...and I saw that Fred W mentioned Boinc as not supporting more than 8 gpus per install(4 cards) and good luck getting the Devs to change that, He said He tried already.

Not guilty, M'Lud. I saw that post too but it wasn't mine. I have (well, don't have ATM as it's on RMA with XFX) only one GTX295.

F.

Ok, Sorry I'd remembered Your name and the post, Somehow the mind tricked Me and connected the two.

Ouch sorry to hear about that, My BFG is still ticking though. :D

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The board in question has a bunch of PCIe slots, and a processor-board slot at the end. The processor board has the chipset, etc. -- just no slots.

These go in a case designed for the board, with room for 20 cards.

... These types of boards used to come in "split" 10/10 versions, and even split 5/5/5/5, so you could put four complete systems in one 4u case.

Anyone see any prices anywhere to price up a 4 cpu card behemoth to see how it compares against a PC motherboard solution?

Happy crunchin',
Martin

I did find a quad SBC backplane that has has 2 PCIe x16 slots per segment.

A backplane will run you $200-$600. The quad one listed I was quoted at $485 when ordering 1. An average SBC that would support a core 2 duo/quad is $600-$1000 for just the board. Then $1500-$2500 for a dual xeon SBC. Power supplies about $350 each for 750w units. Another $400 for a case that suppports a 20-slot backplane, 3 PSUs, and 24 5.25" drive bays.

Processors, memory, drives[, & batteries] not included. :)

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I was thinking of an Asus P6T6 WS Revolution MB with 6 BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 H2OC cards. As they only require 1 slot width. So a "standard" motherboard could have 12 cuda tasks running in theory if it were not otherwise limited and you were willing to spend $8000 on the beast of a machine. lol Newegg has some nice photos of the card.

Ah i thought of that one too but it's a dual slotter as bfgs own homepage quotes:

"One vacant add-in card slot below the PCI Express® x16 slot. This graphics card physically occupies two slots"

From http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgegtx2951792h2ocwbe.aspx

Otherwise it could've been plausible until a company actually could create a true single slotter of a GTX295..

But i don't think it's far fetched that we'll see a performance single slotter soon because nVidia is in the ramps for lower nm on their parts.

Kind regards Vyper

I had seen their statment that it takes up 2 slots, but I figured that was just a space requirement for the default plumbing. Which would need to be modded to fit cards side by side. Personaly I don't have $4800 to spend on video cards to find out. lol

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The problem with all these multi-SBC (or SHB depending on your vocabulary) systems is 1) power in and 2) heat out. There are 4-segment and up to 6 segment backplanes but by the time you populate it, you have to get 1500 watts or more out of the enclosure. That's a lot of air to move.

You don't want the power supply in front because of the waste heat off it preheating the air into the cards. So a 6U chassis becomes the best alternative.

The backplanes and SBCs are pretty expensive so figure $15K+ for a fully populated multi-SBC system. Probably a lot more.

The backplanes do not provide independent slot power control so all SBCs are on or off.

See Chassis Plans rackmount chassis, SBCs, backplanes, and custom systems for some possible solutions.

To answer a previous question, a 17" wide chassis, typical for a 19" rack, will fit 19 or 20 slots, depending on slot configuration. That is slots, not cards. SBC's typically have their components on the right while PCI cards have them on the left so you loose a slot switching orientation. Then SBCs are always 2 slots (mostly at least) and video cards or GPUs tend to run to 2 slots. Then you also run into the bandwidth problem if using PCI-Express as only so many lanes are available.

Where SBCs shine is in allowing many more cards to be installed and in different slot configurations compared to motherboards where ISA is no longer available and PCI is rapidly going away. Otherwise, stack a bunch of motherboard chassis in a rack and be done with it. Cheaper and will run much cooler.

Although it is pretty cool to point to a box 19" wide by 10.5" tall by 20" deep and say "that costs as much as a nice car". Louder too with all the fans going.

The problem with all these multi-SBC (or SHB depending on your vocabulary) systems is 1) power in and 2) heat out. There are 4-segment and up to 6 segment backplanes but by the time you populate it, you have to get 1500 watts or more out of the enclosure. That's a lot of air to move.

You don't want the power supply in front because of the waste heat off it preheating the air into the cards. So a 6U chassis becomes the best alternative.

The backplanes and SBCs are pretty expensive so figure $15K+ for a fully populated multi-SBC system. Probably a lot more.

The backplanes do not provide independent slot power control so all SBCs are on or off.

See Chassis Plans rackmount chassis, SBCs, backplanes, and custom systems for some possible solutions.

To answer a previous question, a 17" wide chassis, typical for a 19" rack, will fit 19 or 20 slots, depending on slot configuration. That is slots, not cards. SBC's typically have their components on the right while PCI cards have them on the left so you loose a slot switching orientation. Then SBCs are always 2 slots (mostly at least) and video cards or GPUs tend to run to 2 slots. Then you also run into the bandwidth problem if using PCI-Express as only so many lanes are available.

Where SBCs shine is in allowing many more cards to be installed and in different slot configurations compared to motherboards where ISA is no longer available and PCI is rapidly going away. Otherwise, stack a bunch of motherboard chassis in a rack and be done with it. Cheaper and will run much cooler.

Although it is pretty cool to point to a box 19" wide by 10.5" tall by 20" deep and say "that costs as much as a nice car". Louder too with all the fans going.

"That computer costs more then a Tesla Roaster, & uses more power" :D

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