ULTIMATE Distributed Computing Build Log

[blackadder]

Do we have any Information on the Folding on this machine.

not from them afaik.

[Bajantechnician]

 

I have to admit I agree with @msvelev , @Imakuni , @Me1z , @ninadpchaudhari and @d3sl91 here

 

The build just isn't an "Ultimate Distributed Computing" build, it's more of a mish-mash of components thrown together because you were sponsored with them. That's not to say it doesn't perform extremely well in F@H and BOINC, because it will. (IIRC it will give upwards of 725,000PPD once you have a passkey and everything's working to it's full potential)

 

I have to admit I was a bit confused, since a Titan X's PPD/$ ratio is nowhere near 3x 970s or 2x 980s, and even still, you can buy an Asrock H81 Pro BTC Mobo and load it up with PCI-E risers to have 6x GPUs all folding at once, (which if you used 970s, would give around 1,800,000 PPD)

 

My "Ultimate distributed computing build" would have been something like (People could argue for or against me using 970s instead of 290s, but then you'd need a second power supply because of the power consumption)

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£87.75 @ Ebuyer) 

Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£22.53 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£47.74 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£14.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£238.99 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £1965.94

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-29 00:13 BST+0100

(+ Risers of course)

 

From memory, this either costs the same amount as the one in the build guide, or is slightly cheaper, but I might be wrong, (with currency conversions and me being awake at midnight writing this)

 

Apologies for any mistakes I will inevitably have made in this post, (and for the post being awful in general) but I'll correct them after school tomorrow  

 

EDIT: @blakslee720 Welcome to the team! Enjoy your stay

 

how doesd the mobo work?

[tomas710]

 

I have to admit I agree with @msvelev , @Imakuni , @Me1z , @ninadpchaudhari and @d3sl91 here

 

The build just isn't an "Ultimate Distributed Computing" build, it's more of a mish-mash of components thrown together because you were sponsored with them. That's not to say it doesn't perform extremely well in F@H and BOINC, because it will. (IIRC it will give upwards of 725,000PPD once you have a passkey and everything's working to it's full potential)

 

I have to admit I was a bit confused, since a Titan X's PPD/$ ratio is nowhere near 3x 970s or 2x 980s, and even still, you can buy an Asrock H81 Pro BTC Mobo and load it up with PCI-E risers to have 6x GPUs all folding at once, (which if you used 970s, would give around 1,800,000 PPD)

 

My "Ultimate distributed computing build" would have been something like (People could argue for or against me using 970s instead of 290s, but then you'd need a second power supply because of the power consumption)

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£87.75 @ Ebuyer) 

Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£22.53 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£47.74 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£14.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£258.99 @ Dabs)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£238.99 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £1965.94

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-29 00:13 BST+0100

(+ Risers of course)

 

From memory, this either costs the same amount as the one in the build guide, or is slightly cheaper, but I might be wrong, (with currency conversions and me being awake at midnight writing this)

 

Apologies for any mistakes I will inevitably have made in this post, (and for the post being awful in general) but I'll correct them after school tomorrow  

 

EDIT: @blakslee720 Welcome to the team! Enjoy your stay

 

The point of folding@home and BOINK is DISTRIBUTED computing, people lending the computing power of their own machines that they use for their needs and can lend it for research. I have worked with protein folding (The D2 receptor and associated proteins as well as antibodies and oncogenes) and even if we had your hypothetical system on the lab, we would still use this softwares because they provide an amount of computing power exponentially superior, it's not about people building a system solely for that purpose, that would defeat the purpose, the reason it works is that everyday people, myself included, can contribute and together make a huge difference. This video was to raise awareness, and it worked, and i thank Luke and the entire team for that because it means that when i start doing my own research  i will have to wait less time to have the protein structure and be able to do my work.

[tomas710]

I've seen a lot of complaints about the "ULTIMATE" naming and parts choices in this build log from earlier today, and I wanted to address those people a bit in this post.

 

I wanted to do a distributed computing thing because I like shining a light on that community, I had a badass case to work with, and I had a lot of great looking obscenely powerful hardware around me - but due to some time constraints I had to move pretty swiftly on this project and, even though I wasn't able to source exactly the right parts in time for this launch, I really wanted to call out all of the great work you guys do in both the LTT F@H and Boinc communities.

With these things I could have slumped back, made this exact same computer but taken out one of the GPU's and it could have been the "Demon Red Build Log" or some crap. It would have been cool but not special in any way. It would not have helped the distributed computing communities. No extra PPD would have been generated, no extra eyes to the distrib computing forum, just a bunch of views

 

Instead we got a TON more views on the distributed computing forum, I explained briefly what these projects are and showed people where to go for additional information, I created a computer that will contribute PPD to these projects, and I showed people that you can mix GPU's with folding and BOINC which is HONESTLY not all that documented and could help to generate a lot more PPD if people have last gen off brand GPU's laying around.

 

And honestly guys.. Did you not hear me state you could use virtually any processor? Did you not hear me call essentially every performance component overkill except the GPUs? I think energy would be better spent trying to guide people who are new to the community than just complaining about "oh, you didn't use 6x 970s..." Yes, that would have been badass! For sure! It also would NEVER have happened because no one is going to give me 6x 970s for this project...

 

TL:DR I think this project created a lot of good. Hopefully it made some people curious about F@H and Boinc, or even just distributed computing in general.

I am a biochemist, well, still in college. Just wanted to thank you since raising awareness will make my job faster and easier when i start my own research, and also, because i admit (with shame) that i wasn't folding, hadn't even crossed my mind, and i downloaded the software right after watching the video. So...thanks, and keep up the awesome work

[Imakuni]

Okay.... so, where are the Boinc statistics that Luke promised?

[You Scrub....The Floor]

Linus,

 

When are you going to do more AWESOME build logs these quick little videos ever since you have moved into the new space are alright but nothing beats these videos

[sameer moin]

I see you use two different architecture GPUs GTX Titan X and ASUS Radeon R9 290X. Is this Okay ?

i want to know can i use GTX Titan X with Tesla K40(GPU Accelerators) using SLI bridge ?

 

[FloRolf]

34 minutes ago, sameer moin said:

I see you use two different architecture GPUs GTX Titan X and ASUS Radeon R9 290X. Is this Okay ?

i want to know can i use GTX Titan X with Tesla K40(GPU Accelerators) using SLI bridge ?

 

That's a totally different Topic but no you can't.

 

In this case both GPUs work Independent of each other. E.g. one for Folding and one for BOINC.

You COULD actually put a Titan X and a K40 in the same System and use their different powers in different Scenarios for acceleration.