]

Figure I might as well jump in...

As soon as Christmas is past, I'm going to do the same thing you are, silent bob. However, after reading the Anandtech review here (http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2871), I've decided to go with the Biostar TForce965PT. It's a great overclocker and Newegg's selling it for $105 here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138037

Also, something else you might consider (I know I am) is a GPU folding farm. Here's the price list I put together:

Penitum D 805 - $92
pqi 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 - $55
ASUS P5ND2-SLI Socket T (LGA 775) - $92
COOLMAX "SLI" CXI-500B ATX v2.01 500W Power Supply - $70
2x SAPPHIRE Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 Video Card - $500
Total $809 per box

From the posts on the Folding-community.org forums, these X1950XT's should be good for ~700 PPD each consistently. It's also been shown that CPU speed doesn't effect the GPU folding much at all (maybe seconds per frame) so long as you have one core per GPU.

Of course, with EOCF about to overtake your guys' team, you probably shouldn't trust me... ;)

Someday, maybe. :D

[davekusa]

Does the E6300 overclock as well as the E6400?

Keep the info comming. I will be pulling the pin for one layer in January or Febuary.

E6300
Biostar MB
PQI turbo memory
Close to 400 per layer.

My buddy needs a upgrade and I got a old P4 2.4 533 that I can give him to make room for this.

[Silver]

I of course am on the smp band wagon but am keeping my one pci-e x1900xt and looking at the agp versions for the agp boards I have as I find it difficult to believe that gpu folding will continue to have substantially less points in relation to smp given gpu potential.

[davekusa]

Silver what motherboards and memory you running on thoes E6300's?

[Silver]

e6300 w/ds3 and Corsair xms2 8500. Ram is a tad better than the system deserves. One oc's to 2.9ghz and the other to 3.2ghz (more or less 400 and 450 fsb). If I had it to do over I would go e6400 and lower grade ram.

[S3CUR3]

Does the E6300 overclock as well as the E6400?

Keep the info comming. I will be pulling the pin for one layer in January or Febuary.

E6300
Biostar MB
PQI turbo memory
Close to 400 per layer.

My buddy needs a upgrade and I got a old P4 2.4 533 that I can give him to make room for this.

I'm planning to go with the E6400. From what I hear, the two chips OC about the same, HOWEVER, the E6300 requires much better RAM to do so. A 6300 @ 3.2Ghz would have a 457Mhz FSB, while the E6400 would still be at 400Mhz. Because DDR800 is easily achievable with even the cheapest of RAM, the E6400 is a much better value IMHO.

[silent bob]

And this has NOTHING to do with the fact that you are right behind me in the points. If you were thinking that, I am vaguely insulted. :D :D

yeah right every time I get close you whip out 2k in 1 update :mad: :mad:
so yes you are one of the first ones I will smile as I pass and be done with you :p but dont feel bad I have a few others I want to leave in teh dust too :shrug:
but its all in good fun and for a great cause , my stats !!!!!!!11111!1

[davekusa]

Where's the smp/linux one click?

[pscout]

Where's the smp/linux one click?

I will get a noob's writeup done ... work is starting to wind down a bit so i should have some more time/energy soon :shrug:

A 1 click will need to come from someone that aint a noob like me with linux tho.

[TIS]

Here is the link to the info on my farm. Its been a while since I built her, but she is still churning out completed work units. :D

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=435671

[davekusa]

I was up till 3am last night reading up on Clovertown Xeon quad core.
You could do a system for roughly 1500+/-( 5310@1.6). There is some real old-school overclocking going on at 2CPU.com (Pin mods and stuff). The problem is that systemtool is needed and that won't work on linux.
Hopefully someone will release a motherboard that will facilitate Oc'ing and some better sever memory.

I've been looking for Kentsfield SMP results but I can't find anything.

Someone at the [H]ord was supposedly running a 5335 (2.66)x2. 2 instances of smp for 5000 PPD. I would think a 1.6 oc'd to a 2 or 2.4 would result in 3500 to 4000 PPD.