Hello. I'm looking at building a 24/7 crunching machine. The GeForce 1050 GPU seems to be a popular choice for the budget orientated. How do you know what is the minimum computer requirements to ensure the GPU is well fed? I'm looking at a $200 Intel duo or i5-2nd Gen System from 10 years ago, with 2 x PCIe 16 slot for future expansion if the first card goes well. Have read there are seti program variants that allow minimal CPU usage and will try that eventually as well. Any thoughts or suggestions? I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum or has been answered elsewhere.

Thank you.

All the gpu applications work best with a full cpu core to feed each gpu task. With only a dual core, you would be practically limited to only a single gpu task using up one core leaving the other core for computer housekeeping of the desktop and other functions. There is a sleep command that lessens the lag that a heavily utilized system would experience but a dual core won't have enough horsepower to support two gpus. I would say that practically, a 4 core cpu is the minimum for two gpus.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

I would consider the i5 system to be the "better" choice.
While just about any (recentish) Intel or AMD processor will work, it is worth looking at the motherboard they use as well - not all motherboards are created equal - you need to have PCI-16 slots for many of the more recent GPUs, and make sure the slots are spaced at >2 card widths as many modern GPUs are more than 1 slot wide.
Further, consider case size and PSU rating. Don't (as I have done in the past) try to cram as much as possible into a small case; for a two GPU system a "large midi ATX tower" is the smallest sensible size - full size ATX or bigger is better. For a pair of GTX1050, running 24/7 you need a decent(ish) PSU - from memory least 500W, but maybe 650W would be "safer".

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Thank you for the responses. The quad core vs duo core makes sense. Rob Smith, what is your definition of a recentish CPU? In the last 10 years?

Thank you.

GTX9xx and GTX10xx families.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Would you consider the Intel 2nd generation CPU from 2011 a recentish CPU?

Would you consider the Intel 2nd generation CPU from 2011 a recentish CPU?

No. Not really. A "recentish" cpu would be >> 4th generation.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

Not really - there have been some big steps forward in CPU design in the last five years.
I would call a "recent" CPU one designed in the last three years. However the most recent GPUs are so far ahead of the best (consumer) CPUs as to make (SETI) processing on the CPU very prosaic, for example, my 16-core Ryzen (only a couple of years old design) returns about a tenth of the results per day of ONE of the GTX980, and those GPUs are now about four or five years old, or if I look at the GTX1080s I'm running in another computer the Ryzen is delivering about one percent of one of them.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Thank you for the input. More things to consider now (in a good way)

You're not working your Ryzen very hard. My Ryzen's do about 280-300 cpu tasks a day. Each gpu does about 480-500 tasks per day.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

For a pair of GTX1050, running 24/7 you need a decent(ish) PSU - from memory least 500W, but maybe 650W would be "safer".

The GTX1050 only uses up to 75W of power, so two is 150W. They get their power from the PCIe slot, they don't use external power.
If the computer is only used for crunching 24/7, it can do with a (small) SSD or HDD and two GTX 1050s. An i5-750 (LGA1156) would be able to handle all that without problems. 8GB of RAM (DDR3) is also all you need.

So, putting the above in http://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/ comes to 354W, with a recommended load wattage of 404W.
Seasonic (https://seasonic.com/wattage-calculator) comes to 351W, with a recommended load wattage of 401W.

In other words, a 650W PSU is overkill here. No, the biggest problem here is to find the motherboard.

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Just to confuse the issue here, I have 3 1050's in my Ryzen, two of them get all their power from the MB but the 3rd one has an external power connector. I really did not plan it that way, it just happened when I purchased the 3rd one.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

I'm looking at a $200 Intel duo or i5-2nd Gen System from 10 years ago, with 2 x PCIe 16 slot for future expansion if the first card goes well.....

Well, the GPUs are what delivers the points. I'm not interested in spending much on the rest. I can always place the GPUs in another board later. I went with the cheapest MB/CPU setup that will run a mid-range GPU. That would be the 10 year old Core2 Quad that cost about $20 on eBay. To run the Core2 I went with the Cheapest MB that has at least 2 double spaced slots and fits an ATX Full sized case, it also cost around $20. They are becoming hard to find now, there were hundreds floating around for ~20, I have Three of them, Workstation Xw4600. Not only do they run Linux, but, they also run OSX Sierra without any trouble as a Hackintosh.
I have Two of them running Sierra with 4 GPUs each, of course, I made a custom PVC GPU mount that sits just outside the case holding 2 GPUs while a 3rd sits in a x1 PCIe extender. The two in the mount are connected by Powered PCIe ribbon cables so they run at the full PCIe speeds. A small desk fan cools the lot, NO water around my electronics Please!
So, total cost;
XW4600 - $20
Core2 Quad -$20
DDR800 - $25
Case - $25
600 watt PS - $45
GTX 1060 - $239
Linux - Free
Hackintosh - mostly Free

BTW, I've found these boards will not work with a PS over 600 watts. Fortunately, 600 watts will run Four 90 watt GTX 1060s without any trouble with a core2 Quad & 8 GB ram.
Just don't try to pull over 180 watts from the Board's PCIe slots, that's why you use Powered Cables.

I would consider the i5 system to be the "better" choice.
While just about any (recentish) Intel or AMD processor will work, it is worth looking at the motherboard they use as well - not all motherboards are created equal - you need to have PCI-16 slots for many of the more recent GPUs, and make sure the slots are spaced at >2 card widths as many modern GPUs are more than 1 slot wide.
Further, consider case size and PSU rating. Don't (as I have done in the past) try to cram as much as possible into a small case; for a two GPU system a "large midi ATX tower" is the smallest sensible size - full size ATX or bigger is better. For a pair of GTX1050, running 24/7 you need a decent(ish) PSU - from memory least 500W, but maybe 650W would be "safer".

. . OK, my 2 cents worth ...

. . Definitely a 4 core CPU would be most desirable if you plan to run 2 GPUs and at least 4 GB ram (2GB or less possible problems).

. . But ... I am running a GTX1050ti happily on a Core2Duo rig (6GB ram) with all the stops out. It is a single PCIe slot mobo so dual GPU cards is not possible. But if I replaced the wet blanket then the dual core could just barely support 2 of these wee beasties. This will work OK but not give the best results. This unit is low profile (SFF) and only has a 220/240 W PSU but is only drawing about 115W ar full crunch. So for 2 x 1050s a 350W or better PSU should be OK.

. . From what I have seen stick with the 1050 for crunching unless you can source a 1050ti at close to the same price. There is not enough difference in performance to justify the increased cost. (or if you can stretch your budget then even a single 1060 as TBar sugegsted would give impressive results)

Stephen

:)

Just to confuse the issue here, I have 3 1050's in my Ryzen, two of them get all their power from the MB but the 3rd one has an external power connector. I really did not plan it that way, it just happened when I purchased the 3rd one.

. . The high end (aimed at gamers) 1050/1050ti cards tend to be heavily overclocked and will often have the external PCIe power connector. But for crunching the basic series of these cards will give the best bang for your buck.

Stephen

:)

Just to confuse the issue here, I have 3 1050's in my Ryzen, two of them get all their power from the MB but the 3rd one has an external power connector. I really did not plan it that way, it just happened when I purchased the 3rd one.

. . The high end (aimed at gamers) 1050/1050ti cards tend to be heavily overclocked and will often have the external PCIe power connector. But for crunching the basic series of these cards will give the best bang for your buck.

Stephen

:)

I was not looking at Bang when I bought the third 1050ti, I was just trying to get a 3rd GPU on the MB at a price equal to or less than, what I paid for the first two which was before the prices when through the roof. It was the first 1050 that I had even seen for sale for a long time.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

1050s do not have SLI. How do you run more than one 1050 in one system? Do you have to do anything special or do you just install the second (or third) one and it just works?

Sorry for the dumb questions but I'm not an expert on graphics cards. I currently have one GTX1050ti in my Win 10 Pro Ryzen 1700 system.

1050s do not have SLI. How do you run more than one 1050 in one system? Do you have to do anything special or do you just install the second (or third) one and it just works?

Exactly,, that is all there is to it. SLI has nothing to do with it and would not be helpful at all.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

1050s do not have SLI. How do you run more than one 1050 in one system? Do you have to do anything special or do you just install the second (or third) one and it just works?

Sorry for the dumb questions but I'm not an expert on graphics cards. I currently have one GTX1050ti in my Win 10 Pro Ryzen 1700 system.

SLI is only useful for Games, where you want to use the combined GPU power on One Screen. BOINC doesn't work that way. BOINC treats multiple GPUs the same as it does multiple Cores of a CPU, it assigns a task for each separate GPU. The more GPUs you have, the more GPU tasks BOINC will run. The only thing Special you have to do is add a line to your cc_config.xml file telling BOINC to use All GPUs, <use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus> Otherwise, if there is a small difference in your GPUs BOINC will only use the fastest GPU.

Thank you, Bill and TBar.