decommissioning main rig

[VirtualLarry]

Welp, probably de-commissioning my main rig tonight. Though, I really suppose I should have obtained some Kill-A-Watt meters from a friend to check my power consumption before doing so. I guess I'm really just guessing that it draws too much power.

It's an X6 1045T @ 3.51, 1.325v, ASRock 990FX Extreme4, and two GTX460 1GB OC 715Mhz cards, and a 240GB SSD.

 

[PCTC2]

Sorry to hear that Larry! (I can't be one to speak. I stopped crunching over a year ago).

 

[Sunny129]

Larry, i have a fairly similar hardware setup in one of my machines (X6 1090T @ 3.2GHz, 1.325v, MSI 790FX-GD70, (1) EVGA GTX460 1GB SSC+ @ 850Mhz, (1) Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti @ 900MHz, 64GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Dell U2412M monitor). both GPUs are under a constant ~80% utilization crunching 3 Einstein@Home BRP4 tasks each at any given time. only a single 2-threaded Test4Theory@Home task runs on the CPU (which actually doesn't quite consume 2 cores in their entirety), leaving ~4 cores to service the GPU tasks, and resulting in a fairly constant CPU utilization of ~65%. i can't seem to remember exactly how much power this configuration draws, even though i've tested it w/ a Kill-a-Watt meter before...if you'd like to know how much power my system is drawing before you decommission your rig, let me know and i'll check it tonight.

Eric

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I didn't get to it last night. I've got an E-350 rig to put in place of my X6.

Anyways, I tried pulling my case out of the cubby-hole in my desk, and running some PrimeGrid on all six CPU cores, and both GPUs, and the top (hottest) GPU got to 82C.

That's a good bit cooler than the 87C it was at before.

I don't know if there were cables blocking the airflow to the cards (probably), but I'm sure that being stuffed into a cubby-hole under a desk isn't helping airflow much either.

So I've been running it for like six hours, and AIM hasn't crashed this time, which is a good sign.

I'm not sure what to do, I could borrow my friend's KAW and plug in my X6 rig and see what it draws.

I guess I'm not sure if my computer is the problem, vis-a-via the electric bill, or the A/C unit (12000 BTU). Or probably both, if I'm still crunching with the A/C on.

I'll probably be shutting down my Q9300 @ 3.0 rig with the HD4850 card, that had been dedicated to MW@Home too.

 

[Alyx]

My dual GPU rig also runs about 80-90C, but if I pull one of the cards out it cools way down. I think the PCI-E on most mobos are so close together that there is near zero airflow. I think power draw and heat output will be same either way though, its just getting more intense on the card before it gets dispersed around the room.

 

[PCTC2]

I remember my previously OC'd i7 920 and dual GTX 260's could draw 800W from the wall. It was crazy.

 

[Sunny129]

Larry, the machine i posted above draws ~420W from the wall...actually, it seems to wander between 400W-420W, probably depending on what kind of computations the tasks have the CPU and GPUs doing. i'll post up some pictures of my case and its environment, and post some temps a bit later. hopefully it'll be informative for anyone actively seeking solutions to better cooling...

 

[Sunny129]

if you've seen the MSI 790FX-GD70, you know that its one of those monster mobos that allows for 4 dual-slot GPUs. clearly i'm only using 2 GPUs, the Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti being a dual-slot card w/ the stock WindForce cooler, and the EVGA GTX 460 SSC+ w/ the Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme PLUS II. fortunately this kind of mobo usually have the PCIe x16 slots w/ full x16 bandwidth spaced pretty far apart, which gives even my setup quite a bit of breathing room. these cards never go above 60°C, and i'm able to leave their dual and triple fan coolers spinning so slow that i don't even hear them. the 1090T is cooled by a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ w/ 2 fans in push/pull. it never goes above 45°C under its typical ~65% load, and never goes above 50°C under prolonged 100% load. the case's front intake and top exhaust fans are 200mm fans that move lots of air without having to spin fast at all (400-500rpm)...and the two 120mm side intake fans spin just under 800rpm - the video cards just need a light breeze, not a hurricane, to keep them cool. as a matter of fact, if i remove the side fans, the GPU temps only rise 3-5°C depending on ambient. speaking of which, the ambient room temp is also key to keeping things this cool. i constantly run the A/C (i was raised like an Eskimo, and i live in FL now, so i can't help it lol). i only have to keep the thermostat on 73°F, but i leave it on for the computers while i'm away at work. you can also see that i don't keep my case in a desk or a cubby...it needs t breathe...

all that being said, i could sleep next to it, its that quiet.

 

[Turbonium]

Why would you decommission a rig that is meant for distributed computing? I'm not sure I understand.

 

[PCTC2]

Why would you decommission a rig that is meant for distributed computing? I'm not sure I understand.

Because it adds a significant amount to power bills. And there are times when we all can't afford to run all of our PCs 24/7.

I stopped crunching for the TeAm over a year ago because I cannot afford my power bill, even without crunchers running. Running all of my computers full tilt let me be in the top few on the TeAm in F@H, but my bill often reached $300+. Even now, my bill is often over $100/month.

EDIT: Sorry for answering for you VLarry, but it's 2 AM and I felt like responding. I'm just assuming because you mentioned it was a big power draw.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yeah, I think I am capping my DC contributions @ $50 in power bill per month. Thank goodness a CPU like a 2600k draws significantly less than 150W at reasonable clocks! I am going to add something new from MC too when I sell another rig. Hopefully move up to 2-3 Intel i7's around ~350W continuous power draw (or less). Should have some reasonable bang for the buck

Based on my power pricing, 200W continuous means $15 per month. The above gives me some overhead to turn on GPUs for races when applicable.

Hoping that 28nm GPUs get cheaper soon. I'd like to add about ~150W in GPU (tops) but I want that to really count

Larry, I'd again implore you to look into a IVB i7 + something like a 4770 (80W) or dual GT430/440 (less!)for continuous crunching. You should be able to continue the pursuit of science and do more CPU work than you do currently while still contributing meaningfully with GPUs. An i7 3770 65W part is even very widely available @ normal 3770 pricing.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, based on Sunny129's power draw, if my main rig takes the same, then that would be costing me $45/mo, not including the additional A/C required.
I've also been running the Q9300 @ 3.0 w/HD4850 continously too, I'm not sure how much power it draws either.
Plus, my HTPC is on 24/7 too, although generally not crunching.

Maybe I could build a combo HTPC, cruncher, and file-server, in a Lian-Li mini-ITX cube case, with a 3450T/S or whatnot IB quad 65W CPU, and install Win7 Pro onto it, and RDP into it when I need access to more CPU. But that wouldn't really help occasional gaming, you can't really game over RDP.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I finally installed the E-350 mITX rig. Shut down the Q9300 rig too, a few days ago.

Strangely, the Q9300 rig was trying to boot, and stuck in some sort of boot loop. I must have bumped the power button. Anyways, I powered-off, powered-on, it booted, but it was reset to 333 FSB in Windows 7. So I rebooted and went back into BIOS, and reset the FSB to 400, along with the other OC settings, and then rebooted, and it booted into Windows 7 just fine. Strange. It's a trivial overclock, only from 2.5 to 3.0, which one of my two Q9300 rigs did on stock voltage, and this one required an ever-so-small bump on the vcore. Would hate to think it might be degrading.

Also, I rebooted my main X6 rig during the decommissioning process, and it didn't want to boot either. I powered-off, powered-on, and got a BIOS message about a previous boot failing. So strange.

Edit: Anyone know what BOINC project would run on my APU?

 

[Sunny129]

Edit: Anyone know what BOINC project would run on my APU?

the Einstein@Home developers just debuted an AMD/ATI GPU app. the minimum requirement is an OpenCL 1.1 compliant AMD/ATI GPU or APU, which is basically the HD 5000 series and later. that includes your APU since it uses an HD 6310 graphics engine. i suppose it would also work on projects like PrimeGrid, Collatz, and SETI@Home since they don't require double precision...but Milkyway@Home would be out of the question...

 

[blckgrffn]

Poem might work too. You could also Fold.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I signed up for Einstein@Home. I don't see where I can turn off CPU crunching, and only run GPU crunching though. I really don't want to bog down my E-350 CPU cores much. :/

Edit: I don't see any WUs using an ATI GPU.

Edit: I see in the "Noticed" under BOINC, a mention that I need the 7.0.27 client. I click on the linked thread, and then click on the linked download page, and there is no 7.0.27 client, only a 7.0.28 experimental dev client.

I'm pretty sure when I installed BOINC, I ended up with 7.0.25, which is the newest stable client.

So I guess I cannot run GPU WUs on my APU without 7.0.28?

 

[Sunny129]

I signed up for Einstein@Home. I don't see where I can turn off CPU crunching, and only run GPU crunching though. I really don't want to bog down my E-350 CPU cores much. :/

Edit: I don't see any WUs using an ATI GPU.

go to your account at the Einstein@Home website and click on the "Einstein@Home preferences" link. the 2nd setting from the top (just below the resource share setting) is the option to disable CPU crunching. the setting just below that one is where you disable/enable ATI GPU crunching. and just below that setting is where you disable/enable nVidia GPU crunching...i just though i'd mention that last setting in case you wanted to crunch Einstein@Home BRP4 CUDA tasks too (or just as equally to disable any nVidia GPU crunching, just in case you have both types of GPUs in that machine and don't want them both crunching BRP4 tasks). and finally, the setting at the very bottom is the GPU utilization factor that allows you to run more than one task at a time (its done through web preferences now, instead of having to employ an app_info.xml file in the project data directory).

 

[salvorhardin]

...So I guess I cannot run GPU WUs on my APU without 7.0.28?

Yes, you need at least 7.0.27 to run einstein. You can still download the 7.0.27 client. I usually wait a week after a new version released in case there are any problems.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I'm running 7.0.28, Einstein@home joined, and prefs set to uncheck CPU, check ATI/AMD, uncheck CUDA, and I don't get any WUs.

Edit: I think I might know what the problem is. I ran GPU-Z 0.6.2 or whatever the newest one is, and for "Compute", it only lists "DirectCompute", and not OpenCL. I installed the newest ATI Cat 12.4 drivers, including all of the drivers like the APP SDK, and the OpenCL driver. I wonder why it is not being recognized as OpenCL capable.

Edit: Just went to Uninstall, Change, on the ATI Cat drivers, and it doesn't list an OpenCL driver to remove. Is there a separate OpenCL driver I need to download and install, beyond the APP SDK?

Edit: This page:
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx
Claims that the OpenCL driver is included. Why is mine not functioning?

Edit: Ok, I uninstalled all my NV drivers, then uninstalled the ATI Cat 12.4 drivers, then re-installed ATI Cat 12.4, unchecked the "APP SDK".

Upon first bootup after installation, I get a pop-up error dialog.

"kdbsync.exe - System Error"
"The program can't start because OpenCL.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."

Edit: I noticed that during the extraction phase of the ATI Cat 12.4 drivers, they extract an OpenCL.msi file. I started the Cat 12.4 installer, searched for that file, and double-clicked it. It brought up something saying APP SDK installer. I installed that. Then ran GPU-Z, STILL NO OPENCL.

Is OpenCL not supported by AMD on their Fusion APUs yet?

Edit: Silly me. I re-read the "notice" about OpenCL support in Einstein@Home on BOINC, and they clearly state that it is only for "Radeon 5000 series or better" graphics cards.

So much for my idea to run it on an APU.

 

[Sunny129]

Edit: Ok, I uninstalled all my NV drivers, then uninstalled the ATI Cat 12.4 drivers, then re-installed ATI Cat 12.4, unchecked the "APP SDK".

Upon first bootup after installation, I get a pop-up error dialog.

"kdbsync.exe - System Error"
"The program can't start because OpenCL.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."

Larry, it turns out that the instructions to omit the APP SDK during driver installation was aimed at Linux users. the reason for this is b/c both the main driver installer and the APP SDK installer have the potential to install different versions of the same 32-bit library in Linux, thus causing problems. you need to try installing the Catalyst 12.4 drivers along with the APP SDK since you're on a Windows platform.

Is OpenCL not supported by AMD on their Fusion APUs yet?

Edit: Silly me. I re-read the "notice" about OpenCL support in Einstein@Home on BOINC, and they clearly state that it is only for "Radeon 5000 series or better" graphics cards.

So much for my idea to run it on an APU.

Larry, your E-350 APU has an HD 6310 GPU onboard, so it is capable of running this app. this AMD APP SDK System Requirements & Driver Compatibility page lists all compatible GPUs, and yours seems to be on that list.


if that doesn't get OpenCL working on your machine, i'd highly recommend reading through the Einstein@Home GPU/APU Application for AMD/ATI Graphics Cards discussion thread on the Einstein@Home message boards. if you don't find your answer reading through previously posted material, the developers and other most knowledgeable people are there to answer questions.

 

[blckgrffn]

Hey hey man, make sure you run the OpenCL installer from within the Catalyst driver folder under C:\AMD if you are getting OpenCL.dll missing.

I've had to do it for every darn AMD box I wanted to GPU crunch with.

Sunny, you shouldn't need to install the app sdk separately any longer, it supposed to be all bundled in. The files are there, but for some reason OpenCL never gets installed by default for me, anyway.

C:\AMD\Support\12-3_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc\Packages\Apps\OpenCL64 <-- That is where the .msi for the OpenCL installer was located on this machine. I had to run it before I could get F@H to run OpenCL WU's on my 6570.

 

[Sunny129]

Sunny, you shouldn't need to install the app sdk separately any longer, it supposed to be all bundled in. The files are there, but for some reason OpenCL never gets installed by default for me, anyway.

understood...sorry if it seemed like i was implying otherwise. i was referring to the APP SDK that is part of the driver package, not a separate installation...which brings me to my next point - there seems to be some confusion abut the APP SDK due to a slight misnomer on AMD's part. you see, the APP SDK that is part of the Catalyst driver package does in fact include the OpenCL driver, and is not a true software development kit as the name would suggest. the APP SDK that can be downloaded and installed separately from the Catalyst driver package on the other hand is the full software development kit (which is not what we need...we just need the one that's part of the Catalyst driver package, as you mentioned above).

 

[blckgrffn]

I'm glad that AMD lays that out so simply

 

[theAnimal]

My landlord finally asked me about the high electric bills since I moved in a year ago, so I'm gonna have to cut back a bit as well. I stopped folding on my secondary system which was only 25 to 30k anyway, and reduced my OC to 3.6GHz for my SR-2.

 

[blckgrffn]

My landlord finally asked me about the high electric bills since I moved in a year ago, so I'm gonna have to cut back a bit as well. I stopped folding on my secondary system which was only 25 to 30k anyway, and reduced my OC to 3.6GHz for my SR-2.

Haha, yeah, about that power bill...

Sorry to hear about that, but good grief is that SR-2 just an epic folder. Too bad they gimped the LGA 2011 Xeons so hard. I guess there is always that octcal(?)core Xeon @ 3.1 Ghz that can run in a 2S board - for those that want to drop $4k on CPUs.

My wife has not been impressed with our electric bill lately, either. I am hoping that moving from electric water heater to gas last month (PITA!) will save a bunch, and the only active cruncher I have at home now is the 2600k, sipping down ~114W under 100% load with Malaria Control. 3.8 Ghz on that guy, 400W Antec Neo 80+ PSU, integrated graphics, ssd, 8GB ram.

My Thuban drank twice as much for about half of the work in the current projects. It is currently idling along at ~70W running a few VMs, which is what the i3 was using running flat out

Looking to pick up a 3770k when MC runs a deal on them. May pick up a IVB based Xeon for my H61 board in the meantime...