Going to build a folding rig, advice required

littlepuppy · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:33

Hi all, I want to run 2 GPU's but may run 4, what would be a good board - im going ti be using a BE athlon64 for low power and was thinking of 9600 gso's....

How much memory should I go for ( will 2 gigs be enough)

Can i fold on the CPU and GPU's at the same time?

Thanks in advance

littlepuppy · 5 Jan 2009 at 13:33

PS and what would be my best OS? Happy to try Linux.....

shadowscotland · 5 Jan 2009 at 14:55

vista plus 2x 9600gso's and any 2 socket 8x mobo.
you could run a standard client as well - but not really worth the lecky.

swap the athlon64 for a C2D - and twin gpus and a smp is possable - aka verbal's rig

one psu and 4 cards many not have the amps/rails and heat output even with the lower power gto's would be high - watercooling?

Biffa has been doing some work with linuxSMP/GPU - I'm sure there's a newer thread some where but here's the start

littlepuppy · 5 Jan 2009 at 22:53

thanks for the advice mate, I will look to pickup a cheap SLI board then :-)

littlepuppy · 5 Jan 2009 at 22:53

ps will 2gb memory be suficient (system)

theheyes · 5 Jan 2009 at 22:55

Really depends on your OS and how many clients you end up running. 2GB should be OK in most instances though.

AtaRo · 5 Jan 2009 at 23:36

Hi check out my folding box here Click here .it is currently running the ff.

XP SP3
Driver ver. 180.84
MSI P7N Diamond
4 x 1GB
Q6600
9800GX2
9600GT
8800GTs 640MB

with 4 GPU clients running it is only using 1 % cpu usage, 25% with another regular fah client (not SMP).total of 5 clients running.

littlepuppy · 6 Jan 2009 at 10:46

Thanks for the replys mate...

I think I will start off with 2 cards and see how I go :-)

would you say the 9600 GSO is a good bet?

shadowscotland · 6 Jan 2009 at 11:18

9600gso (8800gs) are great folding cards - low watts (50w load) and lower heat output plus you can up the shaders to around 1900 and get the folding proformance of a stock 8800gts 512mb

Linky

wu 5506
8800gs (oc) 5120ppd
8800gts (512) 5060ppd
8800gs 3980ppd

littlepuppy · 6 Jan 2009 at 11:30

Cheers for the link mate, I will indeed go down that road then :-)

Many thanks

theheyes · 6 Jan 2009 at 16:31

Only 50w load? Thats great. Pretty sure my 4850 uses 50w idle.

littlepuppy · 6 Jan 2009 at 17:42

OK first step taken, bought an AM2 DFI 790.. 3 PCIE slots on it... Ill get the rig built then add some graphics next month when im paid again :-)

sir-les-mp · 7 Jan 2009 at 05:20

AtaRo said:
Hi check out my folding box here Click here .it is currently running the ff.

XP SP3
Driver ver. 180.84
MSI P7N Diamond
4 x 1GB
Q6600
9800GX2
9600GT
8800GTs 640MB

with 4 GPU clients running it is only using 1 % cpu usage, 25% with another regular fah client (not SMP).total of 5 clients running.

that would explain why you steamed past me then

from what i read also about to add a second 9800 GX2 well it all adds to the team

AtaRo · 7 Jan 2009 at 19:37

sir-les-mp said:
that would explain why you steamed past me then
from what i read also about to add a second 9800 GX2 well it all adds to the team

I also got craig kennedy83 and ChrissyT88 on the radar.

I may get another 9800 GX2 from MM if the deal goes through.

ChrissyT88 · 7 Jan 2009 at 20:09

Tell me about it...! Nice ppd there mate.

My ppd will drop a bit soon too, so your sure to steam past even quicker than expected. I also snapped up one of the cheap GTXs from overclockers, so will be letting the 9800GX2 go soon. If your other deal doesnt go through, drop me an email.

AtaRo · 10 Jan 2009 at 16:52

ChrissyT88 said:
If your other deal doesnt go through, drop me an email.

im having some problem with the last one i got from the bay as the seller is screwing me.If i cant sort this out i will surely give you a shout.

muppetkiller · 10 Jan 2009 at 19:19

The 9600GSO 384meg cards are the good ones for folding. The other type of 9600GSO are not as good.

Biffa · 11 Jan 2009 at 00:38

As long as its DDR3 its ok, there is a 9600GS0 512MB which is probably the sweet spot, not that there is anything wrong with the 384MB's

littlepuppy · 14 Jan 2009 at 11:26

Any point going for 9800gt over the GSO's?

muppetkiller · 14 Jan 2009 at 18:13

I would get the 9800GT over the 9600GSO. Work units are giving less and less points for more work all the time. Which you will need more powerfull GPU's.

My 8800GS are not doing the 5200PPD they used to do. At best i can get 3600PPD and this is with overclocking.