@52-Aces
Hehe, I'm getting old, but not as fast as I thought... 8 years vs 5... ;) thx for the link!

You might not have gotten forgetful on years, at least not yet :-) --- I know for a fact I was running SETI last century (it syphoned off a lot of nightly stress test runs at a company I was at, and I remember the project clearly), yet my linked join date came up as 2002 ... if anything, that's about a year after I went dark. No matter, was glad to get the earlier join date none-the-less :-)

due to private issues I won't have the time to do the upgrade in the near future. In addition, I personally think that a money donation seems to be more helpful to the project as there seem to be enough cruncher out there. Thx a zillion anyways for your help!

@52-Aces
Hehe, I'm getting old, but not as fast as I thought... 8 years vs 5... ;) thx for the link!

I seem to recall some discussion about making sure if you have a second card it matches the first otherwise Boinc might only use GPU instead of both. Is this still a concern / did the origional reports have merit?

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most of the time dual,triple etc cuda cards to run on bionc should work. but their are post here and else where some times it wont work right. i myself had a issue where all the crunching would go onto the crapper card then leave the high not doing a thing for boinc

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Slayton,

Joined the old SETI about 8 years ago or so but lost those credits.

Actually, no. You can get those back if you remember the EMAIL account you used back then. Go to here, you'll figure it out -->
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_classic_link.php

We look forward to seeing your join date change substantially (8 years) ;-) Best Luck !

OK.. looks like you have 2 X PCI-E x 16 slots. Good

You should just be able to slot a 2nd Nvidia card into the other slot. As long as your drivers are up to date (as you are running CUDA already they will be) then it will just find the new card and it should work.

Check your Power Supply of course, but if the machine is a large tower case witb a dual PCI-E board they should have a fairly heavy duty power supply fitted. Enough to run a couple of 8800 cards anyway. 750W+ is plenty.

You may need some sort of adaptor cable to supply power to the second graphics card? A 750w probably has 2 video card plugs already though.

Ian

Thx so far guys!

In the meantime, I found a description of my system. However, the power unit has been changed once, so I have to check that, but they are everywhere mentioning that it is a 750 or 1000 watt unit...

The slots should be as follows:

PCI-Express x1 card slot (SLOT1)
NOTE: This slot is not available in the dual-graphics configuration

PCI-Express x16 card slot (SLOT2)

PCI card slot (SLOT3)
NOTE: This slot is not available in the dual-graphics configuration

PCI-Express x16 card slot (SLOT4)

PCI card slot (SLOT5)

PCI card slot (SLOT6)

PCI-Express x8 card slot (SLOT7)

The GPU card is in slot 4 as far as I remember and covers a second slot due to its dimensions. And one slot is occupied by a physics acceleration card

Nonetheless, I'll check if I can find a product number of the mainboard by opening the case

Besides: Would the installation be as easy as I hope? Put in card - installing drivers - done?

8) Why is a black hole called black hole and not super-all-sucking-in-hole??? ;)

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its gravitational pull. The black hole has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it.

In 1967, John Wheeler gave black holes the name "black hole" for the first time. Before that, they were called "dark stars."

(Wikipedia)

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5) How can I find out if the free slots on my motherboard will be ok for the new card? Guess a have a free PCI slot...

You can look at the slots to determine what type of card your motherboard supports.

5) How can I find out if the free slots on my motherboard will be ok for the new card? Guess a have a free PCI slot...

Since it's a Dell, you will have a 'Service Tag' or serial number - usually at least one or two stickers on the outside of the case, also visible in BIOS and (usually) discoverable using the tools on the Dell support website.

With that service tag, you can view full service manuals, motherboard layouts, original manufacturing 'as shipped' configuration etc.

Usually Dells are fairly well engineered for cooling, and since mostly they can't be overclocked (the XPS gaming system may be an exception), cooling is likely to be less of a problem than some other systems. The one area where you may have to do a bit of research is the power supply - not just the power rating, but the number/variety of spare connectors: but again, XPS machines are marketed for gaming, so should be better for power than their cheaper ranges.

Thanks for the prompt answers!

1) + 3) so I'll check out the power unit and the motherboard maybe tomorrow in the evening and post the results. Probably a picture of the architecture would be helpful as well...

2) sound easy...

6) Buying the same card I already own seems to me the first choice right now as the price is in the range what I'm willing to spend. Moving the card to the old system and upgrade the new(er) one (well, it's about 2 years old...) doesn't look like an option to me as I don't want to spent that much money for a new card.

8) got me there... ;)

1 - depends. Does your machine have 2 x PCI-E slots? Most machines dont, so gamers and crunchers go out of their way to buy boards that do. So you may not have a slot to add another card. There are no hi-spec CUDA cards that work in the old PCI slots.

2 - Yes cooling can be an issue. A poor case design may leave dead air around the graphics card and make cooling a problem. A simple option is one of those little fans that plug into a PCI slot next to the graphics card and suck the hot air out. Not fantastic cooling, but 5 mins with a screwdriver to install, and no case mods needed.

3 - There should be a power rating on a sticker on the machines power supply. How accurate it is is another matter, but at least you have some guide. A late model machine may have a 400-500 watt supply, thats enough to run most sane graphics cards, but going to multiple cards may overload it. It shouldn't blow up, but it may fail to boot, lockup or reset at random if you draw too much power.

4 - The new card doesn't have to be the same model.

5 - Best way is to take the cover off and look. Should only be 2 screws. If you can find the model of the system board folks will be able to advise you about upgrades better.

6 - Can the Celeron machine take a better graphics card? Again you will need to pop the cover of and see what slots it has, or get a system board model number. If it will take the 8800 card maybe you can fit that to the old machine and buy a new 200 series one for your later machine. Is it worth the power use? I only run those old boxes when the weather is cold, they help heat the house.

7 - Hope so, but who can tell with couriers and my crystal ball is not working tonight.

8 - It's believed that Hawking radiation escapes from a black hole, so it doesn't suck in everything ;-)

Cheers

Ian

Hi there,

I have a bunch of questions, all relating to SETI and stuff, if anybody feels in the mood to drop an answer: Everything (helpful ;) ) is highly appreciated

Ok, I just re-started SETI again about a month ago. Joined the old SETI about 8 years ago or so but lost those credits. No worries.
Recently I was thinking of doing a small donation, but not in just cash but rather buying a, let's say, not very cheap but also not very expensive additional graphic card so I'll be able to crunch a bit more.

That's my PC: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5060854
It's one of those XPS Dell big tower things.

So here comes the pain uhhh questions:

1) Can I "just" add a second graphic card? Would my System be totally deranged by just putting in an additional card? Do I have to change any settings somewhere telling the system "hey, use my good card for everything if requested and use the new one just for SETI"? Oh, did I forget? I'm a hardware/system setting pathetic/beginner/noob

2) If 1) would somehow work: Would additional cooling be needed? The new card would be one WITH a fan on it, but I don't know: CPU goes up til about 53 C, GPU about 84 C right now (24/7 crunching). An additional 84 C (as I assume) wouldn't be "cool"...? If I would need some extra cooling, I will just forget about it cause I'm absolutely sure that I'm unable to install an additional cooler on my own...

3) Oh yeah, what's about the power unit of the PC? I have no clue what kind of amount of Watt it is? Is there any way I can find out that? Guess this has also an impact on the choice of the new card?

4) Should the new card be exactly the same I already own or would it be no prob to have a different?

5) How can I find out if the free slots on my motherboard will be ok for the new card? Guess a have a free PCI slot...

6) That's my second machine (crappy one...): http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5065470
It needs hours and hours to just crunch a MB WU. Do you thinks it's worth the power? Oh yeah, and it's loud as hell...

7) Will the news tapes arrive tomorrow at Berkley? ;)

8) Why is a black hole called black hole and not super-all-sucking-in-hole??? ;)

So far, that's it... Sorry for my bad English!

Now back to work...