Build: Must handle multiple virtual machines + Folding

didgemaster

didgemaster

didgemaster

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Taunton, Somerset
Hello all

I need some help in making some decisions regarding a new build. The machine that I want to put together needs to be able to carry out a few roles.

I am currently taking my exams for my MCSE and I feel that I am not getting enough practical knowledge of breaking/repairing servers/AD so I will need to virtualize at least 2 possibly more windows 2003 servers in order to gain practical knowledge.

I don’t seriously game but I do like a good first person shooter – I’m still hooked on Unreal 2004 but I play others. I use 1 X 19” and 1 X 17” LCD monitors and I want to connect up a 19” CRT for photography purposes.

This machine will also act as my main storage facility so I was thinking of 3 X WD 640/500 GB black drives in hardware RAID 5.

The other thing that I enjoy is folding so the more units this can crank out the better

One of my main concerns is noise; I don’t want a hair dryer type machine under my desk when I’m trying to concentrate – I realise that the folding will produce quite a bit of heat, so there maybe some after market cooling solutions to consider for GPUs


I had thought to base this around the asrock x58 deluxe motherboard as it has 4 PCIe slots so lots of GPUs but with after market cooling I’m not sure if I will be able to fit 4 on this board e.g. 4Xgts250 with zalman vf900cu coolers. However having said this would I be better off with 2Xgtx275 with after market cooling?

Any considerations/suggestions or even spec lists do let me know

Don’t need:
Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor

Budget around £1200

A starting spec:

3785561183_f42face09a.jpg
 
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Try the WD greens for storage, provided you arn't going to need them as boot drives.

do you really need 3 GPUs? A single card can run 2 monitors.
 
jak731 said:
Try the WD greens for storage, provided you arn't going to need them as boot drives.

do you really need 3 GPUs? A single card can run 2 monitors.
Click to expand...

Thanks

but they will be boot drives and GPUs used for folding so the more the better :D
 
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Superewza said:
Yeah, just get one of these for storage, you could have a cheap SSD for your OSs:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-270-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

And it depends which graphics card and what connections it has to have. Two of these in crossfire would be better though, if the motherboard supports it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1403
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestion

I specified 3 drives to run in RAID 5 giving some security to my data. The ATI cards although they seem better value for money for graphics usage they aren't so good for folding which is why I chose nVidia cards
 
I'd say go for 3x gtx260's thats a good balance between heat/ppd/power

I went from 4 x 9800GTs to 3 GTX 260's for that same reason.

Also with an i7 and 3 (or 4) cards + overclocking in there you are going to have lots of noise while folding no matter what air coolers you stick in it.

If you want it to be quiet you will need to water cool it I can't see a way around it.

The i7 is hot, much hotter than the Q9xxx range of chips. But will give you better folding performance in VM's I guess.

Go for 12GB of memory to give you enough for the VM's and the memory swallowing of the gfx cards.

Storage, you seem to have that nailed, although I'd separate the OS drive from the raid array for your data. So maybe get one or two SSDs (RAID1 if two) for the OS and then stick with 3 cheaper high capacity SATA drives in RAID5 for the data.

Again with all those drives inside the case, plus air cooled CPU + air cooled gfx its going to be hot and noisy. Seriously think about water cooling at least the gfx cards I would advise. That would tame the major source of noise/heat but you wouldn't have to go to the complexity of multiple loops by including the CPU, unless of course you want to get into that which can be very satisfying :)

Anyway thats my tuppence worth.
 
I was reading up on RAID over the weekend, and the technical guys really recommend RAID 10 over RAID 5 when doing onboard, much better performance and a lot less can go wrong. Don't have the links to hand unfortunately.
 
Biffa said:
I'd say go for 3x gtx260's thats a good balance between heat/ppd/power

I went from 4 x 9800GTs to 3 GTX 260's for that same reason.

Also with an i7 and 3 (or 4) cards + overclocking in there you are going to have lots of noise while folding no matter what air coolers you stick in it.

If you want it to be quiet you will need to water cool it I can't see a way around it.

The i7 is hot, much hotter than the Q9xxx range of chips. But will give you better folding performance in VM's I guess.

Go for 12GB of memory to give you enough for the VM's and the memory swallowing of the gfx cards.

Storage, you seem to have that nailed, although I'd separate the OS drive from the raid array for your data. So maybe get one or two SSDs (RAID1 if two) for the OS and then stick with 3 cheaper high capacity SATA drives in RAID5 for the data.

Again with all those drives inside the case, plus air cooled CPU + air cooled gfx its going to be hot and noisy. Seriously think about water cooling at least the gfx cards I would advise. That would tame the major source of noise/heat but you wouldn't have to go to the complexity of multiple loops by including the CPU, unless of course you want to get into that which can be very satisfying :)

Anyway thats my tuppence worth.
Click to expand...


Do you think that I will be able to buy all of that for £1200? - I will try a spec later, although I know nothing of water cooling
 
didgemaster said:
Do you think that I will be able to buy all of that for £1200? - I will try a spec later, although I know nothing of water cooling
Click to expand...

No, not for £1200, not buying everything new.

You could tweak the spec to make it fit in budget.

e.g:
Q9450/775/DDR2 instead of i7/x58/DDR3 (£320 instead of £430)
2 x 750GB in RAID1 instead of 3 500's in RAID 5 (gives you the same space, saves £20)
etc


OR...

You could probably do it on air to start with, see if its livable with then go on from there if its not :)
 
It all looked good until you mentioned you want it to be quiet. Got to be water for that, or long monitor cables.

For folding, an open ended x4 pci-e slot is more than adequate. So you don't need to use the nasty asrock board if you want four cards. not sure offhand which one you'd want though, the UD5 heatsink gets in the way of a fourth card.

If you're on a steady income, get the i7, 6gb ram, good psu and chosen motherboard and one 260gtx. Then over time as more money comes in get more ram, a second 260, half the water cooling, the rest of the water cooling, the final 260. A 260 on water only needs a single width slow which is a bonus. You could also use a 275 for the first card as games would like it, then add 260s for folding and extra monitors.

3 £400 machines is less flexible than virtualbox, and means having 3 fairly crappy computers instead of one awesome one which is less useful for other things.

If virtualbox matters most, definitely go with one card to start with and the i7. Intel quads have been the answer for virtualisation for a while, Id suggest 775 if it wasn't limited to 8gb rather than 12.
 
JonJ678 said:
If virtualbox matters most, definitely go with one card to start with and the i7. Intel quads have been the answer for virtualisation for a while, Id suggest 775 if it wasn't limited to 8gb rather than 12.
Click to expand...

Umm.. 16GB you mean right? P45 775 can take 16GB.
 
New thoughts please

Having investigated Water cooling I think that I can't afford it yet - maybe at a later date. For now I will just have to put up some noise although I would like to keep it as low as possible on my budget. Also I will need a power supply that will be able to handle 3 nVidia gtx2xx cards although I won't be buying them all yet, an i7 and water cooling - So for £1200 what would you suggest? I've had another go

3789880482_4d36e5fc57.jpg
 
Sorry I have never understood why people want to fold, it's a massive power cost to run a 1KW heater 24/7 - you do realise it's gonna cost £1.50 a day or £45 a month?
 
didgemaster said:
You don't need to understand its an addiction - any ideas on a build?
Click to expand...

lol, fair enough :)

i7, 12GB, 3 * 260 cards

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £205.99
(£179.12) £205.99
(£179.12)
Asus P6T SE Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £143.99
(£125.21) £143.99
(£125.21)
Corsair HX 850W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850HXUK) £129.98
(£113.03) £129.98
(£113.03)
Asus GeForce GTX 260 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
(£104.34) £359.97
(£313.02)
Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £92.99
(£80.86) £92.99
(£80.86)
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C9) £78.99
(£68.69) £157.98
(£137.38)
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SI) £55.98
(£48.68) £55.98
(£48.68)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)
Sub Total : £1,027.73
 
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