Project shed folding...

dekez

dekez

dekez

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2009
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...is underway! - pics as promised

Firstly I should just warn everyone that this is not going to be a high powered sexy machine, and it and this thread probably belong back in 2007. But I'm on a budget and the aim of this project is to create a folding machine that can be as hot and noisy as it likes out in my shed, and to increase my PPD :D

My MSI K9A2 Platinum arrived last week, but I'm redecorating the house at the moment so this is the first chance I've had to have a play.

k9a2.jpg


It took me ages to get it to post, tried different graphics cards, power supplies, reseated memory and cpu - still nothing. Then tried swapping the RAM (should have though of that sooner really) and it posted fine.

Just finished roughly putting it together:

shedfold1.jpg


So specs are (don't laugh)

MSI K9A2 Platinum mother board
AMD Athlon 64 x2 2.5Ghz
1Gb RAM (other gig it was sold with was dead)
IDE HD 20Gb (from old dell)
DVD will be removed once in place
Antec Earthwatts 650
Windows 7 RC
Case - an old shelving board and my shed :p

Graphics cards for folding are my 2 current 8800GS and I'm still looking for another 2 to fill the empty slots here

I'm still waiting for motherboard spacers to arrive in the post before I screw everything down, install the cards and move to the shed. Still not sure how to connect it to the internet yet, I'm hoping my current wireless will reach to the shed, if not may have to go with homeplugs or get a wireless N router.

Hopefully once I get some more 8800GS my PPD will be up to 16K :D, plus I'm hoping to have this going for the SETI gauntlet :)
 
Last edited:
SimonB said:
Pure dedication, can't knock it:D

Cheers, Simon.


PS. Did you pickup the MSI from *bay?
Click to expand...

Thanks :) Yes, £85 with cpu and ram, I've been trying to get one for a while, but kept getting out bid.
It worked out pretty well for me as I was planning on buying the cpu and memory new.
 
dekez said:
Thanks :) Yes, £85 with cpu and ram, I've been trying to get one for a while, but kept getting out bid.
It worked out pretty well for me as I was planning on buying the cpu and memory new.
Click to expand...

£79.10 + £6.99 p&p :eek:

That's the final figure for the board I was tracking, I do wonder about some of the buyers on *bay. You can buy these new for £76.99 + VAT & Delivery.

Cheers, Simon.
 
SimonB said:
£79.10 + £6.99 p&p :eek:

That's the final figure for the board I was tracking, I do wonder about some of the buyers on *bay. You can buy these new for £76.99 + VAT & Delivery.

Cheers, Simon.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know what you mean, originally I was going for just the board and didn't want to spend over £50 on it. I must have bid on 5 or 6 in the last month with no luck.
 
I love this kind of project. I've got my folding/DC PC on a high shelf in my hallway. I've replied in your Wanted thread. :)
 
Update:

The shed folder is in place! :D

Here is everything screwed (or taped) to the board -

shedfold2.jpg


I made a bit of a school boy error by forgetting to allow for the graphics card overhang at the edge of the board, but have carved little notches out so they fit in ok.

It could do with some kind of bar or strap going across to stabilise the graphics cards which I'm looking into now.

And here it is in the shed - :cool:

shedfold3.jpg


You can't really see but all the cables are clipped down, but can be easily removed for expansion.

With some careful wireless router positioning and an extension cord to a usb adapter it is connected. It's not a great connection but enough to send data for boinc / folding and connect remotely.

I'll probably remove the monitor once I know it's completely stable, I've got some stuff to make dummy vga plugs for when it's folding.

So far so good, it was still going well this morning, the shed is getting pretty warm though. I though it would stay cool a little better as the roof slopes upwards towards vents. Now I'm considering getting some type of extractor fan, as in summer it will be roasting!
 
Update:

3 down, 1 to go :D:D:D

3cards.jpg


Many thanks to shadowscotland for selling me his 8800GS, it is now crunching away for the gauntlet :D.

The shed folder is back indoors for the moment due to the dodgy wireless connection and me remoting in causing it to crash. I've ordered 30m of network cable to hard wire the shed, and hopefully the 4th 8800GS will be arriving soon.

When I get the 4th card I'm going to shift them around so the (poorly) stock cooled XFX is on the other end, as it's running at 86 degrees at the moment which I'm not too keen on, the vortex neo is at 71 and the last is 57.

One slightly strange thing that I've found is that I didn't need a monitor connected to the 2nd card to crunch, but I did for the 3rd (at least to kick it off, it's not connected now)
 
Why not pick up a lian li motherboard tray or similar to mount it in, might keep things a bit neater at the end of the day.
 
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