For a crunching system I need a mainboard for 2 highend GPU's. The GPU's I want to put on/in it are EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FTW and a Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1GD. I want to put a i7 2600K (as it has HT and is unlocked) on it (but not necessarely), because I still run some CPU projects (Cosmology and LHC). I probably need a new PSU too as I only have a Q-TEC 550W lying around. I also want to connect 1 or 2 OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 2.5" SSD 60GB to it. Memory will be at least 2x Crucial 2GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600 MHz). But I probably add 2x 4GB more to it.

For Dutch, Belgian and maybe German readers (those that can read Dutch) I might have another proposal, which you can read here on the SETI.nl forum. You might get those 2 mentioned GPU cards for free.

So suggestions are welcome.

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

Depends hugely on the case size - Full Tower or mid Tower - and the cpu. Really there is not a lot of difference - as such - between mainboards at the mid-high end range, apart from the usual "we're great" marketing claims. Features tend to be pretty much the same. The case size will determine if the ATX-E boards will fit. Whatever happens, PCI-E V3/USB3/SATA 6Gbps (via native chips not third party chips) is a must for future trends if you are going mid to highend. There are a rash of X79 boards piling out from the main manufacturers for both E-ATX and ATX form factors.

Cost is an issue as well, highend boards dont come cheap, but frankly there's no point having a chunky CPU like 2700/3930/3960X, and getting a cheap to mid range board. UK cost of a Z79 E-ATX form factor mainboard is around £250. Those boards tend to like matched memory aka the more niche G.Skill or Corsair level, so again cost comes into it.

If you can narrow down your parameters to CPU type, form factor, case size, and range (mid or high end board), then it will be much easier to nail a few boards as practical suggestions

Regards
Zy

Well I won't have long to live (I have a deatwish for about 15-17 years, and finally ordered some medication to commit a working suicide attempt, after 8 or 9 failed ones).

It has to be ATX size board, well below 200 euro's, and I was thinking about an i7 2600K because of it's HT and unlocked multiplier but it may as well be a cheaper CPU so that I would be able to buy a 3rd GPU card. The PCI-express lanes will have to be well divided like 8-8-4, instead of 16-4 like I have on my current ASUS P5K-E Wifi-App, which has a GTX-570 (16 lanes) and a GTX-550TI (4 lanes). If I would go for an i7 with IGP the board should have a HDMI connector so I can dedicate the GPU cards to crunching, like I do with my GTX-570 by disabling the output via Nvidia's control panel. If I would go for instance with another unlocked CPU, the board should have options to OC it.

Edit: I don't know if there are cheap 2011 boards and if the 38xx CPU is available yet, the 39xx ones are about 500 and 1000 euro's. The PCI-express 3 standard does have more lanes though but do I really need that for crunching.

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

The key thing for the future is PCI-EV3/SATA 6Gbps/USB3, get those and that meets the need for GPUs.

The only reason (if focused on GPU crunching) to get 39XX is because you want to go for CPU WUs at a decent output and still crunch GPUs. If the ficus is maximum credits, then ATX size / PCI-EV3/SATA 6Gbps/USB3 is the spec. As for CPU, again if the focus is GPU as such, no point going 39XX and 2011, the latter will bring down costs considerably.

So as a starter for ten, sounds like an ATX/PCI-EV3/SATA 6Gbps/USB3 with four useable PCI-E lanes at a minimum of x8PCI-E V3 rating, so you can run two cards at PCI-E V3 x16, or four cards PCI-EV3 X8. With that as a baseline you would be looking at a PSU of around 850w and CPU as a i7-2600 (28nm cards are chunky and its a good thing to have a reasonable processor - i7 2600 seems a good halfway house).

Does that seem to fit what you are after? If it does, let the search begin :)

Regards
Zy

The PCI3 extra lanes comes with the Ivy Bridge CPU. the 2600K is PCI-express 2.

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

Its probably going to be best to wait a few weeks, until Ivy Bridge deploys - the 1155 motherboards for Ivy Bridge appear to be in production and it would make sense to wait and see what they bring with them

http://www.guru3d.com/news/intel-ivy-bridge-motherboards-in-mass-production/

http://wccftech.com/intel-ivy-bridge-lineup-leaked-detailed-specs-18-core-i7i5-processors-exposed/

Regards
Zy

I can't wait that long because I will be committing suicide in a couple of weeks. I just wanna use the money I have left, about 1000-1200 euro's to do some extra crunchiing for science and to get some more credits, so I can maybe get for example SETI above 1M and maybe MilkyWay to, that why I want to buy 1 AMD card together with the Nvidia.

And please, no questions about why I wanna do what I said (in the first line).

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

I can't wait that long because I will be committing suicide in a couple of weeks. I just wanna use the money I have left, about 1000-1200 euro's to do some extra crunchiing for science and to get some more credits, so I can maybe get for example SETI above 1M and maybe MilkyWay to, that why I want to buy 1 AMD card together with the Nvidia.

And please, no questions about why I wanna do what I said (in the first line).

Anthony.

Well unfortunately your 1M on both may take longer than that, not a lot longer but some. It can take 2 weeks, or more, for a new cpu or gpu to get up to full speed on a project. Both of course can be helped the MOST by the gpu side as it crunches more workunits faster, resulting in more credits sooner. If you really have an end date in mind then the best idea IMO would be to get yourself a nice board with at least two pci-e x16 slots on it and drop in two higher end gpu's and go to town. A cheaper dual core or a low end quad core cpu would be sufficient to power the board and the gpu's. Get yourself a nice 1000 watt power supply, plenty of power with lots of extra there, a nice looking inexpensive case and perhaps a dvd player to load the software on with. If you already have an external dvd for the pc it will work just fine. I personally have copied my Windows install dvd's onto 8gb USB sticks and it screams thru an install! There is no need to go high end on anything except the gpu's and you don't need TOP END on them, just something to crank out the units quickly!

Your only other problem will be hoping that each project stays up and running long enough for you to reach your goals.
GOOD LUCK!!

That doesn't really answer on what board I should take. for CPU I want at least a quadcore perhaps a 2500k (or i3 if they are quadcore). that way I could buy a board with 3 PCI-express x16 slots with 8-8-4 lanes. And a third GPU-card.

I'm already crunchiing with anGTX-570 and a GTX-550TI, both factory OC-ed.

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

That doesn't really answer on what board I should take. for CPU I want at least a quadcore perhaps a 2500k (or i3 if they are quadcore). that way I could buy a board with 3 PCI-express x16 slots with 8-8-4 lanes. And a third GPU-card.

I'm already crunchiing with anGTX-570 and a GTX-550TI, both factory OC-ed.

Anthony.

Here in the US I can get an Asus mb, model M5A78l-m LX PLUS socket AM3+, with an AMD FX-6100, this is an x6 cpu, for about $150.00, the memory is an additional $100.00 for 16 gb of DDR3-1600. The store is MicroCenter and it is in their latest ad! Skip a quad core and go to a 6 core with NO hyper-threading gimmicks! It does ONLY have ONE pci-e x16 slot though! For another $150 bucks though you could get a nicer mb with 3 pci-e slots on it, an Asrock model 990FX Extreme4, or an Asus model M5A99X EVO. For an extra 50 bucks, $199.00 for just the cpu, you could get an AMD FX-8100 cpu which is a FULL 8 core cpu! Either of the two mb's above will work with either cpu, the memory also stays the same.

mikey wrote:

Here in the US I can get an Asus mb, model M5A78l-m LX PLUS socket AM3+, with an AMD FX-6100, this is an x6 cpu, for about $150.00, the memory is an additional $100.00 for 16 gb of DDR3-1600. The store is MicroCenter and it is in their latest ad! Skip a quad core and go to a 6 core with NO hyper-threading gimmicks! It does ONLY have ONE pci-e x16 slot though! For another $150 bucks though you could get a nicer mb with 3 pci-e slots on it, an Asrock model 990FX Extreme4, or an Asus model M5A99X EVO. For an extra 50 bucks, $199.00 for just the cpu, you could get an AMD FX-8100 cpu which is a FULL 8 core cpu! Either of the two mb's above will work with either cpu, the memory also stays the same.

I took a part of your suggestion and whas thinking about AMD Zambezi FX 6100 CPU, which costs 145 Euro and 1 of these mainboards,
Gigabyte AM3+ GA-990FXA-UD3 at 127 Euro or Gigabyte AM3+ GA-990FXA-UD5 at 159 Euro.

I think I'm going to put 3 GPU cards on it, the 2 mentioned in the first post but 2 of those Nvidia's instead of 1.

Which board would you think I should take and what kind of PSU would I need for that?

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

mikey wrote:

Here in the US I can get an Asus mb, model M5A78l-m LX PLUS socket AM3+, with an AMD FX-6100, this is an x6 cpu, for about $150.00, the memory is an additional $100.00 for 16 gb of DDR3-1600. The store is MicroCenter and it is in their latest ad! Skip a quad core and go to a 6 core with NO hyper-threading gimmicks! It does ONLY have ONE pci-e x16 slot though! For another $150 bucks though you could get a nicer mb with 3 pci-e slots on it, an Asrock model 990FX Extreme4, or an Asus model M5A99X EVO. For an extra 50 bucks, $199.00 for just the cpu, you could get an AMD FX-8100 cpu which is a FULL 8 core cpu! Either of the two mb's above will work with either cpu, the memory also stays the same.

I took a part of your suggestion and whas thinking about AMD Zambezi FX 6100 CPU, which costs 145 Euro and 1 of these mainboards,
Gigabyte AM3+ GA-990FXA-UD3 at 127 Euro or Gigabyte AM3+ GA-990FXA-UD5 at 159 Euro.

I think I'm going to put 3 GPU cards on it, the 2 mentioned in the first post but 2 of those Nvidia's instead of 1.

Which board would you think I should take and what kind of PSU would I need for that?

Anthony.

I only run AMD gpu's right now but I might think about getting one, or two or three in your case, of the Nvidia 560 cards that are on sale now for around 200 dollars US, if money is no object go big! As for the power supply I would think 950 to 1000 watts, it is overkill but if you don't get a big enough one you are going to have to buy another one! You NEED spare power in the machine for the USB sticks you can plug in and for whatever else too! I run dual AMD 5770 gpu's in one of my machines and a 750 watt psu does just fine, the cpu in it is a AMD 1090T X6. The biggest problem will be air flow and COOLING for all those gpu's, so the case choice will be critical. Get a GOOD one not a cheapy!! Some of the newer designs have the gpu's at the top and the psu at the bottom, they then have a vent at the top to let the heat out. You can also think liquid cooling, it has gotten MUCH cheaper and easier.

I already have a case, it's about 10 years old but it came with 2 fan's and a fancontroller, and 3 temperature sensors. And I got a really good deal today due to a pricing error by the webshop I bought my HD 6950 at. After I placed my order, I browsed through the website and looked at the Nvidia cards they had (I wanted to buy the 2 Nvidia's at another webshop), but while I was browsing I saw a Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 priced at €70.80 so I bought 2 of them. The order is accepted and the payment is done, so I'm hoping they don't find the error before sending the cards to me. If I'll get them, then I've saved about €400.

I used this PSU Calculator and the one at the Coolermaster website (the first one has more options). Hmmm, I know see that they have the same options, you just need to press the advance link (top right) on the Coolermaster website. It calculated for me a PSU of around a 1000 Watts, but looking at the Ampere's on the 12V rail I'm going to buy the Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W or the Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W with fan controller. I hope the 98A or 105A respectively on the 12V rail will be enough to power the stuff.

And I chose Coolermaster because I already have the Silent Pro Gold 700W (from an RMA) and a bunch of extra cables they had send afterwards because the 700W PSU didn't have cables with molex connectors on them and I needed those for my IDE HDD and DVD-RW.

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

buying a new computer for just a few weeks of crunching doesn't really make much sense, imo. if you really want to put 1200 euros into the science i suggest either picking a project like milkyway or gpugrid and donating to it.

the other option is putting up your rig and components for a prize in a folding comp like EVGA madness that will be held next month. in both cases, the money will probably be utilized far more efficiently.

that said, go with any asus, gigabyte or evga mobo that fits and use a gold+ PSU because it will be the most stable for a high draw application like running several gpus. for crunching you really dont need sli or 16x PCIe 3.0 slots. you dont really run into bottle-necking issues because of the nature of crunching.

low input, intense calculation, low output

I already picked a board. It's 1 of those 2 Gigabyte board I mentiond a few posts earlier. And what is that EVGA madness thing...I don't want to offer my computers and labtop before I die. And I don't have a testament. So I have to see how I'm gonna arrange that my family doesn't get anything.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

I already have a case, it's about 10 years old but it came with 2 fan's and a fancontroller, and 3 temperature sensors. And I got a really good deal today due to a pricing error by the webshop I bought my HD 6950 at. After I placed my order, I browsed through the website and looked at the Nvidia cards they had (I wanted to buy the 2 Nvidia's at another webshop), but while I was browsing I saw a Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 priced at €70.80 so I bought 2 of them. The order is accepted and the payment is done, so I'm hoping they don't find the error before sending the cards to me. If I'll get them, then I've saved about €400.

I used this PSU Calculator and the one at the Coolermaster website (the first one has more options). Hmmm, I know see that they have the same options, you just need to press the advance link (top right) on the Coolermaster website. It calculated for me a PSU of around a 1000 Watts, but looking at the Ampere's on the 12V rail I'm going to buy the Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W or the Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W with fan controller. I hope the 98A or 105A respectively on the 12V rail will be enough to power the stuff.

And I chose Coolermaster because I already have the Silent Pro Gold 700W (from an RMA) and a bunch of extra cables they had send afterwards because the 700W PSU didn't have cables with molex connectors on them and I needed those for my IDE HDD and DVD-RW.

Anthony.

All that works for me too! I too hope the cards come thru!

I already picked a board. It's 1 of those 2 Gigabyte board I mentiond a few posts earlier. And what is that EVGA madness thing...I don't want to offer my computers and labtop before I die. And I don't have a testament. So I have to see how I'm gonna arrange that my family doesn't get anything.

I thought you said NO DISCUSSIONS about the subject?! IF you are now going to this could get real polarizing real quick!

I thought you said NO DISCUSSIONS about the subject?! IF you are now going to this could get real polarizing real quick!

Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot I mentioned I didn't want to discuss that.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

@mikey: plans have changed. I've read reviews and saw benchmarks from the AMD Bulldozer cpu's and they are slow compared to Intel Sandy Bridge cpu's. Even the fastest one can't beat the i5 2500. So I'm going with Intel. I'll probably go with an i5 or an i7 2600K.


My topic question changed a bit though. I now need a board for 3 highend GPU cards. It must have an HDMI output for Intels IGP, and where the PCI-E lanes are divided 8-8-4 (there are only 20 lanes available for GPU's, am I right?).

I need brand and type.

My first choice (3 months ago) was a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5 so it should be cheaper than €259. I based my choice solely on the onboard soundchip (the ALC889 is the best onboard soundchip there is) and on the fact it had both optical and coaxial digital outputs. Those choices became less important to me. Price is important too. Don't check this site for specifications because they can be incomplete and don't mention how the lanes are divided.

All the links in this post are from the same site and the site is in Dutch.

If you have suggestions please check the price in my country. Select the socket type beneath the word 'Moederborden' (this link brings you directly to socket 1155 boards), find or select your suggested board (there's a column on the right and a search box above it to make the selection easier and to make the list of boards shorter) and click on the price to find a webshop/store with 1-3 day or 24 hours delivery (the light green delivery truck or dark green with 24 on top). I need the second price because it is with delivery costs.

I'll do my own search too and if I find multiple boards I'll post them here so I can hear your opinion(s) about them.

For the PSU I'm going with a Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W.

Anthony.

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The longer I live, the more reasons I develop for wanting to die.

@mikey: plans have changed. I've read reviews and saw benchmarks from the AMD Bulldozer cpu's and they are slow compared to Intel Sandy Bridge cpu's. Even the fastest one can't beat the i5 2500. So I'm going with Intel. I'll probably go with an i5 or an i7 2600K.


My topic question changed a bit though. I now need a board for 3 highend GPU cards. It must have an HDMI output for Intels IGP, and where the PCI-E lanes are divided 8-8-4 (there are only 20 lanes available for GPU's, am I right?).

I need brand and type.

My first choice (3 months ago) was a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5 so it should be cheaper than €259. I based my choice solely on the onboard soundchip (the ALC889 is the best onboard soundchip there is) and on the fact it had both optical and coaxial digital outputs. Those choices became less important to me. Price is important too. Don't check this site for specifications because they can be incomplete and don't mention how the lanes are divided.

All the links in this post are from the same site and the site is in Dutch.

If you have suggestions please check the price in my country. Select the socket type beneath the word 'Moederborden' (this link brings you directly to socket 1155 boards), find or select your suggested board (there's a column on the right and a search box above it to make the selection easier and to make the list of boards shorter) and click on the price to find a webshop/store with 1-3 day or 24 hours delivery (the light green delivery truck or dark green with 24 on top). I need the second price because it is with delivery costs.

I'll do my own search too and if I find multiple boards I'll post them here so I can hear your opinion(s) about them.

For the PSU I'm going with a Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W.

Anthony.

You have gone a direction I can't help you then, I am a mostly AMD guy as I find then easier for some reason. It could simply be my familiarity or they could really be easier for me, I don't know. Although the 1300W psu should be more than enough!

One thing I don't know if you know or not...you must do one of two things if you have multiple gpu cards in one machine, you must either hook up a monitor to each or use a Dummy Plug on the cards that don't have a monitor hooked up. Here is a link to show you how to make your own Dummy Plug, it is REALLY easy!!
http://www.overclock.net/t/384733/the-30-second-dummy-plug