Folding Forum

Maybe Pande Group can make a deal with one global Mainboard distributor/poroducer to make a "GPGPU Edition" mainboard for us? I think we're leaving some kind of footprint in the world of hardware business.

theo343 wrote:Maybe Pande Group can make a deal with one global Mainboard distributor/poroducer to make a "GPGPU Edition" mainboard for us? I think we're leaving some kind of footprint in the world of hardware business.

Stanford University is committed to being as vendor neutral as possible. Those of us who fold may be making a footprint in the hardware business, but that's not the same as seeing to an endorsment of a specific mainboard manufacturer (or CPU or GPU or ...). They do help foster healthty competition by making a client that runs on hardware from competitive manufacturers and in the long run, that's good for those of us who spend money on hardware.

Well I hope every mainboard manufacturer will start making "GPGPU@home Editions" of mainboards, and not only "Gaming Editions" or "Enterprise Server Editions". Maybe we all should start sending email requests(not spam) for these kind of spezialized products to all mainboard manufacturers to let them know we want this and that we're a large and growing group they can count on.

I think GPGPU@home/supercomputer@home is growing fast and that we will only see more and more uses of this distributed GPGPU concept, so why not start getting the hardware designs even more ready for it.

Computers in my home, November 2007:
- Pentium D 840 w/ ATI x700
- Pentium 4 2.26GHz Northwood
- T2300 laptop
Average daily uptime ~ 4 hrs.

Computers in my home, July 2008:
- Q6600 w/ 2 x 8800GTS 512 (SMP + GPU2 + GPU2)
- Phenom 9600 w/ 8800GT (SMP + GPU2)
- E2180 running Linux x64 (SMP)
- E1200 w/ 8800GT (Uni + GPU2)
- Pentium D 840 w/ 8800GT (Uni + GPU2)
- Pentium 4 Northwood w/ HD2600 pro (GPU2)
- Celeron 440 (Uni)
- 2 x T2300 laptop (Uni + Uni)
- Even an old PIII laptop (Uni)
Average daily uptime ~ 24 hrs.

Gazing upon my little personal folding farm in my basement, my wife asked me with wide-eyed amazement if I was attempting to take over the world. I responded, "Take it over? No. Make it a better place? Definitely."

Kind of funny the topic of Folding@Home targeted hardware should arise... I was shocked when I realized that out of all the motherboards and chipsets, not a single one has the space for four 2-slot GPUs on one board, not even Intel's $650 Skulltrail motherboard. MSI had a good looking P45 chipset board with three 2-slot and one single slot GPU support, but that was about the best option out there. NVIDIA's premium 790i boards only support three 2-slot GPUs, namely for Tri-SLI.

I don't know what's so addictive about it... it's just something about it that makes me never want to stop.

Dear Theo,

If you are seeking to quit folding, then I don't think the Forum guys will help you. These are all F@H addicts helping other F@H addicts...
and not precisely to quit but to fold faster and better!
Hey don't despair. There are worse addictions out there!

Thanks ppetrone hehe.

I'm lost to the glory of folding. Im already planning to build a modular slotbased(per MB) case for running a GPU farm. A Case where i will be able to put 4 dual slots GPUs on the MBs that support it but dont have room for the last one in the bottom. Each slot/motherboard will stand on its side(like in a towercase) and can be pulled out and pushed in. I was thinking maybe 4 Mainboard slots in that case to start with.

Everything belonging to that "node" will be mounted on the plate you drag inn and out of the case for maintenance. Cooling ofc. will be in abundance with large silent fans.

I might be building a version for mATX cards with 2 PCIe 4-16x and also a version for ATX that wont be much higher than a miditower but deeper and as wide as how many MB i want it to handle. The reason i dont choose stacking in height is because of heat. Instead i stack sideways. I might also angle each MB some degrees because then heat dissapates easier to the exhaust fans in the top of the case. Each node will use only a small 2,5" or 8GB CF->IDE drive for bootup and folding. I will use VGA dummies and KVM switch for screen.

Kougar wrote:I was shocked when I realized that out of all the motherboards and chipsets, not a single one has the space for four 2-slot GPUs on one board, not even Intel's $650 Skulltrail motherboard.

I believe this is actually due to there not being enough space on a standard ATX motherboard. It has to conform to exact dimensions (9.6 inches x 11 inches, or thereabouts?) and this simply doesn't leave any room for so many slots. Mind you, the size constraints were set 10 years ago, before any of this had been dreamed of.

Lost 2 machines this week, half my stable- (to needy friends, family- didn't break) and I'm jonesin' bad.
Got out the box o' old things and stuff and am pokin' around...

hehe "need boxes.. need boxes.. what to use"..

Kougar wrote:not a single one has the space for four 2-slot GPUs on one board

U Antwerp looks to have four two-slot GPU's in their FASTRA machine. See http://fastra.ua.ac.be/en/specs.html.

Thats the computer i was talking about in smo other threads

bapriebe wrote:

Kougar wrote:not a single one has the space for four 2-slot GPUs on one board

U Antwerp looks to have four two-slot GPU's in their FASTRA machine. See http://fastra.ua.ac.be/en/specs.html.

Ah, very nice find, thanks for the link!

AMD may not be at the top but their chips are more than powerful enough to keep four GPUs fed with data. It is unfortunate that board uses the SB600 southbridge though. SB750 (Link) does some fancy magic to improve the low overclocking headroom.

I'm a F@H addict and proud of it!
Some guy named Drugless took my credit card today and purchased another 2 GTX280's to fold!
Whoooooooopiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee!