Focusing on World Community Grid

[StitchExperimen]

Thanks for the information mmstick.
I didn't know a 7950 was so fast. I was thinking I would need to get several of them.

The comment of AMD compared to a i3 came from me and reading the benchmark articles from tomshardware.com on processors to buy for gaming they do each month. I'm pro AMD but Intel had deeper pockets to put in to infrastructure for production.

 

[Smartazz]

I got a 7950 as well and yes it's extremely fast.

 

[Smartazz]

Any recommendations for a very cheap case for an ATX motherboard? I'm going to build a secondary crunching rig with a Q6600 and 6870.

 

[blckgrffn]

Any recommendations for a very cheap case for an ATX motherboard? I'm going to build a secondary crunching rig with a Q6600 and 6870.

http://slickdeals.net/f/5464204-Ant...omputer-Case-30-after-15-rebate-Free-Shipping

Super cheap? No. Worth the money? IMHO, yes ($30 AMIR, free shipping) I don't think quality cases can really be had under $30 shipped, I have tried and failed and been disappointed...

 

[ZipSpeed]

Another +1 for the Antec 300. Great airflow especially once you add two fans to the front. The 2 fans included with the case are actually pretty good too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2282141

ATHD thread on Antec 300.

 

[StitchExperimen]

On the Antec 300 will that fit a 7950 video card?

 

[ZipSpeed]

On the Antec 300 will that fit a 7950 video card?

It should. I had a reference GTX 480 in it once and while it was tight, it managed to fit.

 

[StitchExperimen]

Thanks

 

[Smartazz]

Good news and bad news. Bad news is that I'm not going to be able to use my 7950 for DC since voltage spikes for some reason when I do. Good news is that I should have a Q6600@3GHz and a 6870 up next week in addition to my 4.5GHz 2500K. I hope it can rack up a good number of points.

 

[petrusbroder]

A nice addition to the TeAm!

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've ramped-up production slightly on WCG too.

I recently upgraded my HTPC, from a 45W AM2 X2 CPU on a 780G mATX mobo, to a LLano A6-3670K on a Biostar FM1 A75 mobo, in a Xion slimline case (red and white motif, just like the mobo and RAM). It looks really sharp, and best yet, with the new case, I can run WCG on three cores + HCC GPU WUs on one core and the onboard GPU, and it only gets up to 52C.

I also (temporarily) have my Thuban quad-GPU cruncher (upgraded from 2GB to 8GB of DDR2) running without the four 9600GSO (it was freezing up, I suspect PSU problems), but with a GT610, doing GPU PrimeGrid, and CPU WCG.

This is all in addition to my G630 SB dual-core with GT430.

 

[ZipSpeed]

I've ramped-up production slightly on WCG too.

I recently upgraded my HTPC, from a 45W AM2 X2 CPU on a 780G mATX mobo, to a LLano A6-3670K on a Biostar FM1 A75 mobo, in a Xion slimline case (red and white motif, just like the mobo and RAM). It looks really sharp, and best yet, with the new case, I can run WCG on three cores + HCC GPU WUs on one core and the onboard GPU, and it only gets up to 52C.

I also (temporarily) have my Thuban quad-GPU cruncher (upgraded from 2GB to 8GB of DDR2) running without the four 9600GSO (it was freezing up, I suspect PSU problems), but with a GT610, doing GPU PrimeGrid, and CPU WCG.

This is all in addition to my G630 SB dual-core with GT430.

All hardware big or small will definitely help out, especially with the upcoming race!

 

[StitchExperimen]

What race??? When?

I need a little input... are Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 video cards @ $299 Newegg a good card to purchase? http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4366#ov

Does anyone know if these are reference boards? So if I need waterblocks.
Does anyone know if these are 4-way CrossFire compatible?

At Newegg they got a game package to go with it,
Free 4-in-1 Game Coupon
- FarCry3
- HitMan
- Sleeping Dogs
- Medal of Honor WarFighter Limited Edition (20% off digital deluxe)
Are they worth anything?

It looks like this Gigabyte motherboard is the best voltage and bang for the buck GIGABYTE GA-X79-UP4 LGA 2011 Intel X79 $260 and recent production. http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4288#ov

The worst thing about shopping for LGA 2011 is compatible memory for all motherboards are different and most are in slow speeds... however for comparison the speed is ~21.5GBs for LGA 1155 and LGA 2011 is ~40.5GBs what this applies to real world is only (as far as I know) is one type of cryptography and supposedly multiple graphic cards as I have no numbers to support this I have to go by what others have said and I read.
If anyone has facts point me in the direction.
As what I have read PCIEX16_2 ... The PCIEX8_2 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_2 slot ... When the PCIEX8_2 slot is populated, the PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

Stitch

PS Whats the longest length HDMI cable? Maybe I can put it in the other room and use wireless keyboard and mouse...

 

[Kiska]

Longest HDMI cord I use is 25 meter also Wireless doesn't penetrate walls very well. 7950 is worth the value you're getting for that price and the extra games. Crossfire for 4-way? Not that I know of.
Here in Australia these games cost:
-Farcry3 $45
-Hitman $50
-Sleeping Dogs $59.95
-Medal of Honour Warfighter Limited Edition $109
In my opinion they are worth it. Haven't played any of them so don't know if they are good or not but 4 games are free so what the heck.

 

[StitchExperimen]

I called the Gigabyte company and they will 4-way CrossFireX so I purchased 2 from Newegg. Now I wonder about selling the games...
Any Idea of a power supply?

 

[Kiska]

A minimum for 2 is a 1.5KW PSU.

 

[Smartazz]

I ran HCC on my 7950 and it spends almost as much time waiting between tasks than actually processing. Any way to fix this?

 

[ZipSpeed]

That waiting is actually the CPU doing some kind of conversion before uploading. Don't think there's a way around it.

 

[Rattledagger]

On fast GPU's like the 7950 the cpu will be the bottleneck.

But, it is possible to maximize GPU-usage, by using an app_info.xml file and running multiple tasks on GPU at once. The disadvantage is you'll likely need to dedicate one cpu-core per GPU-task, and you'll need to run many GPU-tasks. It seems the most common choise is to run 8 GPU-tasks at once on the high-end Amd-GPU's, if you've got enough CPU-cores.

So, if your computer doesn't have 12 or more cores (including HT-cores), you'll likely need to run only GPU-tasks to maximize GPU-usage. This will also maximize credit/day, since the GPU is much faster than a CPU it is better to sacrifize CPU-crunching for the benefit if GPU.

Your listed computers is an i5, isn't this without HT meaning 4-core? If so, not sure if there's a significant advantage to run more than 4 GPU-tasks at once...

For the app_info.xml file, the one in 1st. post here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?283509-Working-app_info-files
should AFAIK work, but you'll need to edit the <count>.5</count> to something like .25 to run 4 or .125 to run 8.

Also, WCG's scheduling-server doesn't really work correctly with app_info.xml, so remember to disable CPU-crunching for the profile if only does GPU-crunching, and also remember to disable beta-tasks for same profile.

 

[Smartazz]

Yes, my i5 does not have hyperthreading. Does it make more sense to underclock and undervolt my GPU since the CPU is the bottleneck?

 

[StitchExperimen]

What do you use to measure. (Is this in Windows 7 or linux?)
CPU start
GPU
CPU end

 

[Rattledagger]

(Is this in Windows 7 or linux?)

Since it's GPU-crunching in WCG, obviously it's Windows since there's no linux/mac-apps available yet.

Yes, my i5 does not have hyperthreading. Does it make more sense to underclock and undervolt my GPU since the CPU is the bottleneck?

Hmm, maybe, this depends on how the utilization is if you tries to run 4 GPU-tasks at once...

 

[Smartazz]

Building a dedicated crunching box, unfortunately idk where my wireless card for it.

 

[Smartazz]

Nevermind. The computer is almost up and running. I found a wireless card.