More folding power... coming soon!

[absolutefunk]

Howdy all!

Little update on my folding. My only GPU folding rig belonged to my roommate, who needed it back (he folds for team 0, and only part time ), so for the past few weeks I've been back to CPU folding....

However this will change in about a week, as last night I ordered an R9 Nano to upgrade my desktop! Mad folding power that little card has!

A bit of background. My desktop is a mini-itx build from 2012 (3570k et al, so definitely still a good rig), but the GPU was a 5770 hand me down, and I could never find a WU in which it could crunch within the deadline, so I use it for CPU folding. My plan was to buy a g-sync monitor this month and then in May build a new rig for Doom, but yesterday I ended up buying a freesync monitor that was on sale (Asus MG279Q ), and after some research into AMD cards, realized I could save a crapload of money by simply upgrading my GPU in my current desktop to a nano, which is on par with a GTX 980. I ordered the Nano last night (instead of waiting till May) due to my new monitor being 1080p limited on HDMI, and my 5770 not having displayport lol.

I don't think I'll be able to GPU fold 24/7 due to heat (I'm already having problems with heat just from the CPU folding alone), but during the day when I'm not at my apt It'll be definitely crunching some mad WUs.

Watch out DarkFoss and Curio, Ima comin to steal yo ranks!!

FOLD ON Y'ALL!!!

-Brian

[curio]

Awesome! I always love more competition for the fold

About that heat, I can definitely feel the heat coming from my rig - but it's tolerable; for now. Once the summer wave hits, I'll most likely have to shut her down for a few months.

Anyway, what kind of case and cooling do you have?

[absolutefunk]

Awesome! I always love more competition for the fold

About that heat, I can definitely feel the heat coming from my rig - but it's tolerable; for now. Once the summer wave hits, I'll most likely have to shut her down for a few months.

Anyway, what kind of case and cooling do you have?

My case is an SG05, with the standard 120mm front fan and air cooling for the CPU (I'm replacing the current CPU cooler with an NT06-Pro - hopefully get a better OC from the CPU). One nice thing about this case is the GPU fan will be sucking in air from outside the case.

In addition to the Nano and NT06, I also ordered Corsair's new 600W SFX PSU to give me a bit more headroom and efficiency from my current 450W.

Once summer hits I'll have to see how much GPU folding I can do. If you shut down it could give me an opportunity to catch up

-Brian

[aRandomRobot]

I'm glad to see people are keeping the team alive! My main rig hasn't been stable enough to fold for a long time now; I need to take a weekend to clean it up and adjust some clocks/voltages. Has Bitcoin mining collapsed enough to get some folding power back? The last time I was really active, mining seemed to be stealing a bunch of rigs away from folding.

[absolutefunk]

I'm glad to see people are keeping the team alive! My main rig hasn't been stable enough to fold for a long time now; I need to take a weekend to clean it up and adjust some clocks/voltages. Has Bitcoin mining collapsed enough to get some folding power back? The last time I was really active, mining seemed to be stealing a bunch of rigs away from folding.

More power to the fold would be great! Bitcoin mining seems to have lost the drive it once had, but it doesn't seem to result in more users coming back to Team 64. In the end I'd rather donate my computing resources to something like this which has so much potential to benefit us all.

Speaking of which, My current primary folding rig seems to get around 400-500k PPD, though the Nano hasn't been folding in over a month. There is an issue with the driver in which GPU accelerated apps tend to cause the driver to crash if I'm using them while folding. For example, scrolling in chrome will cause a driver crash and reboot if I am GPU folding. Fortunately all is well if I'm not using the rig at all during GPU folding, which lately has been a problem as I've been using it alot. I should be able to start GPU folding during the day here in a couple of weeks. That should net me about 200k PPD, which I think will help the team a bit.

-Brian

[absolutefunk]

Quick update for y'all! Got the v7 client running on three dual E5-2640 servers (with two more servers in the queue). Should be good for around 200K PPD

-Brian

[jima13]

Sweet!

[Lupine]

Noice!

[Flyordie]

Glad ya are adding to it. AMD has better folding power for consumer cards. They really should release a bit more of it for the HIGH end consumer cards all around though.

I brought my rig back up after some minor down time. My SeaSonic PSU took a dump. (Not my new one, new one arrives Saturday)..

I had one of the Magnetic Amps fail. (Had a spare from another PSU that failed so I got my solder gun out and bam... she's alive again. lol)

When a Mag Amp fails... it doesn't usually smoke.. It does smell like sweet caramel or something to that affect though.

OMG... 400k PPD!!!

I can't catch ya now.

[absolutefunk]

Glad ya are adding to it. AMD has better folding power for consumer cards. They really should release a bit more of it for the HIGH end consumer cards all around though.

I brought my rig back up after some minor down time. My SeaSonic PSU took a dump. (Not my new one, new one arrives Saturday)..

I had one of the Magnetic Amps fail. (Had a spare from another PSU that failed so I got my solder gun out and bam... she's alive again. lol)

When a Mag Amp fails... it doesn't usually smoke.. It does smell like sweet caramel or something to that affect though.

OMG... 400k PPD!!!

I can't catch ya now.

I miscalculated the PPD originally... 200K is assuming mostly 207 pointers, but the servers are getting alot of the 1000 pointers also, so it's averaging out to a tad over 400K PPD

This is without the Nano folding (yet). My plan is to bring onboard two more servers maybe next week (and subsequently stop a couple of NaCL instances I currently have running). Then once it actually gets cold outside, bring online the Nano. I may be able to crack 1 MPPD if everything goes well, though I'll still not be up to Jima13 standards

I've never had a PSU just die on me like that. Perhaps the caramel smell is your old PSU trying to get you into the upcoming holiday season spirit (or it knew it was being replaced and decided to go out with a bang!)

[Flyordie]

I miscalculated the PPD originally... 200K is assuming mostly 207 pointers, but the servers are getting alot of the 1000 pointers also, so it's averaging out to a tad over 400K PPD

This is without the Nano folding (yet). My plan is to bring onboard two more servers maybe next week (and subsequently stop a couple of NaCL instances I currently have running). Then once it actually gets cold outside, bring online the Nano. I may be able to crack 1 MPPD if everything goes well, though I'll still not be up to Jima13 standards

I've never had a PSU just die on me like that. Perhaps the caramel smell is your old PSU trying to get you into the upcoming holiday season spirit (or it knew it was being replaced and decided to go out with a bang!)

I'm eyeing bringing online a few CPU folders. I got 3 PCs in reserve atm..

-A64 X2 3800+ 2MB L2 (not the 1MB L2 like the later models) S939
-Phenom II X2 550 AM2+ <-- That one is on a finicky DFI board... It works.. just can't OC worth **** for some reason.
-Athlon64 X2 4200+ "Brisbane" AM2 <--- Although that one might be going back to my sisters if she ever wants it back. lol.
Yea, I hate Intel.

But, chances are, I'll just use this rig and bump to 2x RX4xx series cards when they refresh.

[absolutefunk]

I'm eyeing bringing online a few CPU folders. I got 3 PCs in reserve atm..

-A64 X2 3800+ 2MB L2 (not the 1MB L2 like the later models) S939
-Phenom II X2 550 AM2+ <-- That one is on a finicky DFI board... It works.. just can't OC worth **** for some reason.
-Athlon64 X2 4200+ "Brisbane" AM2 <--- Although that one might be going back to my sisters if she ever wants it back. lol.
Yea, I hate Intel.

But, chances are, I'll just use this rig and bump to 2x RX4xx series cards when they refresh.

For CPUs that old I'd only say to recommend folding on them if you are not paying for electricity (or if cost is not important). I have an Atom N270 folding, but the electricity usage on it is minimal

I understand the Intel hate I'm having high hopes for Zen

[Flyordie]

I pay for electricity but my electric cost is only 7.7 cents per Kwh. Most areas are 11-14 cents per Kwh. So, ours is less than half the cost than most areas.

I think last month.. my electric bill was $78 and that was with a .1 cent per Kwh increase this year. (Most of our electricity comes from Coal and Natural gas and the fact our power company is a not-for-profit "COOP")

But, as for power usage... I use all 85&#37;+ efficiency power supplies so its not to horrible. This new PSU I got is 88-92% efficient. :-p But being as its winter and we use electric heat here.. the power bill won't be bothered to much since any excess heat created helps heat the house. lol.

In other news.. I might crack 300K today... I got 2 more work units at (93% GPU) and (92% CPU) as of the time of this post with 20m left on them. OC'n this 780Ti helps ALOT to get more WU's in per day. (1,200Mhz Core clock wee! This is just a 780Ti Founder Edition too courtesy of Erik)

[absolutefunk]

I pay for electricity but my electric cost is only 7.7 cents per Kwh. Most areas are 11-14 cents per Kwh. So, ours is less than half the cost than most areas.

I think last month.. my electric bill was $78 and that was with a .1 cent per Kwh increase this year. (Most of our electricity comes from Coal and Natural gas and the fact our power company is a not-for-profit "COOP")

But, as for power usage... I use all 85%+ efficiency power supplies so its not to horrible. This new PSU I got is 88-92% efficient. :-p But being as its winter and we use electric heat here.. the power bill won't be bothered to much since any excess heat created helps heat the house. lol.

In other news.. I might crack 300K today... I got 2 more work units at (93% GPU) and (92% CPU) as of the time of this post with 20m left on them. OC'n this 780Ti helps ALOT to get more WU's in per day. (1,200Mhz Core clock wee! This is just a 780Ti Founder Edition too courtesy of Erik)

Folding can actually lower electricity costs during the winter depending on how much you can offset the central heating. My electric bills here are not quite that cheap, but this winter hoping for a cheaper set of bills thanks to folding (even if only slightly cheaper... or slightly more expensive, it'll be all good). My plan is to heat my entire room only thru the GPU (close the heating vent), and if my roommate does the same for his room, then we can probably get away with the central heater being off most of the time (common area doesn't need to be heated 24/7). Winter still hasn't arrived yet here lol.

I saw the 300K yesterday, congrats! Keep that mad folding up and you'll be the 4th position on the team!

Today I plan to get another server online, and by the end of the week have the last one up.

[Flyordie]

ZOMGITZ!

You cracked 500K.

In other news..
- Bumped the 780Ti to 1,218Mhz

-I am ordering the caps for an attempted re-cap on this board...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813154007R

They used shitty Teapo Caps. Not even 100 hours on it and its already bulging on half of them. 2 are leaking.

If it survives recapping... this X2 3800+ will be powered up and I will attempt to OC it back to its highest I could get it to on an ASUS board.. (3.2Ghz @ 1.42V)

[absolutefunk]

ZOMGITZ!

You cracked 500K.

In other news..
- Bumped the 780Ti to 1,218Mhz

-I am ordering the caps for an attempted re-cap on this board...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813154007R

They used shitty Teapo Caps. Not even 100 hours on it and its already bulging on half of them. 2 are leaking.

If it survives recapping... this X2 3800+ will be powered up and I will attempt to OC it back to its highest I could get it to on an ASUS board.. (3.2Ghz @ 1.42V)

Thanks My PPD should settle around the 550K range, depending on the ratio of 1000 to 207 pointer WUs the servers get, and server load for other tasks (which so far has only been an issue for one of the servers, but I expect more contention in the upcoming weeks).

That's pretty bad for a board to start having leaky caps only after 100 hours of use. Really that's like 4 days... The recapping should work fine, even with a soldering iron. The only board I've had which had leaky caps was my Asus A7n8x-e, but that was only after folding 24/7 for about 8 years

If you get the board working, and the original OC, that should give you an added ~3-6K PPD I'd say. Not bad for the hardware. To put into perspective, I fold on a N270, which gives me around 100PPD, but every little bit counts

[Flyordie]

Yea. but I don't assume i'll be able to reach this high on it. I guess around 2.75Ghz. But, I'll use it as a GPU rig primarily.

I'm just happy I still got a set of OCZ Platinums to use with it. DDR400 @ 2-2-2-1T. Pretty fast for what it is.

That Atom only does 100ppd.. wow. Figured it'd be higher.

[absolutefunk]

Yea. but I don't assume i'll be able to reach this high on it. I guess around 2.75Ghz. But, I'll use it as a GPU rig primarily.

I'm just happy I still got a set of OCZ Platinums to use with it. DDR400 @ 2-2-2-1T. Pretty fast for what it is.

That Atom only does 100ppd.. wow. Figured it'd be higher.

Ahh, okay, GPU folding, that makes a bit more sense I'm mostly a CPU folder so I tend to forget that most people have more than one GPU laying around (because most people I know havn't spent the past decade borrowing GPUs from friends... )

The N270 is a single core proc (/w HT, but that doesn't help much), and it's only clocked at 1.6GHz. This is a Dell nettop box, it's fanless, and uses little electricity, so it's basically free points

Speaking of points, looks like the collection server for those nice 1000 pointers went down last night, so I'm only folding 207's now. That'll take a good 200K off my PPD.

[Flyordie]

I'm heavily considering a G34 rig. You can get G34 12 and 16 core opties for $15-20 on E-bay now. lol.

[absolutefunk]

I'm heavily considering a G34 rig. You can get G34 12 and 16 core opties for $15-20 on E-bay now. lol.

And the PPD for one of those would be in the 40-60K range easy... So with dual proc + some GPUs you got laying around, that would make for a pretty cheap 6 fig PPD system

[Flyordie]

And the PPD for one of those would be in the 40-60K range easy... So with dual proc + some GPUs you got laying around, that would make for a pretty cheap 6 fig PPD system

Im talking with our IT guys and when they start retiring their quad socket G34 rigs when Zen goes full tilt, they will ship me 3 or 4 units with 8x 16 core Opties. :-)

[absolutefunk]

they will ship me 3 or 4 units with 8x 16 core Opties. :-)

So each server is a dual proc? 3-4 of those will give my servers a run for their money, especially given that my servers are also used as a computing cluster for a few other users.

[Flyordie]

They got 4 G34 sockets per board(unit) and they have been OC'd. Our IT guys had them all locked to 3.8Ghz (Up from 2.4Ghz) on a refrigerated liquid cooling loop.

[absolutefunk]

They got 4 G34 sockets per board(unit) and they have been OC'd. Our IT guys had them all locked to 3.8Ghz (Up from 2.4Ghz) on a refrigerated liquid cooling loop.

WOW, okay, if you get 4 of those, that would be roughly double the output that I currently have. That could put u into Jima13 territory

When will you know if this is gonna work out? And where do u plan to deploy these? The electricity requirements may be a bit much for home deployment, unless you plan to replace your central heating with these... (actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. If I was gonna buy or build a house, I'd use a bunch of high output servers as the central heaters, which should both cut down on my heating bills and provides some mad PPD!! )

[jima13]

WOW, okay, if you get 4 of those, that would be roughly double the output that I currently have. That could put u into Jima13 territory

When will you know if this is gonna work out? And where do u plan to deploy these? The electricity requirements may be a bit much for home deployment, unless you plan to replace your central heating with these... (actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. If I was gonna buy or build a house, I'd use a bunch of high output servers as the central heaters, which should both cut down on my heating bills and provides some mad PPD!! )

I could use some company

[Flyordie]

780Ti went down.. not sure why. Just reset client. Seems to be downloading a WU now. I'll update later tonight when I get home from my date.


Edit- Fixed. Deleted the GPU slot and re-added it.

[absolutefunk]

Deleted the GPU slot and re-added it.

Always works

[Flyordie]

Went down for 2 days. Did some OS changes.

Question- Is a 256GB SSD for just the OS and whatever games I may need to install ok? I will get standard HDDs for data storage.

[absolutefunk]

Went down for 2 days. Did some OS changes.

Question- Is a 256GB SSD for just the OS and whatever games I may need to install ok? I will get standard HDDs for data storage.

You'll fill that up pretty quick if you are gonna put games on it

[Flyordie]

Just a few games. Like maybe W3. Most games would just be installed as I play them.

But honestly, anything will be better than what I am using now...

ST3320820AS 320GB SATAII. Yea, its old. But, only 17,057 hours on it. lol

[absolutefunk]

only 17K hours

So for a lesser number of installed games, a 256GB should work. I retired my last HDD last April when did the Nano upgrade (Nano required new PSU, and since my case is SFF, the new PSU facilitated removal of my HDD bay, leaving me with only an SSD).