looking for ideas on cheap i7 system build for crunching

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
That's a bit harsh dajeepster, I think he was just trying to help you save some money by suggesting to wait awhile (though 1 yr is rather a longtime) or by crunching via GPUs (a bit too early for that atm I think).

except he didn't read the original post where I state that my i7 is crunching more than my q9550, that would imply that I have a q9550... and that the purpose of this thread was to attempt to build a low budget i7 system... but if that is relative considering how much an i7 cost compared to a core2

Originally posted by: dajeepster
quick down and dirty

257watts under full CPU load...i.e. seti running 8 threads.

Pretty low power draw , what speed is it at?

cpu-z V1.49 is indicating that core #0 is running at 2853.9 MHz, QPI at 2446.2 MHz

Btw have you compared 8 vs 4 threads to see if it is faster? (I assume it would be with the i7 but I'm interested to see if you've tested it).

I've been running at 8 threads.... i'll test the next system by rotating between 4 and 8 threads on a weekly basis... or I can just wait for this machine to settle out at 8 threads and then disable HT.

I say get the i7 & then when SETI sorts out the GPU client then whack in a load of GTX 280s too (or whatever's out), best of both worlds then .

I thought about doing this... but with a few cheaper cards... and filling up the PCI bus also

so basically... I could go with 3 PCIe graphic cards and 2 PCI graphic cards on the ASUS and two and two on the MSI Platinum board... but it's just a pipe dream right now... I haven't got any results back on my 8800gt running seta@home beta yet...and it's been 3days

 

[Assimilator1]

I wonder if the GPU WUs are unique to the GPU client? If so then they'll be a longer delay on granted credit due to their being much fewer clients, unless far fewer of those WUs are being sent out in the 1st place .

Would the PCI bus have enough bandwidth to deal with the GPU client? even assuming you can get a suitable PCI card to crunch in the 1st place?, which I wouldn't of thought so.
You certainly could from the PCIE slots anyway .

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Would the PCI bus have enough bandwidth to deal with the GPU client? even assuming you can get a suitable PCI card to crunch in the 1st place?, which I wouldn't of thought so.
You certainly could from the PCIE slots anyway .

I thought about that, but then I came to the conclusion that since the WU is being processed by the GPU and accesses the ram on the video card... there really is no reason to need the bandwidth of the bus..... once the WU is finished, then it's passed on through the bus...

well... at least that's the conclusion that I've come to.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: dajeepster
so basically... I could go with 3 PCIe graphic cards and 2 PCI graphic cards on the ASUS and two and two on the MSI Platinum board... but it's just a pipe dream right now... I haven't got any results back on my 8800gt running seta@home beta yet...and it's been 3days

If you're going to load up on graphics cards in one rig, then watch the temps. I already lost one out of four 9600GSOs in my folding rig.

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: dajeepster
so basically... I could go with 3 PCIe graphic cards and 2 PCI graphic cards on the ASUS and two and two on the MSI Platinum board... but it's just a pipe dream right now... I haven't got any results back on my 8800gt running seta@home beta yet...and it's been 3days

If you're going to load up on graphics cards in one rig, then watch the temps. I already lost one out of four 9600GSOs in my folding rig.

I thought about that... I have one watersetup that has a quad fan radiator (240x240) that I could put this in... I could put the graphics cards one one loop and then put an additional 2 fan radiator in the case for the cpu... i've got so much room in the case for just about anything. and the case

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: dajeepster

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Would the PCI bus have enough bandwidth to deal with the GPU client? even assuming you can get a suitable PCI card to crunch in the 1st place?, which I wouldn't of thought so.
You certainly could from the PCIE slots anyway .

I thought about that, but then I came to the conclusion that since the WU is being processed by the GPU and accesses the ram on the video card... there really is no reason to need the bandwidth of the bus..... once the WU is finished, then it's passed on through the bus...

well... at least that's the conclusion that I've come to.

Yea I thought that too, but their was 1 other thing I was unsure about. The GPU client uses some CPU power right? I wonder how much bandwidth that uses?
It'll probably be a mute point anyway as AFAIK you can't get Nvidia 8x00s on AGP let alone PCI, or any 48xx ATI cards.

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Originally posted by: dajeepster

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Would the PCI bus have enough bandwidth to deal with the GPU client? even assuming you can get a suitable PCI card to crunch in the 1st place?, which I wouldn't of thought so.
You certainly could from the PCIE slots anyway .

I thought about that, but then I came to the conclusion that since the WU is being processed by the GPU and accesses the ram on the video card... there really is no reason to need the bandwidth of the bus..... once the WU is finished, then it's passed on through the bus...

well... at least that's the conclusion that I've come to.

Yea I thought that too, but their was 1 other thing I was unsure about. The GPU client uses some CPU power right? I wonder how much bandwidth that uses?
It'll probably be a mute point anyway as AFAIK you can't get Nvidia 8800s on AGP let alone PCI, or any 48xx ATI cards.

well... they make 8400gs for PCI... i've installed it on my q9550 8800gt system... I haven't been able to get it to crunch yet... but as far as cpu power usage.. it's taken one of the cpu WU cycles and crunches during that time.... i.e. quad core has 3 cores crunching with the forth unit crunching on the GPU

 

[Assimilator1]

They do make them on PCI?:Q ,wow didn't know that, my admittedly brief search didn't turn up anything .

It'll be interesting to see what output you get from that.

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
They do make them on PCI?:Q ,wow didn't know that, my admitidley brief search didn't turn up anything .

It'll be interesting to see what output you get from that.

PCI video cards at newegg

I haven't been able to get the PCI card to crunch yet.

 

[dajeepster]

Originally posted by: dajeepster

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Originally posted by: dajeepster

Originally posted by: Assimilator1

Would the PCI bus have enough bandwidth to deal with the GPU client? even assuming you can get a suitable PCI card to crunch in the 1st place?, which I wouldn't of thought so.
You certainly could from the PCIE slots anyway .

I thought about that, but then I came to the conclusion that since the WU is being processed by the GPU and accesses the ram on the video card... there really is no reason to need the bandwidth of the bus..... once the WU is finished, then it's passed on through the bus...

well... at least that's the conclusion that I've come to.

Yea I thought that too, but their was 1 other thing I was unsure about. The GPU client uses some CPU power right? I wonder how much bandwidth that uses?
It'll probably be a mute point anyway as AFAIK you can't get Nvidia 8800s on AGP let alone PCI, or any 48xx ATI cards.

well... they make 8400gs for PCI... i've installed it on my q9550 8800gt system... I haven't been able to get it to crunch yet... but as far as cpu power usage.. it's taken one of the cpu WU cycles and crunches during that time.... i.e. quad core has 3 cores crunching with the forth unit crunching on the GPU

ok... now I have different results.... seti is now crunching on four cores and setibeta is crunching on the gpu...... so I have 5 WU crunching on my q9550_8800gt.

 

[Assimilator1]

Cool , how much CPU time is the GPU client taking?

Btw we don't have newegg here, but I guess if I looked hard enough I could find someone that does a PCI 8400GS .