The complete system build with the most effective PPD/price ratio?

I'm addicted and I want to at least start planning the build with which to start my farm. Hell, just thinking of the possibilities keeps me up at night.

Additionally, how do those of you with dozens of machines control them? Or don't you?

I figure I can use the extra CPU/hard drive power with FX Teleport (http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/) while the GPUs fold happily away, so I want a way to use them.

Then again, since the future boxen will be in a separate room, maybe I should just dedicate a monitor/keyboard/mouse to that room and a KVM switch? I'm looking to build just two boxen for now.

I understand how you feel. Thinking of the possibilities keeps me from being bored at work at times. I'm looking to build some boxen as soon as some funds become available. This is what I am looking at. There will be other suggestions I'm sure

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
2 x EVGA 01G-P3-N891-AR GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) 512-bit (256-bit per GPU) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
Antec Three Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - OEM
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST380815AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Plus your OS of choice. I am planning on using Vista x64 (probably home premium). Depending on sales and whatnot, this box can be had for $1200 (give or take $50)

Using 2x notfred's in VM + 4 GPU2 clients (using the latest cores and latest drivers), you should be able to get ~25 to ~28K PpD out of it.

I've started using logmein.com to remotely monitor my main rig from my laptop when on the road. This works very well for me. I'll probably be using this when I get the funds to build my farm.

Others have issues with VMWare Server 2.0. I've not had any issues with it (knocking on MDF). The reason I like this is because I'm always on the road and if I have to reboot, I don't have to worry about unsigned drivers like I do with VMWare Server 1.x. In addition, VMWare Server 2.0 has built in tools to do a staggered autostart of all VMs. I do this now with my main rig and have it autoboot SMP1 3 minutes after bootup (to give the rig time to boot all of the necessities) and SMP2 6 minutes after bootup.

I also use a tool called setpriority to set the GPU client to Real Time priority and the VMWare clients to above normal prority. There is NO way (that I know of) to automagically assign VMWare instance 1 to core 0+1 and VMWare instance 2 to core 2+3. I have to manually go in and do that, but it only takes a second after both instances are up and running.

Good Luck

Do you want to build a pure GPU rig or a GPU + SMP rig ??

A pure GPU rig is ...........

MSI K9A2 Plat MoBo ...$150.
AMD BE-2400 CPU ......$40.
4x 9600GSO Vid cards .$320.
2x 1 GB Ram ...............$30.
~550 Watt SLI PSU ......$70.
Cheap HDD ..................$40.
Total so far ...................$650.
Add a case + OS + shipping and your probably looking at around $800.
It will be good for around 20K PpD.
It will only pull around 350-400 watts from the wall.
But be warned that the PpD could drop when new protiens come out.

Luck .................

I'm thinking of a pure GPU rig for folding while my audio production uses would be drawing from the HDD's and not the CPU.

How do you control all your boxen, Tigerbiten?

Originally Posted by Eggothewaffle

How do you control all your boxen, Tigerbiten?

Mine are set and forget ..........

If I need to do anything with them its all local control.
Monitor & USB extender cables.

Luck ..............

Thanks

for control once I get the machines up and stablely overclocked in the BIOS, I use windows' Remote Desktop to pull up all my machines and do anything with windows (updates, service packs, restart clients.....). With the exception of my son's Vista laptop I can access, control, or update any of 4 other machines on my lan without getting my butt up from my computer chair at my main rig.

Originally Posted by Eggothewaffle

How do you control all your boxen, Tigerbiten?

Depending on how crazy you want to get you can get pick up a nice KVM. I found an Avocent 2000 KVM on ebay for $150 and the adapters that connect to each PC for $25 each.

More info on Avocent KVMs

Originally Posted by jfb9301

for control once I get the machines up and stablely overclocked in the BIOS, I use windows' Remote Desktop to pull up all my machines and do anything with windows (updates, service packs, restart clients.....). With the exception of my son's Vista laptop I can access, control, or update any of 4 other machines on my lan without getting my butt up from my computer chair at my main rig.

Remote desktop borks the GPU client. Use Tight VNC or the like.

I have a system with a Phenom Quad Core 2.4, 4GB RAM, on a 790FX board, Vista 32, and four (4) HD4850 but I only see PPD of 10K. The problem is that the CPU is at 100% thanks to the awful cpu need of the ATI cards. It is a better setup than Tigerbiten described (20K) but it is a pitty my system would be out performed by the nvidia cards. Does anyone have any information when the GPU client will actually be a GPU client for ATI cards ?

Originally Posted by mainomega

I have a system with a Phenom Quad Core 2.4, 4GB RAM, on a 790FX board, Vista 32, and four (4) HD4850 but I only see PPD of 10K. The problem is that the CPU is at 100% thanks to the awful cpu need of the ATI cards. It is a better setup than Tigerbiten described (20K) but it is a pitty my system would be out performed by the nvidia cards. Does anyone have any information when the GPU client will actually be a GPU client for ATI cards ?

The new WU are coming.... From the rumors that float about.... you will have a very nice system there.

Originally Posted by Kendrak

Remote desktop borks the GPU client. Use Tight VNC or the like.

Last I heard, TightVNC doesn't work with Vista. Something to think about if you're using Vista.

Originally Posted by Kendrak

Remote desktop borks the GPU client. Use Tight VNC or the like.

I did not know that (don't have any remote GPUs). I'll keep that in mind for when I do. The SWMBO is pestering me for a computer upgrade when we have some $$$. I plan on putting in wayyyy more video card than she needs (intigrated intel vid would probably do her fine, I'm thinking she needs a GTX 260 or so )

XP here, no worries. I don't plan on upgrading to vista on any of my computers until I find something that won't run on XP.

logmein.com messes up the gpu client ? I'm monitoring my two systems that way though. I don't actually bring the nice little spinning molecule up i just use fahmon once i'm remoting in.

Originally Posted by Kendrak

The new WU are coming.... From the rumors that float about.... you will have a very nice system there.

Does this mean that the ATI cards won't be the CPU hogs they are today?

Originally Posted by brycejones

Does this mean that the ATI cards won't be the CPU hogs they are today?

There is work being done on that. There are some beta fixes out for that. See this post: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1349626

Evil has a couple good tips in there. They decresed my CPU usage from being pegged at 100% of one core to about 50% of one core.

Originally Posted by alan2308

Last I heard, TightVNC doesn't work with Vista. Something to think about if you're using Vista.

I use Tight VNC on three vista boxen and two XP boxen. They all play well together.

Originally Posted by Kendrak

I use Tight VNC on three vista boxen and two XP boxen. They all play well together.

Same here, TightVNC works great between XP, Vista x64 and WHS.

Originally Posted by mainomega

logmein.com messes up the gpu client ? I'm monitoring my two systems that way though. I don't actually bring the nice little spinning molecule up i just use fahmon once i'm remoting in.

logmein.com does not mess up the GPU2 client. I use it now. The reason I use it is for monitoring when on the road. It sets up a very secure connection to my box at home and I'm able to monitor and makes "fixes" as needed.

Originally Posted by Kendrak

I use Tight VNC on three vista boxen and two XP boxen. They all play well together.

Originally Posted by Xilikon

Same here, TightVNC works great between XP, Vista x64 and WHS.

Silly me, believing their FAQ.

Does TightVNC work on Windows Vista?

Unfortunately, TightVNC has known issues with Windows Vista operating system, just like all other versions and free distributions of VNC-derived software. Vista's new security features broke the way VNC service was implemented. And it's not clear yet how much effort would be required to workaround the problems. Unfortunately, that does not look very simple.