contemplating a folding rig...

TomO

TomO

TomO

Soldato
Joined
28 Oct 2002
Posts
3,356
right, where to start!

Plan would be to run windows XP with 3 GPU clients running.


**B Grade** Abit IX38 QuadGT Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 (MB-138-AB) £68.99

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24

Intel Celeron E1200 1.6Ghz Dual-Core Processor (LGA775) - Retail £39.09

Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £29.89

OcUK 2GB (1x2GB) PC2-5300C5 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £17.24


From what I understand the low spec CPU and ram will be fine running just the GPU client. HDD requirements are also very low - I could get a slightly cheaper HDD, but figure that at least 320gb might be useful some where else if I need it to be.

Running XP would mean that I dont need VGA dummies or monitors connected, is that correct? I would want to put the PC in a cupboard with my switch / router / NAS, so no space for monitor really! would leave it running 24/7 and setup some kind of remote access so i could check up on it now and again.


I have found some reasonably cheap 8800GT's, these seem like a better deal than the 9800GT's that OCUk stock. looks like there is little performance gain for the extra outlay.


Zotac GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (ZT-98GES4P-FDR) £86.24 x 3

what kind of PSU will i need for 3 of these cards? bearing in mind the CPU will be barely in use and no accesories apart from maybe a few fans.

any other advice on the above?

cheers. :)
 
Unsure of the Vista / XP GPU differences as I only have one GPU on Vista and two VM's running Linux SMP.

One thing I would say is that GPU's chuck out enourmous amounts of heat, so the cupboard will need ventilation, no matter how big it is they will heat it up very quickly and everything inside.

Also have you thought about whether or not to overclock the GPU's? Again more heat but more PPD.
 
I think with the new drivers for xp cpu use is very small (if not lower than vista). I have no first hand experience of this myself, but if you have a copy of xp already, you wont need the hassle of the dummy plugs, and could run with very little cpu useage.
 
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so to confirm, once setup a windows XP rig wont complain if no monitors or dummy plugs attached?


regards the cupboard and heat, its a good size airing cupboard, but gets quite warm as the boiler is in there. it certainly wont help with the heat, bu then equally i dont need to worry so much about noisey fans as its stuffed in the cupboard, so will aim large fans at the graphics cards etc.! :)
 
Im running XP with multiple GPU's and CPU usage is only 1%-2% with the latest cuda driver and you dont need a dummy load with XP.If your planning on running 3 cards i suggest the MSI K9A2 Platinum board but it is for AMD proc though.I'm also looking to get a used model of this board as my current board wont boot with 3 9800 GX2.Pix of the board below as you can see it got a very good spacing between PCIe slots.

 
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The current released drivers, 181.22, seem to do the job well here. I tried the beta CUDA drivers and couldn't see any difference between them and the released versions.
 
AtaRo said:
Im running XP with multiple GPU's and CPU usage is only 1%-2% with the latest cuda driver and you dont need a dummy load with XP.If your planning on running 3 cards i suggest the MSI K9A2 Platinum board but it is for AMD proc though.I'm also looking to get a used model of this board as my current board wont boot with 3 9800 GX2.Pix of the board below as you can see it got a very good spacing between PCIe slots.
Click to expand...

what PSU are using to power that lot?
 
I'm using a OCZ ProXStream 1000w SLI Ready ATX2 PSU but it is very noisy and i have also confirmation from SteveOCZ (OCZ Forum that this PSU will power 3 9800 GX2 and a quad core with no problem.)
 
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right, all bits ordered and just after a PSU and some additional GPU's now!

ordered one 8800GT for starters and will get some other GPU's from MM as and when they turn up.
 
Thank **** you never got a dedicated box up and running, and i hope you dont within the next 24hours, otherwise my game of catch the sod up and overtake him would have been in vain.
 
dedicated box was delayed due to motherboard availability. also my PPD has dropped due to internet migration being messed up.

Internet should be back up today and all i need is a HSF for the folding rig and that will be a 8800GT running 24/7 with more GPU's to follow. :)
 
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