Head first into this

So I haven't been able to get this out of my mind from the second I started reading about it. Unfortunately, this is the way my mind works so I tend to grab hold of something I am passionate about it until I see it through. Rather than continue to limp along with my P4 Fold while crying about not having a budget, I have decided to create a budget by selling 2 of my guns (easy sells to friends that shoot). I have an interesting plan for a great looking Fold box, and am really wanting to get started on it soon.

All that was to set up this...

I am too new to have access to the classified section, so I wanted to ask you guys if any of you have a Q6600 for sale. I'm not looking for donations, just a better price than buying new, and more trustworthy than buying from Ebay.

Also, how much affect will the mobo have on my fold production? I don't want anything fancy if I can keep from it.

Godfather1138 said:

So I haven't been able to get this out of my mind from the second I started reading about it. Unfortunately, this is the way my mind works so I tend to grab hold of something I am passionate about it until I see it through. Rather than continue to limp along with my P4 Fold while crying about not having a budget, I have decided to create a budget by selling 2 of my guns (easy sells to friends that shoot). I have an interesting plan for a great looking Fold box, and am really wanting to get started on it soon.

All that was to set up this...

I am too new to have access to the classified section, so I wanted to ask you guys if any of you have a Q6600 for sale. I'm not looking for donations, just a better price than buying new, and more trustworthy than buying from Ebay.

Also, how much affect will the mobo have on my fold production? I don't want anything fancy if I can keep from it.

Click to expand...

FOLD ON!!

On the Q6600 thing, it would be best if you waited until you did have access, if you get ripped off outside the forums, they don't care

Mobo will make a minimal impact unless it is limiting another component (cpu/mem/etc...).

So as long as the mobo supports at least 1066fsb I should be good to go? You mentioned memory. The Fold doesn't seem to use much, so would I be out of line to throw a single 1GB stick on it, or does the q6600 need more than that to take advantage of its power?


I really didn't figure I would get many people jumping to sell a Q6600 to a noob here. <never mind, I searched and found my answer to that question>

Godfather1138 said:

So as long as the mobo supports at least 1066fsb I should be good to go? You mentioned memory. The Fold doesn't seem to use much, so would I be out of line to throw a single 1GB stick on it, or does the q6600 need more than that to take advantage of its power?


I really didn't figure I would get many people jumping to sell a Q6600 to a noob here. <never mind, I searched and found my answer to that question>

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It doesnt use much memory, but I could see it being limited if it was ddr2-800 limited to ddr2-400.

Memory does play a certain roll in Folding now a days.

Well, so does the mobo really, if you plan to oc it bit.

Glad to see a new face come onboard.

The motherboard can make a huge difference. Some like the ASRock Dual-VSTA series max out at 300 FSB, others have almost no overclocking capability, still others like the ASUS P5K go to 500 FSB. You can get great results with a ASUS P5B, a moderately priced motherboard. When you're building a single rig with a Q6600 it makes sense to spend a little more to get the maximum production out of it. You gain 9-10 ppd per 1MHz increase in FSB up to 400 MHz. After 400 FSB, gains (or losses) will depend on chipset and motherboard manufacturer.

The biggest impact i expect the mobo will have on folding is how well it oc's the q6600. There are really cheap mobo's out there that 'support' quads but will not let you get much if any oc due to lack of settings adjustment, etc.
The difference is between maybe a 0-5% oc, and a decent oc'ing mobo of 20-40% oc with the current q6600 steppings.

Hopefully new G0 steppings will either increase the high end of the oc range, or increase the % of cpus' that oc to the high end of the range with perhaps lower volts than the current stepping on the sl9um q6600, or both.

Memory speed is important in that higher bandwidth helps folding performance. High memory speed is more important than tight timings for folding performance. Also, the memory needs to be able to run fast enuf to not limit your cpu oc since none of the quad supporting intel chipsets support a memory divider ie running memory at less than a 1:1 ratio to fsb. Nvidia chipsets allow the memory speed to be decoupled from cpu clocks but i have no experience with them.

You might get away with memory rated at 667 since a lot of it will oc to close to 800 or even better, but I would not recommend anything rated less than 800 if possible. The good news is that ddr2 memory prices have come down quite a bit lately so there is lots of good oc'ing 800 memory out there that will run at 1000+.

you will be able to fold fine atm on 1GB memory, but the price delta to 2gb is not that big atm so i would go for 2gb if the budget can handle the extra $50?. If the rig is only gonna fold and maybe some light duty other work, 1 GB should be ok for now, but new wu types may start to arrive that will need more. If the rig is going to do lots of other stuff incl gaming, video, etc then it would be best to start with 2 gb, and 2gb is prolly 'mandatory' if you are planning on running vista (which i don't recommend).

In fact, if the rig is gonna be dedicated to folding and you don't have a copy of wxp for it already, you can save some money by running linux which is free.

Video is going to depend what you will use it for. Stay away from mobo's with integrated video since they don't usually oc well if at all. On my dedicated folding rigs, i prefer 8 MB pci video cards ... cheap, low power and heat and work in any mobo. I have a few 2MB cards but they limit the screen resolution to 1024x768 in wxp, and less in linux.

If you need good video for gaming, video, then i have no recommendations other than don't plan on GPU folding on the same rig you will be running an smp client.

For dedicated folding only a small ( <40 gb) hdd is required, but sata hdd's are very cheap atm. I can buy a 250 gb sata drive now for less than an 80 gb drive a year ago.

I run my folding (and main rig) caseless but you need to have a safe/convenient place for the caseless rig and its peripherals to sit. Caseless saves a bit of money on case, can take less space and is easier to cool and work on. And it certainly looks ghetto You can even build it in to something but the mobo needs very good airflow.

I am sure you will have fun planning and then building it

pscout said:

Memory speed is important in that higher bandwidth helps folding performance. High memory speed is more important than tight timings for folding performance. Also, the memory needs to be able to run fast enuf to not limit your cpu oc since none of the quad supporting intel chipsets support a memory divider ie running memory at less than a 1:1 ratio to fsb. Nvidia chipsets allow the memory speed to be decoupled from cpu clocks but i have no experience with them.

Click to expand...

??? My P5B Deluxe let's me set it accordingly....like right now my Xeon 3210 (shout out to Landshark) is at 400x8 with mem @ 1000.

And when I switched from 555-18 to 444-18, no difference in TPF

Thanks for the in depth reply pscout. That answered allot of questions for me, including the ones I had not gotten around to asking yet.

This will be a 100% dedicated Fold machine, so no gaming or other work will be going on with it. The video card is already taken care of by a donation of a PCIe card from a friend. My budget I am looking at is around $800 so it shouldn't be much of a problem for me to spring for a proper mobo and memory. I am not wanting to use the entire budget if possible though.

Is there a noticeable difference between the Linux & Windows clients? I had planned to run Linux on this, unless you guys can think of a reason not to. As for the enclosure, I plan to build :uts on riot gear:: a mineral oil submersion with circulation through a fan-less radiator so that this thing will be almost completely silent. Not to mention keeping it looking proper, and protected as this will have to sit out in the open at my house. I have an aquarium laying around begging for this.

So, to wrap up this long post what would you buy for this rig if you had a budget of $800, and didn't have to include a case or video card in the cost?

Crucial Ballistix memory from the cheapest place you can find it.
(mwave? got my 8500's for $140)

Mobos- (not in any order)
P5B series ($100+) (not the Plus ver -immature BIOS)
DS3 - around $100

There are some others. I use a DFI 965 Dark, but I also game a little.

Here is the buying link: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=511295

Make sure to use a good PS.

Any preference on CPU? ah, nm. Q66xx. duh.

DDR3 is coming, but that is probably too pricy yet.

EDIT: Oh, Native Linux/Ubuntu produces a little more than windows SMP.
(it's Free too ) worth it IMO.


Fish Tank & Oil.... sounds like a Sardine Project.

Gigabyte DSR3 provides 45nm support. I'd suggest Gskill HZ, the set I have runs at 1000 at 4-4-4-18 (and only 18 as I haven't dropped that number yet). I'm running my X3210 (quad) at 3.2ghz and my Enermax 485 holds up just fine. Use an old hard drive or get the cheapest SATA drive if you must have a new drive.


Oh, and @ Landshark. I put a Thermalright Si-128 on my quad and now it tops out at 40c.

cw823 said:

Oh, and @ Landshark. I put a Thermalright Si-128 on my quad and now it tops out at 40c.

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cw what CFM fan do you have on your SI-128? 40c sounds really good for that heatsink. I have one myself and I may not be able to resist getting a G0 q6600 to go with it if I can see those temps. What are your ambients?

HZs yum... I've got a set arriving today! Also I've got a set of the Ballistix 8500. Very nice dimms as well. Anything D9 based will serve you well.

Whoa!!! Oil Submersion... I think this would be a first for someone on our Team to do. I've seen pics of such a setup before but this will be awesome to see someone do it first hand. You must'est be takin' some pics when this is complete.

Thanks for all the great info guys. You have all been a huge help b/c I've kinda been behind on what's what with hardware lately.

Harlam, the build will be well documented in the Projects section under the name "Protein Tank." I will probably start it as soon as this first gun is delivered. I already have a buyer for it, so this should happen soon.

WOOT!!!!!!!! I just checked my stats to see if my girlfriend's computer had finished its first packet, and I have recorded my first WU! She beat me by a few hours too, so now I really need to get this project going...can't let her have bragging rights.

linux performs better on 2604/05 smp wu's but according to ChasR 2608/09 perform better on win smp but not by as large a % as the 2604/05 advantage on linux. However, with a quad you will also get a lot of quad only 305x's on linux ... not sure about win smp quad wu mix since i haven't run my quads under wxp for quite a while. 305x's are similar to 2608's ppd. So linux is a pretty good choice.

Also, on mobo's with integrated video .. i just read a thread on the p5k-vm at extreme that seems to oc well with integrated video disabled. FSB up to 500 with 6 multi on the cpu the fellow tested.

And i see my fav local retailer has a p5k-se so i might just try it out when he gets his q6600 stock in next tues. If it oc's as well as the base p5k I have it would be a good dedicated folder. I couldn't download manuals for it so not sure if it has all necessary oc'ing features but will verify before i buy.

If you manage to stay far enuf under your $800 budget and can scrounge some cheap hdd, video, psu, you may even have enuf for another DC rig!

Godfather1138 said:

Harlam, the build will be well documented in the Projects section under the name "Protein Tank." I will probably start it as soon as this first gun is delivered. I already have a buyer for it, so this should happen soon.

WOOT!!!!!!!! I just checked my stats to see if my girlfriend's computer had finished its first packet, and I have recorded my first WU! She beat me by a few hours too, so now I really need to get this project going...can't let her have bragging rights.

Click to expand...

Be sure to hook us up with a link here b/c most of us don't venture too far away from this sub-forum.

Niceness!!! First WU in the books! It just gets better from here.

benbaked said:

cw what CFM fan do you have on your SI-128? 40c sounds really good for that heatsink. I have one myself and I may not be able to resist getting a G0 q6600 to go with it if I can see those temps. What are your ambients?

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I have the 114(or somewhere close) 120mm Panaflo on it.....not near as loud as other fans at the CFM. I would put a silverstone screamer but it won't mount with those Thermalright wire brackets.

Funnier thing is, those temps the other day with my Ultra 120 Extreme? I didn't have my tube of AS5 so I never even applied anything between the heatsink and proc....there might have been a little bit of white cheap stuff on it, but very little if that. And it was still topping out at 42c.

Both guns have been SOLD! Pending transfer, and then i will get this project going!

BTW, I currently have an LCD from a cell phone powered up & soaking in a glass of mineral oil. What ever could I be testing with that???

Here is the link to the Project page:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=5153916#post5153916



I should be getting started on it soon, and will at least be cleaning out the aquarium tomorrow to get it ready.

So, I'm new here too. How many posts do you have to post to be able to get into the classified ?