Opteron 6176 & G34 Platform

ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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So, I've been putzing around on Ebay for ways to increase the number of CPU threads on WCG for the cheap. It's been awhile since I have looked, but it looks like G34 Opterons and motherboards have come down quite a bit in price.

I can get 2 x 12-cores 6176 (2.3 GHz 45nm Magny Cours) and a dual socket Super Micro board with two heat sinks for about $300 CDN. I have spare DDR3 and a PSU laying around. I read to avoid Interlagos and Abu Dhabi Opterons as the Bulldozer-based Opterons are fairly crappy.

I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger, but I'd like some opinions to make sure I'm not wasting money on a platform that's been around since 2010.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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I have 2 6276 16 core opterons, the dual G34 motherboard(ASUS), and 32 gig of ecc memory WITH heatsinks. I would love to sell them, PM me, I can't do that here.
 

ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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Thanks for your the links. It’s outside my budget unfortunately.
 

ao_ika_red

Golden Member
Aug 11, 2016
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After looking at K10-based Opterons on ebay, yeah, the price gap is quite massive with Westmere Xeons. :eek:
 

biodoc

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Dec 29, 2005
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4P G34 opteron systems were king of the hill on Folding@Home for quite some time until they stopped the BigAdv work units.

I guess I would check RAM requirements on WCG projects. I would think 0.5 GB /core would be enough and I would go with ECC RAM. Also check your power supply to see if it will work with that Supermicro board. I think the 2P boards require a 24 pin and 2x8 pin 12 volt connectors (one for each CPU). I think each CPU is 140 Watt TDP so power consumption is worth thinking about. I'm not sure how the system will do on WCG as far as PPD but it will be great for badge hunting.
 
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ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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4P G34 opteron systems were king of the hill on Folding@Home for quite some time until they stopped the BigAdv work units.

I guess I would check RAM requirements on WCG projects. I would think 0.5 GB /core would be enough and I would go with ECC RAM. Also check your power supply to see if it will work with that Supermicro board. I think the 2P boards require a 24 pin and 2x8 pin 12 volt connectors (one for each CPU). I think each CPU is 140 Watt TDP so power consumption is worth thinking about. I'm not sure how the system will do on WCG as far as PPD but it will be great for badge hunting.

Yeah, most of the WCG projects are fairly lean with RAM requirements. The Clean Energy Project is the only one that is more RAM intensive, but since that project is done, I guess that is moot point.
 

ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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So, going to revive my thread. Since the original post, I have purchased the 2x 6276 Opterons w/motherboard from Mark, and it's been happily crunching WCG on Linux Mint. Mark also threw in 2 x Opteron 6234 for free since he had no use for them. Until now, the 6234s were literally collecting dust, well the box that the CPUs were sitting in were. Few weeks ago, I did a quick Ebay search to see what G34 motherboards were available and I happened upon an interesting listing.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/For-AMD-X89...539961?hash=item1ef18c9079:g:IoIAAOSw8TJcJMsI

Brand new, and comes with a cooler. Hemmed and hawed, but ultimately took the plunge since many other G34 boards and coolers were used, and it would have cost more than the bundle. Also got a payout from Ebates so I had some money sitting in Paypal. Waited about 2.5 weeks for the product to ship from Hong Kong to Canada. The box says Jingsha X89 NEW, but I think the OEM is Foxconn. Pictures on Ebay accurately depict what comes with the purchase. No documents or manuals included except a single card with Chinese on it. No problem, since I haven't referred to a mobo manual in years and even the pins for the front panel is the same as everyone else. I promptly slathered some thermal paste onto the cooler, hooked it up and it fired up with no problem. The cooler is nowhere as substantial as say a Noctua cooler, but for what it is, it's actually pretty decent. Even the included fans are not obnoxiously loud.

The 6234 isn't going to win any modern performance metrics but I thought it would be kinda fun messing around with it since I had all the parts except for the board and cooler. I also retired an i5 760 and Q9550 from my fleet earlier this year, so this 6234 is a kind-of replacement for both machines. It passed two days of Prime95 and is now on WCG. I still have a second 6238, but I don't have any spare parts for it, so if I decide to build a second rig, I will have to purchase everything from scratch. Don't think it will be worth the investment.
 

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ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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Small update: The 6234 is able to maintain an all-core turbo @ 2.7 GHz, 24/7 with the bundled thermal solution. PPD on WCG is about the same as my 2500K @ 4.2 GHz. Power consumption between the two is quite similar as well.