VTEC kicked in y0!

CaptainUnlikely

CaptainUnlikely

CaptainUnlikely

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Joined
24 Jan 2011
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Mansfield


Finally got my new rig up and running yesterday, slight boost to my PPD :)
Need to finish 10 SMP units before my bonus kicks in, then I'll see another nice increase. I'm also still clocking my 470, it's at 800MHz so far so hopefully it will go further, it folded fine last night so if it's not dumped any units on me when I get home tonight I'll go higher.
 
Pics are incoming, I was more focused on getting it to work this weekend heh.
Specs are: 2 x Opteron 2419EE, Supermicro H8DAi-2, MSI GTX 470 Twin Frozr, 16GB DDR2 800MHz ECC Registered, with water custom.
 
Tasty! Definitely need some pics. When it's levelled out I'd be interested to know how much is down the cpus and how much the gpu.
 
It's a pretty tasty looking machine, though I do say so myself ;)
So far I'm at around 8.5K for the CPUs and around 14.5K for the GPU, obviously as I'm not getting the SMP bonus at the minute I'm not getting the full credit yet.
You might say that's low for the CPUs as I do have 12 cores, but they're only at 1.8GHz - the 45W TDP was the main attraction for me as they run extremely cool.
Before the massive spike, that was me folding on other hardware part time, it was quite gratifying checking the stats this morning and seeing the spike caused by around 14 hours of folding with my new rig.
 
Very nice sah! Looking forward to the pics :), I'm getting very jealous of all the multi cpu rigs around here!
 
joeyjojo said:
45W envelope! Incredible. Already some 100 ppd/watt. What will SMP bring?
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Indeed. I can tell you the system runs incredibly cool, the chips got to 40/41C and the graphics card at 800MHz was at 44C after being on full load overnight. The main thing is that my bedroom is pretty small, so the heat output is important so my room doesn't get too hot. The way I see it is that, with the way F@H scales, 12 cores at 1.8GHz is roughly equal to 6 cores at 3.6GHz, and even a 1055T, unless you get one that's binned at very low volts, will use more power and thus chuck out more heat at that speed.

I'm hoping to be able to play with Clockgen, SetFSB etc to try and clock the CPUs just a little, they probably won't have much headroom due to the low volts but if I could get even 2GHz, that'd be a very nice boost across all 12 cores.

dekez said:
Very nice sah! Looking forward to the pics :), I'm getting very jealous of all the multi cpu rigs around here!
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Thanks! I'll try to get some decent pictures tonight along with some tasty screenshots, at present I have just one picture of the system before the camera's batteries ran out. A dual socket system is something I've always wanted, I used to run a dual 1GHz PIII system as a server and I loved that thing.
 
The cost of the important bits, or the rig as a whole?
The water cooling and associated fans added quite a bit to the cost, I also have 4 hard drives in there (currently waiting on 2 SSDs from a friend) which obviously also adds cost.
The board, CPUs and RAM were just over £300 plus shipping (from the US for the board and RAM, China for the CPUs). The rest of the PC, as best as I can figure it, was around £700-800. It does have a massively overkill power supply simply because I didn't want to have to use adapters, most PSUs don't have a 4 pin and 8 pin CPU connector and I wouldn't want to use adapters for those connectors. Not that it really makes a difference, I just don't like using them.
It's nowhere near the best PPD/£, and not necessarily the best PPD/W - but, it is a dual socket board with lots of RAM, a nice looking build, and doesn't make my room into an oven, so it's what I wanted :)
 
Nice one! We need pics :D

These are the phenom class opterons aren't they?

Aren't they 40ACP which is an average power usage, whereas they are around 60W TDP max? Which is still pretty good :)

What would be interesting is the total draw of the system at the power socket when at 100% load whilst folding. :cool:

And you will be getting SMP bonus from the off for regular -advmethod units, you only have to wait to do 10 regular SMP units to be able to get the -bigadv bonus ;)
 
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Biffa said:
These are the phenom class opterons aren't they?
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I believe clock for clock they're the same as current gen Phenoms, yes.

Aren't they 40ACP which is an average power usage, whereas they are around 60W TDP max? Which is still pretty good :)
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Quite right, my mistake. AMD and their silly ACP/TDP...not quite sure where I got 45W from though as that's neither here nor there. From what I've read though, and from my experience with SMP folding, I'd guess they're using somewhere around 50-55W, maybe less, so still very power efficient chips.

What would be interesting is the total draw of the system at the power socket when at 100% load whilst folding. :cool:
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It would, however I have neither a UPS nor a Kill-A-Watt or similar device unfortunately. My gold rated PSU should help though :)

And you will be getting SMP bonus from the off for regular -advmethod units, you only have to wait to do 10 regular SMP units to be able to get the -bigadv bonus ;)
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10 units need to be turned in using a passkey, of which at least 80% must be before the deadline, before the QRB (quick return bonus) applies. So yes, I'm currently folding SMP, but only getting the base points, no bonus points. GPU Tracker reports the PPD based on having already qualified for the QRB so ~8k is what my CPUs will be producing in a few days, right now it's a good bit less.
 
Yep you are right, sorry bout that, comes from not ever having had to do it :)

But if you have two 6 core cpus I'd go for the -bigadv switch after you do your 10, should get around 15-25K maybe even more depending on what work unit you get :cool:
 
-bigadv probably wouldn't give me any more ppd especially with the recent points adjustment. I'm not certain it would even complete the units on time, especially as I do use this for gaming and things too.
Currently I'm trying to resolve issues with my sound card (think I'll be buying a Xonar) and my Samsung 2TB (or, as it's now reported, Msung 204 30MB...sigh). Once it's working I will get pictures.
 
Looking forward to pics, it all sounds impressive (even though I don't have a clue what most of it's about...-bigadv?? ok, I must RTFM!).

Anyway, i'll be sure to wave as you go past anytime now as there's only about 200 points between us at the mo. :)
 
Heh, I've been watching us trade places on the charts over the last few days :)
I've about leveled out for the minute until I upgrade the family PC, so we'll probably stay fairly level.
Just waiting for this SMP unit to finish, then I'll get some pictures and add full machine specs.

-bigadv is a switch you can add to the SMP client, for faster rigs (like an i7 at 3.8 or above, 2600K, or most multi-CPU rigs) it will increase your output considerably. Think of it like much larger SMP units with much higher bonus points, the downside is obviously they take a lot longer to process which is why they're only available for PCs with 8 or more threads. Unfortunately your 2500K can't do -bigadv even though it would be technically capable of completing the units on time.
 
As promised, full specifications:
Case: Fractal Design Define XL Black
Motherboard - Supermicro H8DAi-2
CPUs - 2 x AMD Opteron 2419EE, Heatkiller Rev 3 blocks
RAM: 16GB (8 x 2GB) DDR2 ECC Registered 800MHz
Graphics card: MSI GTX 470 Twin Frozr, EK Nickel/Acetal full cover block and black backplate
NIC: Intel Pro/1000CT PCI-E
Sound card: Asus Xonar DS
Storage: 3 x Samsung F3 1TB, Samsung F4 2TB
PSU: OCZ ZX Series 850W
Fans: 6 x Zaward 140mm
Other watercooling: Bitspower 420mm radiator grille, XSPC 7/16" ID clear tubing, EK Multioption 150ml reservoir, Magicool slim 420mm radiator, Laing D5 pump with EK top, generic black nickel 1/2" fittings, 2 Bitspower 90 degree fittings.

I just want to say thanks again to rjkoneill, who helped me mod the case when the rad didn't quite fit with the hole I had cut, and helped me with the loop layout. Also thanks to the rest of the OcUK tech team for their help, advice and support.

The exterior of the case, showing the Bitspower rad grill on top. Excuse the messy cabling behind the PC. Oh, and rjk (and the rest of the tech team) - look under the system and you can just see the LOltrolley :)


Here's the interior.


Upper left, showing the 24 pin and 8 pin connectors, the rad, and rear exhaust fan.


The upper right, showing where my tubing goes into the radiator, as well as the 4 pin power connector. I do need to top my loop up a little, hence the air in the tube.


The lower half of the board, showing off my chipset fans hah. You'll probably see they are on reducer cables which is a little untidy, I might do something else with them to neaten it up but they'll do for now. They're still the loudest thing in my PC but not too bad, the chipsets do get very hot with such small heatsinks and I would replace them if I could.


To do: figure out why the system doesn't like my F4 2TB (access speeds are incredibly low) and resolve some freezing issues in games (yes, I game on it too as this is my main rig), possibly add RAID card, and buy SSD(s).

If anyone has questions about the build in general or would like more pictures of anything, just let me know and I'll be happy to answer. Apologies for the not amazing picture quality, the camera I'm using isn't great and nor is the lighting in my room.
 
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Very nice, I do like that case, did you have to mod the drive bays as well to get the rad in or did they just come out?
 
Yeah that's very nice, thanks for posting the pics.

I doubt i'll keep this level up as I can't really leave this machine on 24/7 very often. Like you it's my main rig and although it's perfectly usable when folding I do play games sometimes, and the GPU is the main earner at just over 14k PPD. It's a bit of fun and hopefully will make some contribution to a worthy cause but once I go as high up the board as I can then I can see it tailing off somewhat (or when the wife sees the next electricity bill!).

I'll keep an eye on your progress and good luck. :cool:
 
dekez said:
Very nice, I do like that case, did you have to mod the drive bays as well to get the rad in or did they just come out?
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No modding required, the drive bay banking plates are still in place too. I just had to bend a bit of metal which the front panel cables route through, otherwise the fittings were hitting it.

Thanks for the positive comments guys :)

Also, MrChops, have you got your 480 overclocked? My 470 is at 850Mhz, it's currently doing just over 16k which is a good 3k or so increase over stock. With the additional processors, a similar clock on a 480 would net even more of an increase, plus the 480s tend to clock better anyway, so I'd definitely recommend overclocking :)
 
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