Im not quite as poor but i understand where you are coming from.
To build this box and fill it with 4 x 9800GX2's will take approx 5 months subject to no unexpected bills coming in..

Have you totaled up the cost of this new system yet? How many of the components are new, used, or spare? It'd be interesting to know what the $:RAC ratio for the system will be.
Also, don't skimp on the RAM - that can influence the RAC too, HDD's to a much lesser extent. It's not the amount of RAM that matters, but the speed. 1300Mhz+ is good - DDR3 is a plus.

I built a gaming rig that cost me $3550, and I get 3500 RAC. LOL. Perhaps that's because it runs roughly 14 hours a week, instead of a full 168.

I used a Core i7 920 (running an OC to 3.72GHz), and a single EVGA GTX260 Core 216 SSC, and it uses dual HD monitors.

Geez, If You doubled that to 28 hours, You'd pass Me up, I noticed that My specs were 400MHz short as the ram I'm going to get one day is DDR3-2000 for the PC I'm rebuilding.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Im not quite as poor but i understand where you are coming from.
To build this box and fill it with 4 x 9800GX2's will take approx 5 months subject to no unexpected bills coming in..

Have you totaled up the cost of this new system yet? How many of the components are new, used, or spare? It'd be interesting to know what the $:RAC ratio for the system will be.
Also, don't skimp on the RAM - that can influence the RAC too, HDD's to a much lesser extent. It's not the amount of RAM that matters, but the speed. 1300Mhz+ is good - DDR3 is a plus.

I built a gaming rig that cost me $3550, and I get 3500 RAC. LOL. Perhaps that's because it runs roughly 14 hours a week, instead of a full 168.

I used a Core i7 920 (running an OC to 3.72GHz), and a single EVGA GTX260 Core 216 SSC, and it uses dual HD monitors.

Bought already

I have 1 9800GX2 already from ebay £75
msi K9A2 platinum mobo + £100 inc VAT/Delivery

still to buy

2Gb DDR2 1066 memory £40
Phenom II X4 955BE £120
Coolermaster 1000W PSU £130
9800GX2 £80-100 ebay

The PSU I will buy brand new. Everything else I will be trying to get 2nd hand to keep costs down, so the spec might change a bit based on parts availability...

Case is an unknown at the moment, not sure what one to buy based on 4 dual width dual GPU's going in there. Need to do some research

No idea on the RAC/£ as its not built yet!!

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Mac there aren't to many cases that will take 4 double width cards.
I had to do a slight mod on Rig on a Bench so that the 4th card will fit.
Sadly 1 GPU died before I could get it all running.
Still waiting on the refund from the RMA.

See here a case that takes 4 double width cards.3 in 1 to go.



Dave

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Thx for the help

first Im impressed you can run 4 cards on a 850W psu
I was looking at 1200W minimum - have I over specced?
Also what case is that?

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I don't run 4 cards of 850 watts.
There are 2 PSU's connected to that rig.
However the rig at the moment only has 2 GTX295's and 1 GPU of a GTX295 running and only draws 660 Watts.

Dave

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Hehe :-)

Bit the bullet and bought a 295 off of ebay - the most powerful card I have ever owned.
Built a new rig and have started up boinc and run the unified installer 0.36 with the cuda 2.3 dlls
Boinc manager reports 2 gpu's and I have 'do not use multi-gpu mode' selected in the nvidia control panel

No cpu workunits at the moment, and I have downloaded a whole host of VHAR's which are producing mixed results. One core crunches them fine and the other gives me the following...

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=1603109510

Have I set up something wrong?

I have stopped crunching til I hear back as there is no point generating errored work units..

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http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=1603109510

Have I set up something wrong?

If both get the same type of work units, perhaps one of the GPUs is defect.

You could disable that part with <ignore_cuda_dev>0</ignore_cuda_dev> in cc_config.xml, so that you can crunch at least with half power.

Gruß,
Gundolf

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Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

SETI@home classic workunits 3,758
SETI@home classic CPU time 66,520 hours

It is definately a problem running both gpu cores
Using the optimised apps
1 core is fine
The other core gets to 19 secs and then errors!?!

On the stock apps,
both gpu cores crunch
1 is OK
The other appears to crunch to 100% and then either errors or is OK - its a 50/50 chance
Temps for the gpu are fine, fan 100% and temp about 67C...

Have reverted back to stock

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It is definately a problem running both gpu cores
Using the optimised apps
1 core is fine
The other core gets to 19 secs and then errors!?!

On the stock apps,
both gpu cores crunch
1 is OK
The other appears to crunch to 100% and then either errors or is OK - its a 50/50 chance
Temps for the gpu are fine, fan 100% and temp about 67C...

Have reverted back to stock

Try using EVGA Precision to drop the memory clock to 750. The does not affect the crunch speed but takes some stress off the memory.

F.

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I have left work now, but will try and do this remotely.
It is a zotac card, can I still use EVGA software?

Edit - will try and use riva tuner and change the 3D profile down to your suggested value

Having a look at the errors, I am getting different errors
Complete list of errors below
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/results.php?hostid=5400786&offset=0&show_names=1&state=5

These two are different

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=1603270442

and then

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=1603270440

Does this give any clues?

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looks like I was too clever - I set up remote access, the stuffed the machine under a bench at work. I disconnected the monitor, which seems to have disabled the GPU?? I stopped and started the client via RDP and I can see in the boinc messages

No usable GPU's
GPU's have become unusable, disabling GPU tasks

I thought this only applied to Win7, which is one reason I went for XP64 - Do I need to use dummy vga adapters?

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No, you need to stop using RDP.

Other remote access tools are OK, but Microsoft's Remote Desktop is specifically known to unload the manufacturer's graphics drivers, and substitute a Microsoft generic driver. Unfortunately, that driver doesn't do CUDA.

VNC or any of the other well-known remote access tools are - reportedly - fine.

It is a zotac card, can I still use EVGA software?

The EVGA software seems to work fine with any make of card from the reports that I have seen. I'm using it with my XFX - it's simpler to use than Rivatuner.

F.

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Thanks for the head up on that Richard - sorted :-)

I have used the EVGA tool to drop the memory from 999 - 750, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference :-(

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Thanks for the head up on that Richard - sorted :-)

I have used the EVGA tool to drop the memory from 999 - 750, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference :-(

Tough - it was worth a try...
I'm crunching on only half my 295 now because of the errors generated by the second GPU. Even with only one GPU crunching the temps are at 88/90 C.

F.

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Has anyone with a GTX 295 used this game "Just Cause 2" here?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/105298-13-just-performance

Here's the url for the Google search I did here.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Is this a common problem then?
The only reason I got the card was to crunch seti, am I better flogging it and getting a gtx285 :-(
No point having it if I have to disable the 2nd core
Unless I sell it and get a gtx 480. I know that the app is in beta, but when it goes mainstream, that might be an option if I can save the money up.
Is it just luck of the draw, or are some manufacturers better than others?

Gutted

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Is this a common problem then?
The only reason I got the card was to crunch seti, am I better flogging it and getting a gtx285 :-(
No point having it if I have to disable the 2nd core
Unless I sell it and get a gtx 480. I know that the app is in beta, but when it goes mainstream, that might be an option if I can save the money up.
Is it just luck of the draw, or are some manufacturers better than others?

Gutted

The problem seems to be more common with the older 2-card version of the GTX295. Don't see where the benefit in swapping to a 285 would be - you would then be crunching on one core and you can already do that with the (crippled) 295. As to manufacturer, I haven't seen any analysis that indicates that any one is better, or worse, than any other. I believe it is as random as whether you got the MP you voted for.

F.

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