[Scotttheking]

Our folding team is 1 week from slipping out of the top 100. THIS IS BAD.
We need to stop our decline. Now. This will take a lot of effort, but at the moment my goal is to get an additional 60k PPD of production. That's a lot. But we have a way.

Last night I added ~4500 points of production. How? I installed a $50 (after rebate) video card in my computer, and installed the folding GPU client. This client works with Windows XP and Vista and Nvidia 8xxx series and above cards, and ATI Radeon HD2000 series and above cards.
My new card is a 9600GSO, which is a mid range card. Better cards will produce more.
I'm calling on all members with GPUs to install the client now, even as you continue to use your CPUs for other projects. Let's get the points up fast, then work on getting more members and a longer term production boost. If you want to upgrade your GPU, I'll link that too.

All CPU users are welcome to join in as well, and more detailed info will be coming. This is an emergency thread to get us going now.
The links:
GPU Guide: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/WinGPUGuide
GPU client: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther
Nvidia: You need the latest Nvidia drivers, or close to it. Upgrade your drivers. Then install this: http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_get.html
ATI: Upgrade your drivers

Nvidia FAQ: http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandeg...ish.FAQ-NVIDIA
ATI FAQ: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-ATI2

Video card I bought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130356

Total count: 4000/60000 (I rounded down because it won't crunch 100% of the time)

LET'S GET CRUNCHING.

[seanc]

I'll join so long as the client stays up.

512mb 8800GT here.

It's running. Disadvantage is that my card makes a horrible whine. Oh well, I'm going to bed

[arkayn]

Since the CPU on my Dell runs Seti, I can at least use the HD 2400 - 256MB for folding.

I will see how long it takes on my little video card.

I eventually want to put in a 3650 - 512 MB.

[OneMacGuy]

I installed it on 6 more CPU's last night, crappy old Stanford assigned 4 of the clients to a server that is not handing out work units. I think I remember why I pretty much stopped folding now .

Anyway, they should all be folding again soon.

[subego]

I'm definitely scrambling to get some more cycles online.

Not to mention that Stanford is really hosing me on big PS3 WU (i.e. not giving credit).

I should never drop below 1,800 points/day and I haven't topped 468 for 4 of the last 7 days.

I'd bitch to Stanford but I of course have no idea which WU were the bad ones, and the servers seem to have returned to giving me smaller units.

[subego]

I have only Macs (go figure).

I'd be willing to build/buy a PC box and throw some GPU cards in it...

So, the question is, does it really matter what kind of box it is? How many GPUs can I throw in and let crunch 24/7 without ending up with a pile of slag?

I can do research, but there are so many ways to go about this some general pointers (since you know exactly what I'm going to do with it) would be appreciated.



Of course, if you can help me answer the question of where the hell I'm going to put the thing, I'm all ears.

[Scotttheking]

ok, here's an answer for you:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...Number=9662746

The box is a bit costly, but should generate at least 20k PPD.
Considerations when I specified parts:
1) Vista. You want to run Vista for the GPU client.
2) Quad core CPU - It'll run a CPU client as well. If you only want GPU clients running, you could drop down to a dual core CPU and save $40.
3) AMD - You could go with Intel as well, especially if doing a dual core. There is a 4 PCIe slot Intel board as well.
4) Open box mobo - it is cheaper.
5) Video card - The 9600GSO is another choice. It is cheaper, but produces less. In the overall scheme of the box I think the 8800GTs are more worthwhile. You can look on a place like the Ars Agora for used video cards and save a few $$$. You should aim for identical cards. It shouldn't be necessary, but some have said it might be.
6) Ram - I listed 4GB because I read some reports of Vista needing more system ram than there is video ram, and the cards alone have 2GB. You could try with 2GB, but keep that in mind.
7) Case - it is a random case that looked like it could cool this setup.
8) Power supply - It looked good, and has the PCIe power connectors we need.

Things to note:
For those video cards, there is a buy 2 get $20 off deal that I couldn't link to in my wish list.
There are rebates for several of those items.
You need an optical drive for the install.
For Vista, you need to make dummy VGA dongles, which involve a resistor and the DVI > VGA adaptors. It doesn't cost much.


If this is overkill for what you are looking for, let me know what range you are thinking and I'll see what I can come up with.

[subego]

Wow. That's awesome. Thank you. That's more or less the least I thought it would cost without recklessly cutting corners.

It seems possible that this would make a halfway decent gaming rig... Opinions?

[subego]

One more question...

Though this would obviously send the cost through the roof, were I to pick up a PowerMac Mac Pro, would I have any problem running the clients in Parallels (or if it comes down to that, with Boot Camp)?

Any cooling problems?


P.S. these are all "if you have an answer off the top of your head" type questions. You've already been super helpful!

[Scotttheking]

Originally Posted by subego 

Wow. That's awesome. Thank you. That's more or less the least I thought it would cost without recklessly cutting corners.

It seems possible that this would make a halfway decent gaming rig... Opinions?

It would make a decent gaming rig. What kind of games are you thinking? There are newer generations of cards than the 8800 series; I selected it for the price/performance ratio. Also, while the cards are SLI capable, you have to disable SLI for folding, which isn't so helpful for gaming.

Also, it might be just as economical to build 2 dual video card systems. I am not sure.

One more question...

Though this would obviously send the cost through the roof, were I to pick up a PowerMac Mac Pro, would I have any problem running the clients in Parallels (or if it comes down to that, with Boot Camp)?

Any cooling problems?

I don't know the answer to that. In boot camp you would have no problem, but I don't know about in Parallels. I also don't know about cooling or if there are any issues with regular PC video cards being used in the Mac Pro, even in Windows. It would be best to get someone to test it. I also don't know about cooling.

[subego]

Thanks again for the answers. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with a rig along the lines of what you suggested.

[Scotttheking]

Originally Posted by subego 

Thanks again for the answers. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with a rig along the lines of what you suggested.

Give me a little bit more to check on some stuff for it.

I put that list together to give you an idea.

Note that this is what I would build, but I'm just making the suggestion, not guaranteeing it.

[Scotttheking]

I updated the wish list.

There's a mobo + CPU combo that you need to grab: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ize=100&Page=1

The ASUS probably has a better BIOS, and there's an asus board with integrated wifi, but there are a lot of comments about DOA boards. You can look at the other manufacturers as well that offer the same chipset.


Also, if you want, you could do an Intel version of the MSI board + CPU. It'll cost a little more though.

The power supply was replaced. It is a smaller one that should still be enough. It has a promo code: pcpc20. That'll get you $29 off. The video card rebate doesn't show with 4, but there's a $22 rebate for at least 2, so go for that.

If you actually want to use the system, you'll probably want at least Vista Home Premium. You shoud also swap for 64bit, but let me confirm that there are no major issues. Also, you'll probably want a bigger hard drive. Here's one that's big and cheap. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218
Do you need an optical drive? You will need a DVD drive to do the install.

Any other questions?

[Scotttheking]

test

[OneMacGuy]

looks like I have gotten around 2000-2500 ppd online in for folding, might get to add a couple more cpu's, but not much. how much more do we need to stay in the top 100?

[seanc]

We're out of the top 100 :/

We need a lot more people folding if we're going to get back in.

[subego]

I'm committed to building the new box. Will start picking up the pieces on Monday. I'd be doing it now, but the mother-in-law is over, and we have to go see Wicked...

Again.

[seanc]

I've stopped folding on the GPU for now.

Does anyone know if the power consumption is going to be much higher when I'm folding on it compared to it just idling?

[SciFrog]

No GPU clients for Macs? With these kind of PPD, I might give up completely...

[subego]

Good lord.

It took me only a few hours to build the thing, even though I've never done it before...

...and I've spent the last day and a half ****ing around just trying to get Windows installed...

...and no, it's not installed yet.