I'm looking into building a high performance computer for GPGPU work, that would utilize 4 9800gx2's for a theoretical out put of a little over 4TF (single precision). All the parts have been sorted out except the PSU. It needs to have 4 x 6 pin and 4 x 8 pin connectors. The only PSU that I have seen is http://www.thermaltake.com/product [...] w0171.asp# from thermaltake, but it is not available in the US due to regulations on the power consumption of consumer devices (it exceeds the power available on a normal 15 amp household circuit).

So my question is this. First, does anyone know of a 1500watt PSU being sold in the US. Secondly then, does anyone know if I can fit two 750 watt PSU's in http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811112159

this case holds two http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] bPC-A7110B

^ Nope

Actually the wattage of 1500watts is roughly equal to the amperage of a 15 amp household power circuit.
I see the day soon where we will have a dedicated power circuit for our computers.
1500 watt psu sold in the USA, not for general consumer use.
You can put two PSU's in that case, it won't be pretty, but it can be done.
What you really want is a case with positions for 2 PSU's.

actually there is a spot on top and one on the bottom

The antec p190 has a spot for two on the bottom but unfortunately it allready comes with two power supply's that aren't that great

http://www.antec.com/us/productDet [...] odID=81900

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cat [...] s_id=21710

Why don't you go for 4xHD4870 instead? They use 2 six pin connectors each, and have a theoretical output of 1.2Tflops each. Unless you wanted CUDA?

Hows about:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cat [...] s_id=22094


The Ultra X3 1600W has: 4x PCIe 6-pin & 2x PCIe 8-pin. So all you need is 2x PCIe 6-pin. All you need is to cannibalize 4x molex connectors to make the additional 2x PCIe 6-pin you will need. It has a single 12V rail so that should not be an issue.


Bob

IF you eventually get that system up and running, please use a kill-a-watt type energy/consumption meter on it and tell us the real wattage that numbercruncher uses in full load.

if you need a case for 4 9800gx2 (can you even do that, im not sure, i was under infulence it was capped at 3 by motherboard constraints.) the only case i would consider would be the coolermaster stacker it is a beast of a case. and with a billion 120mm (5" ) fans cooling thos card wont be to much of an issue. at least check it out.

i can help but think that actually 2 lots (or three) of the GTX280 will have a higher performance yeild than the 9800's you specified.

most motherboards have 2 x 16x pciE and 1 = 1x pciE.

so i think it's a litle marvel, you are telling here.

please consider the environment and think about about the co2 output of the powerplant.
it's time to save the planet.
where i live, u get fined each time your electric bill is to high.
this measurement wil be globaly soon.

p.s. most powerplant in the usa are on COAL burner. eew so much co2

Get the Silverstone TJ07, it holds just about every thing you can imagine including 2 power supplies!

Thanks for all the replies.
You have to remember, 1500watt is the output, and is only about 80% of the total power consumption of the device. Total power consumption is about 1875 watts at full load, and a 15 amp circuit only supplies 1650.

Nvidia is a must for this because of CUDA.

There is only one motherboard that has the slots setup correctly for 4 double thickness cards, and i've talked to the company and they say that there is no inherent constraint on 4 cards. SLI will not work for 4 cards, but SLI is irrelevant to my uses.

The problem with all the cases mentioned so far is that they only have 7 expansion slots. Since I have 4 double thickness cards, I need at least 8. The one in my original post has 10. I'm curious if anyone thinks that I could fit another psu at the bottom of the case, or if they can find another case with 10 expansion slots.

@BobWy: Thanks for pointing out that PSU, it looks like a real potential. I assume you mean 8 pin. A quick search brings up a number of cheap molex to 8 pin connectors, so that will work great. Looks like the best option so far.

Any other PSUs?

EDIT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811133053 the Xaser VI case by thermaltake also has 10 expansion slots. Do you think it will be better than the Lian Li I mentioned at the top? I'm inclined to think not. The Lian Li has an ungodly number of fans, and cooling is going to be critical for this. I'm inclined to water cool the CPU, mostly to get as much heat away from the cards as possible. Do you think thats a good idea?

This is a nicer case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811112175
Not sure if you can fit in all your cards and a bottom mounted PSU though... It does support a triple rad. (standard spacing like Swiftech, Black Ice, etc.) with a screw-in replacement top section!! Watercooling your CPU would be a good idea but that would really only need 1x Thermochill PA120.1 (single 120mm rad.) Anything you can do to reduce re-circulated heat in the case would be a good idea.

Don't the 9800GX2's have a rather poor exhaust system (1/2 vent for 2 cards)?? Would be nice to see the whole lot water cooled!! Can't you put all the GPU blocks in parallel. Run one half of the loop down through the left-hand side using double-barbs on all 4 cards - terminating at the bottom one. Then use double barbs on the right hand side to continue the loop. That might work!! Not sure if that arrangement would force enough water through the upper cards or not?? Of course you would need something like 2x PA120.3 (2 triple radiators for the whole lot of equipment) - ouch!!

I'll draw a pici if that water-loop description wasn't clear!!

Bob

Well, if you missed it (you might) there is the FASTRA computer. A tomography computer with a very similar setup to yours. A brutal crunching machine like yours.

Here your are:
http://fastra.ua.ac.be/en/index.html

Have fun !!

That was an interesting article I read a while back. I guess I presumed radnor was basing his machine on their rig.

Yeh but FASTRA is not water cooled and the GPUs aren't overclocked... Time to up the anti!!

Time to get a 3 phase mains??

Bob

Yea I'm following generally what was done with FASTRA. I've looked into water cooling, but for now it doesn't look like funds will support that.
Each block runs ~$180 plus all the radiators.I ought to be able to expand to water cooling later on, there is no imperative to do so now. The good news is the computer will be kept in a separate air conditioned container, which will allow the cards to be overclocked some.

That said, I'll need to look into the performance per dollar ratio of water cooling the setup vs. building another box and using MPI for courser grained parallelization, and then CUDA for everything else. Looks like I'll go with the Lian Li I first mentioned, i