Folding type rig - What do I need?

[Amp34]

Do you mean the thermaltake? Im sure i saw someones rig with it in, ill have to have a look some more for that.

The two coolmasters will work on a PC-DL, im not sure about any other board though (although they probably will), best bet is to google for the cooler and board you want to put it on just to make sure.

 

[dun]

If it was me i would keep the p4 for normal tasks and just keep the folding going on in the background on idle priority and have the xeon doing folding exclusively. Oh and concerning which project... for me it would have to be folding, i know seti are abit low on the ground but in my eyes its far from a worthy outlet for your cycles

 

[Amp34]

I would do folding, but the SETI team needs all the help it can get.

Do you think my plan of having my P4 dedicated and the Xeon setup run whenever is a good idea? That would mean I could have the P4 running SETI and the Xeon running Folding in it's spare time.

You can setup Boinc, im not sure about folding, to run full time, just turn it off when your gaming, encoding or similar. You won't notice it in regular browsing, typing etc. I have boinc running full time on my main pc and i dont know its there.

True dun but with boinc you can also run einstein and the BBC climate experiment at the same time.

 

[monkeypants]

Right then, I'll get hold of some stuff (PCH-DL is the likely board) and it seems I'll have to do some thinking and planning for the cooling of these things. Will no doubt be fun though.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

It sounds like a fine idea. Even with IWTs, at no load the Xeons are relatively quiet. They only get to full roar at full load. In the FAH setup guide as a trick to use batch scripts to automatically start and stop multiple instances. You can then take that script and plug it into a Windows scheduled task so after x minutes at idle it can start. You can really do anything you like with it.

Having dedicated boxes is nice becasue you can use them for other dedicated tasks as well. I suggest picking up some small hard disks and installing a minimal Linux. This, I think, will get you the best possible productivity. It's all up to you.

 

[monkeypants]

I've got an 80Gb disk here that I can use if I can't get anything free from college. What wattage PSU should I be looking for?

(What's IWT?)

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I've got an 80Gb disk here that I can use if I can't get anything free from college. What wattage PSU should I be looking for?

(What's IWT?)

You will want at least 480W from a high-quality PSU. It should be single-rail capable of at least 30A current sustained from the 12v rail.
I reccomend the SPARKLE FSP550-60PLG EPS12V 550W. I have one and it cost me $103.50 (USD). Sadly, it's available from OcUK. The PSU connector on the board is for an EPS PSU. It, however, is backwards compatible with ATX power supplies.

IWT is short for Intel Wind Tunnel, the OEM copper heatsinks for the 604 pin Xeons. I have them on my machine and they definitely do a good job at cooling. They ran me $25 (USD) for both including fans and all the associated bracketry.

EDIT: They look like this:

 

[monkeypants]

I'll secure the CPUs first, then get the board and some RAM. I have a Hiper Type-R which has dual rails, from what you say do dual rails cause problems?

I'll see what I can get from college tomorrow, tell them it's a medical project.. It shouldn't be too much trouble for the IT guy.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Can you lock the rails together on that PSU? AFAIK at least one rail would have to be capable of putting out the full current needed for the CPUs. I'm not much of an expert on PSUs but I think you could probably get away with it. That said, if you find that your OC is not stable to 3.21 GHz the first place I'd point fingers is the power.

 

[monkeypants]

OK, seeing as the PSU is an easy thing to sort out I'll try with the Hiper before spending expensive money on something I don't need.

 

[Amp34]

I had a hiper and sold it for a tagan. The problem with the hiper is it only has a max of 20A on one rail. I also couldn't find anywhere that sold the 8 pin converters. You can sell your Hiper for £50 on the members market and buy a tagen, I got a 480w U22 which supplies 30A on a combined rail for about £65 from here. The tagan gas an 8 pin connection as standard so you wont need to find a converter. Having said that you can always try the hiper if you can get the conversion cable, which you may be able to get at your collage.

 

[monkeypants]

The most my PSU can put out on one rail is 20A, so it looks like I'll have to get another PSU. Oh the joy of spending money.

 

[Amp34]

It shouldn't cost that much, say about £30 overall after you sell the hiper but i think it will be worth it.

 

[monkeypants]

Can you give me some specifics on the Xeons, I can't find anything on the intel website.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

What sort of info are you looking for? The best overclockers are the D1 stepping 1.6 GHz, 1.3v (low voltage) Prestonia core Xeons. They fit PGA604 and have 8 KiB L1 data, 12 KiB L1 instruction, 512 KiB L2. They are hyperthreaded and are intended to run a 100 MHz FSB (quad-pumped to 400 MHz).

 

[monkeypants]

Excellent, thanks Billy. The only ones I have found are C1, I've read they don't clock as well but as I can't find an alternative are they worth getting? Also how much should I pay for such CPUs?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

C1 CPUs are still a great deal at around £45/pair since they will run 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz on average. One thing to note is a few of these C1s NOT run 200MHz FSB, even after increasing core and memory voltage. A good base setting for C1 CPUs after increasing core voltage to 1.6v is 165x16=2640MHz. If you get brave and want to go for 200MHz just remember that this is not guaranteed to work.

Personally, I'd hold out for D1s. They'll cost just slightly more, around £50, and they'll be good for much higher frequencies. However, since they're so cheap, you could always get some C1s now and if you run across some D1 swap them out.

 

[monkeypants]

C1 CPUs are still a great deal at around £45/pair since they will run 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz on average. One thing to note is a few of these C1s NOT run 200MHz FSB, even after increasing core and memory voltage. A good base setting for C1 CPUs after increasing core voltage to 1.6v is 165x16=2640MHz. If you get brave and want to go for 200MHz just remember that this is not guaranteed to work.

I'll get the C1s if they stay below £50 as I can still have fun overclocking them.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Bingo! You'll have to tell us how you do.

 

[monkeypants]

Bingo! You'll have to tell us how you do.

Of course I will! What kind of overclocker do you think I am!