thinking of investing in new folding rig thoughts are welcome

[kainobean]

ok so im going big on this next rig gunna be using a server motherboard with quad cpu sockets. im an amd fan boy so probaly going with 4 opteron 6376's and then stacking as many r9-290x's as i can into it all liquid cooled. this will be a long term project as it will cost a butt load and ill have to build a custom case for it as the moatherboard is a server board and dont follow atx guidelines plus a custom case will be a lot of fun to build and give me the flexability to make sure i can cool down all this stuff... what do you ladies and gents think should i persue this expencive project or just build another regular desktop pc and fold on that. do server cpus excel at heavy load computations? im prettery sure they do so having 64cores might be a big advantage and beable to do some huge work loads. i dunno it sounds fun to do. i want some pros and cons of this crazy build i want to do.

[Fred Castellum]

Bummer I though you were talking about investing in stocks initially. I was happy to find someone else in the zero sum game but I guess I was wrong. =(

[kainobean]

Bummer I though you were talking about investing in stocks initially. I was happy to find someone else in the zero sum game but I guess I was wrong. =(

 

oh id love to do stocks just to lazy to learn to workings of them and notice the trends of ups and downs and buying and selling at optimal times. soounds fun but just dont have the time to do it atm. one day though one day.

[Fred Castellum]

Welp back on topic, as always GPU folding is the way to go, I'd personally just build another typical rig to fold and use. 

[kainobean]

so basicly just get an 8core cpu and then a moatherboard that has all pcie 16 size slots (not 16x electicaly but the size of the slot itsself) and then load it up with r9-290x's or maybe even r9-290x2's omg that be quite expencive as well but totaly worth it

[FireofDestruction]

ok so im going big on this next rig gunna be using a server motherboard with quad cpu sockets. im an amd fan boy so probaly going with 4 opteron 6376's and then stacking as many r9-290x's as i can into it all liquid cooled. this will be a long term project as it will cost a butt load and ill have to build a custom case for it as the moatherboard is a server board and dont follow atx guidelines plus a custom case will be a lot of fun to build and give me the flexability to make sure i can cool down all this stuff... what do you ladies and gents think should i persue this expencive project or just build another regular desktop pc and fold on that. do server cpus excel at heavy load computations? im prettery sure they do so having 64cores might be a big advantage and beable to do some huge work loads. i dunno it sounds fun to do. i want some pros and cons of this crazy build i want to do.

OR if your going to invest a "buttload" into this could just get a case labs case....their huge enough

[AK0490]

Spending a couple thousand on a folding rig isn't "investing", it's an expensive hobby.  If you are going to buy some 290x's for folding by all means get them used. You can get some used for mining on Ebay for close to half  new price.

[kainobean]

Spending a couple thousand on a folding rig isn't "investing", it's an expensive hobby.  If you are going to buy some 290x's for folding by all means get them used. You can get some used for mining on Ebay for close to half  new price.

 

lol in my eyes its investing but these darn wizard eyes be kookie sometimes. but yeah i bought 2 290x's so far and they are marvolous. but could you imagine this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182294 full of 290x's and 4 16 core cpus. it be amazing. and it have tons of cpu power left over to host a small backup/file server too and maybe even stream music and videos. it be like a super all in one box of delicious computer horsepower ^.^   lol but the power draw on somehting liek that would be insane i dont know if one outlet would be enough. actualy one outlet wouldnt be enough not even close. sorry i ramble sometimes >.>

[FloRolf]

lol in my eyes its investing but these darn wizard eyes be kookie sometimes. but yeah i bought 2 290x's so far and they are marvolous. but could you imagine this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182294 full of 290x's and 4 16 core cpus. it be amazing. and it have tons of cpu power left over to host a small backup/file server too and maybe even stream music and videos. it be like a super all in one box of delicious computer horsepower ^.^ lol but the power draw on somehting liek that would be insane i dont know if one outlet would be enough. actualy one outlet wouldnt be enough not even close. sorry i ramble sometimes >.>

You'd need like 2-4 psus anways so dont worry about the outlet

But i'd actually wait for Maxwell cards to do this.

Cause you see, 750ti gives you like 70000ppd with under 50watts. 290x gives you like 150k with 250w. Now imagine high end maxwell cards ^^

But if you really dont care about money at all, DO IT!

[gigabyte]

Smack 256gigs or ram on there too Q_Q

[AK0490]

Smack 256gigs or ram on there too Q_Q

Or you could be like my brother and take a stack of my money and "make it rain", but seriously it's your money you can go crazy lol.

[DoubleY]

You'd need like 2-4 psus anways so dont worry about the outlet

But i'd actually wait for Maxwell cards to do this.

Cause you see, 750ti gives you like 70000ppd with under 50watts. 290x gives you like 150k with 250w. Now imagine high end maxwell cards ^^

But if you really dont care about money at all, DO IT!

My 780 used to do 300K. Now it does 50K.... oh well

It was good while it lasted!

[FloRolf]

My 780 used to do 300K. Now it does 50K.... oh well

It was good while it lasted!

Daaaang, my 780 never made 300k, highest was 200k but its usually at 150k.

[DoubleY]

Daaaang, my 780 never made 300k, highest was 200k but its usually at 150k.

I had good luck for a while and now I have horrible luck. I guess I have normal luck? 

[FloRolf]

I had good luck for a while and now I have horrible luck. I guess I have normal luck?

Yeah i think so ^^

But i almost have my silver badge, if you calculate that down to watts/money i spend on electricity.... you better not do that!

[DoubleY]

Yeah i think so ^^

But i almost have my silver badge, if you calculate that down to watts/money i spend on electricity.... you better not do that!

I haven't done it... yet. I've just been using my 780 and 4770 for mining. But have really wanted to buy a dedi folding rig. Just can't justify spending the money  

[kainobean]

I haven't done it... yet. I've just been using my 780 and 4770 for mining. But have really wanted to buy a dedi folding rig. Just can't justify spending the money

well i have a dedicated folding rig with 2 290x's in it both do about 200k but boy is it toasty ... as for maxwell gpus i dont really want to wait they keep pushing it back and nothing being said about ti im really starting to feel that maybe the high end maxwells might not live up to the low end 750ti has showen. but if they do then omg it be worth it for sure. still an amd boy at heart ;P but id jump on some nvidia hardware.

[Whaler_99]

OK, first off.. scrap the quad CPU system... unfortunately you missed the boat. BIGADV used to be for that type of thing but the whole project is ending at the end of this year. After that, they will only fold SMP which will be a waste.

 

Second, due to beta code, you can only fold on the big boys in linux and GPU folding isn't really supported. To get the most out of GPU folding, you need to run Windows... which then excludes you from BIGADV... and the wheel turns and turns.

 

At this point, if looking for the most bang for the buck, GPU folding is the way to go.

 

AMD will get you a bit more points, but at the cost of some power, heat and noise. NVidia will run quieter and be a bit more power efficient.

[gigabyte]

Or you could be like my brother and take a stack of my money and "make it rain", but seriously it's your money you can go crazy lol.

I got 58k pp

[joenewbie]

OK, first off.. scrap the quad CPU system... unfortunately you missed the boat. BIGADV used to be for that type of thing but the whole project is ending at the end of this year. After that, they will only fold SMP which will be a waste.

 

Second, due to beta code, you can only fold on the big boys in linux and GPU folding isn't really supported. To get the most out of GPU folding, you need to run Windows... which then excludes you from BIGADV... and the wheel turns and turns.

 

At this point, if looking for the most bang for the buck, GPU folding is the way to go.

 

AMD will get you a bit more points, but at the cost of some power, heat and noise. NVidia will run quieter and be a bit more power efficient.

I've considered all this, if I had the money to invest the first thing, before any computer hardware considerations that I would worry myself with are where my electricity is coming from.  In my mind if you have a wind/solar system on your house that's the best move.  After you have that set up, then worry about the computer hardware because you really need a free source of power to run the thing.  

EDIT: and if you really want to get OCD about it, find a way to take the heat from the system to convert it back into electricity or if you're in a cold climate to heat your house in the winter. 

[Whaler_99]

I've considered all this, if I had the money to invest the first thing, before any computer hardware considerations that I would worry myself with are where my electricity is coming from.  In my mind if you have a wind/solar system on your house that's the best move.  After you have that set up, then worry about the computer hardware because you really need a free source of power to run the thing.  

EDIT: and if you really want to get OCD about it, find a way to take the heat from the system to convert it back into electricity or if you're in a cold climate to heat your house in the winter. 

 

Many of us BIGADV guys did just that - tone down folding in the summer and crank it in winter. I was able to heat my entire basement, which then also radiates to upper floors, with all my Folding gear. As for alternate sources of power, that also depends on where you live. Here in Ontario, if you install anything in the neighborhood powerful enough to drive those computers, by law, you actually have to feed it back into the grid, get paid for it and then buy back your power. You are not actually allowed to run a big solar farm for instance to directly power your home, etc. Now, I think you get paid say 94 cents and the cost of electricity is 48 cents, for instance, so you do save/make money, but still, principle of the thing.

 

This was the main reason I toned down my Folding - power bills where getting to ridiculous...

[joenewbie]

I'm in Vegas, they're doing the same thing, it's bullshit because they're addicted to our energy dollars.  I think the energy companies had better start concentrating on becoming Solar/Wind/Geothermal installing/maintenance experts because there will come a point where the people demand the free energy.  I don't mind being connected to the grid, but to put a tax or usage fee for what's free from the sky hitting my own roof, or wind passing through my property is insane.  What's next a creek can't have a waterwheel to power the property either?   I mean electric cars like the Tesla are great, but if you're getting your power to recharge it from a coal plant it kinda defeats the purpose.