Project shed folding...

verbal said:
Have you already bought a 4th GS?
Click to expand...

Yes I got the last card from the auction site, still waiting for it to arrive though. Hopefully it will arrive and there won't be any problems with it.


alexhull24 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Good idea, thanks, I didn't think of that. Everything is mounted on to the wood so it's pretty secure for now, but the graphics cards do need something extra.
The vortexx neo leans over due to its weight and the fan catches on the card next to it. I've got some cable ties keeping it upright at the moment but the motherboard tray may be the way to go.
 
Yeah, OcUK don't stock them (despite several people on this forum being after them at some point), but you could try posting them in the product suggestions forum or alternatively going to a competitor if OcUK loyalty and service isn't so important to you! They are stocked regularly elsewhere. Lian Li is the brand that I've seen, there's an ATX one for you and a MATX for anyone else with projects that could benefit from it.
 
You could always get one of these Cheap case

and carve it up till you are left with just the mobo tray, psu holder and hdd caddy,
basically making your own version of the antec skeleton case.
would take much time or effort id have thought
 
I'm probably just going to keep an eye out for anything suitable second hand, either tray or cheap case. I'm not really in any rush as the wooden board and cable ties are doing their job for the moment.
 
4x 8800GS! The last one arrived today :D:D:D:D but I need more fans.... :(

shedx4.jpg


Temperatures were at 86 and rising for most of the GPUs when it was tucked out of the way behind my main rig, now I've moved it out in the open on the floor and the temps have dropped below 80. (I've cleaned the gunk out of the last card and re-applied tim as well)

I'm definitely going to need some fans to move the heat away when it's in the shed, and maybe one to bring in cooler air from outside.

The heat and noise is quite impressive, I'm sat here now with my main rig about 20cm from my head, and the folder is about 3m away and louder!
My girlfriend is not too happy, need to get it back out in the shed soon! lol

Also have added home made dummy plugs now:
dummyplug.jpg


It's drawing 410W from the wall with everything crunching, the CPU has been underclocked a little to try to keep the heat down but all GPUs have their shaders overclocked, I'll up the core and memory clocks once it's outside and I have the cooling sorted out.

Looking forward to my Gauntlet performance improving :D
 
Very nice! I'll have to keep a look out in the stats to see how your one-man stomp monster's getting on :D

What've you got powering that little lot?
 
TheTross said:
Very nice! I'll have to keep a look out in the stats to see how your one-man stomp monster's getting on :D

What've you got powering that little lot?
Click to expand...

A 650W Antec Earthwatts, had to use 2 molex to 6 pin adapters, touch wood it all seems to be coping at the moment, yeah I'm quite pleased with 410W, it will probably rise a little when I increase all the clocks but shouldn't be too bad for the electricity bill!
 
What sort of F@H PPD could you get with 4x8800GS and the CPU, since that's about 135W better than my rig which does 545W from the wall when flatout.

I'm pretty sure i could add a third GTX 260 onto my system and the HX620 would still run the lot. Since it can do 595W on the 12v, at around 83%. I'm only using 450W from the PSU... it would be close :D
 
Last edited:
I reckon around 15~16K, 3.5~4K for each GS (one of my old ones doesn't clock very well, the 2 new additions seem pretty good though so far), maybe another 1k from the CPU.
It's a Athlon 64 x2 2.5Ghz so I'm not expecting anything great, I will probably just keep it underclocked and not folding to cut down on power + heat. I may be tempted to get a quad core in there at a later date though ;)
 
Marine Iguana said:
That's sweet can't wait to see some numbers from it
Click to expand...

Check your mail please :D

dekez said:
I reckon around 15~16K, 3.5~4K for each GS (one of my old ones doesn't clock very well, the 2 new additions seem pretty good though so far), maybe another 1k from the CPU.
It's a Athlon 64 x2 2.5Ghz so I'm not expecting anything great, I will probably just keep it underclocked and not folding to cut down on power + heat. I may be tempted to get a quad core in there at a later date though ;)
Click to expand...

Nice! They have to be pretty high up on the list for best card for £/PPD :)
 
Even unclocked gs were always best ppd per watt.
Most can oc the shaders up to 1700 or even 1800+

At £30ish for 4kppd that hard to beat

- did loads of testing with my gs - and was pointess upping the core, small memory clock was usefull on some of the newer WU but it's shadders all the way with F@H
 
Finished...just about.

Well the down time on the gauntlet over the weekend led me to do some work on the folder (don't worry its crunching again now :p) and impulse buy a cheap case, as keeping the cards apart was becoming a problem and I needed some fans to prevent overheating.

I started by taking off anything I didn't need, the front fan had a grill in front, some kind of spinny turbine thing, and a bracket behind, all impeading airflow.
fans.jpg


I also needed to create a hole in the bottom of the case to get air to the XFX GS. I started of with my rotary tool, after about 15min and 2 snapped blades later I gave up and got out the jig saw. 1 min later I had all the holes cut :D.

shedside.jpg


In the pic above you can see the (awful multi coloured LED) fan is now clear, and there are 2 holes in the base for the XFX. The stock cooler on this card is pretty crap in that it blows hot air back into the case, to divert this outside I've added a piece of white card.

The problem then came with the vortexx neo cooler, when the cards were being held in place properly (ie not leaning apart with no support), the neos' fan was touching the next card and not spinning at all. Lucky I didn't have any load on it and spotted the temp rising before it overheated.

So I've had to go back to the stock XFX cooler which blows air back into the case. Below is the solution I've come up with, the white card now directs hot air from both XFX coolers outside of the case, and the small fan provides air to the inside XFX card. The white card also diverts the air coming in from the main cooler on to the 2 flower cooler cards. (The mass of cable look in the way in the pic but they are actually quite high so plenty of space for the air to flow under them.)

shedtop.jpg


So far so good, temps were looking good, and I also had time to set up the folding clients, with the card shaders at 1850 (I will push them up a bit more once folding again) the ppd / temps are as follows :D

PPD.jpg


And that is pretty much it, just need to pick up the network cable from the sorting office and get it back out into the shed.

Performance:
PPD: ~16K
Power comsumption: ~400W

Price of parts:
4 X 8800GS - £90
MSI K9A2 + AMD Athlon 64x2 + 1Gb RAM - £85
CIT case - £25
30m RJ45 - £5
All other parts salvaged from old systems

Parts - £205
P&P on parts - £15

Total £220

Thanks for reading and all your help and suggestions :)
 
Thanks guys, the side panel is a window 7 gadget called GPU monitor, it runs off of Riva Tuner which sits in the system tray with hardware monitoring enabled. Pretty handy to keep an eye on the temps, the bars change colour when they reach set levels.

Although I won't be able to see it much in the shed! I'll have to have a look actually if there is a way without remoting in, to monitor the temps from another machine. I've got Fahmon on my other rig sorted already so I can keep an eye on the clients across the network.
 
dekez said:
Although I won't be able to see it much in the shed! I'll have to have a look actually if there is a way without remoting in, to monitor the temps from another machine.
Click to expand...

Try a KMV switch :cool:, though I dunno if you'll be able to get long enough cables.:eek:

All my rigs sit in the corner of the living room, so I can connect them up easily, and the KVM saves a lot of hassle! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom