Hello there!
Knowing that my current machine might not make it to next spring, I decided to slowly consider my next build. Since I'm now part of World Community Grid & GPUGRID, I am interested in building my next rig as a cruncher. I am not into computer farms as it takes too much space and its too messy (IMO) so instead of having 6, 8 or more machines, I prefer having a more performing machine.
I am not a gamer at all, and not planning to be any time soon. If I just had to build a new machine I'd know exactly what to get, but since I want to optimize the build for highest performance and stability my money can buy, I need to ask this community for a few pointers, and first before I submit inquiries about specific parts, I need to clear up a few fundamental questions I am having.
First I should mention my overall expectations and constraints:
-Overall price: $3,000CAD (including tax, and shipping)
-Will be running 24/7 (or almost)
-Will be running Linux (very likely Slackware 64 bit)
-No need for PCI addon cards (sound, ethernet, etc).
********
CPU: Desktop or server CPU? (i7/Phenom, or Xeon/Opteron)? The more I read on the web, the more I am confused... I've seen people recommending server CPU's for their performance and enhanced threading capabilities (better share of system resources between threads and cores) and the fact that they are meant to run 24/7, while some other people are recommending a high end desktop CPU for their high performance and price tag. If I had LOTS of money, I'd probably go for a dual socket Xeon board with 2 X5600 series, but these beasts are easily $1,300+ each in Canada and its way over my budget, and I really wonder if they are that worthwhile for crunching tasks.
CPU: AMD or Intel? I've built machines with both brands in the past, I used to be "Intel" until I built my last machine with an Athlon II X4 640 CPU which exceeded my expectations for a price tag that was much lower than Intel. All benchmarks I've seen so far are clearly showing that Intel's high end CPU's are more performing than AMD's high end equivalents, but some benchmarks are not very convincing with 5-7% performance differences for almost 400% price tag difference. Again, if money wasn't a concern at all, I'd go for the super duper king of the hill (Core i7-990X Extreme Edition) but at over $1,000 price tag for a single chip, no thanks! On AMD's side, for the desktop market, their Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz seems to be the best they have for now. They just released the 8 core Bulldozer CPU but its performance is very disappointing (look in the components review here at TH) so I think I would hold on for now with this one.
GPU: Considering that I will be running Slackware-Linux 64bit on this cruncher rig, I am heavily leaning toward Nvidia for their better (in my experience) driver support and the CUDA framework which I am already using on my XPS laptop. I am leaning toward a quad SLI setup with GTX580's and will wait a bit until their price tag falls below $350 each. Nvidia could very well release the 600 Series soon so I'll stay tuned for the price.
GPU: For crunching tasks, especially on projects like GPUGRID, is GPU RAM very important? In other words, given the choice between a 1GB GTX580 and a 3GB GTX580, should I spend the extra to get the additional 2GB RAM? Are crunching tasks effectively using the onboard RAM?
RAM: Are you guys recommending that I load the mobo with as much RAM as it can take or is it a waste of money? I am leaning toward a minimum of 16GB of RAM, my current crunching rig is crunching for both WCG & GPUGRID and with my current settings, WCG's tasks are not taking more than 300MB of virtual memory while the task from GPUGRID is taking a 16.25GB chunk of virtual memory...
Water cooling or not? If overclocking will provide higher performance at the cost of increased electricity usage, I am ok with this but I am not entirely comfortable to overclock without aggressive cooling, especially on a $3000 machine.
My main confusion is regarding the CPU type VS price. For example, I could go for a single high-end desktop CPU with 3 or 4 GPU's in SLI, or go for a server CPU with 2 GPU's in SLI. My ideal configuration would be like 2 Xeons (L3366) with 4 way SLI using the EVGA Classified SR2 mobo, but the overall price tag is way above my budget, even for a low end CPU...
In the hope I will receive some guidance and pointers from this valuable community, I am continuing my research!
Thanks!
Knowing that my current machine might not make it to next spring, I decided to slowly consider my next build. Since I'm now part of World Community Grid & GPUGRID, I am interested in building my next rig as a cruncher. I am not into computer farms as it takes too much space and its too messy (IMO) so instead of having 6, 8 or more machines, I prefer having a more performing machine.
I am not a gamer at all, and not planning to be any time soon. If I just had to build a new machine I'd know exactly what to get, but since I want to optimize the build for highest performance and stability my money can buy, I need to ask this community for a few pointers, and first before I submit inquiries about specific parts, I need to clear up a few fundamental questions I am having.
First I should mention my overall expectations and constraints:
-Overall price: $3,000CAD (including tax, and shipping)
-Will be running 24/7 (or almost)
-Will be running Linux (very likely Slackware 64 bit)
-No need for PCI addon cards (sound, ethernet, etc).
********
CPU: Desktop or server CPU? (i7/Phenom, or Xeon/Opteron)? The more I read on the web, the more I am confused... I've seen people recommending server CPU's for their performance and enhanced threading capabilities (better share of system resources between threads and cores) and the fact that they are meant to run 24/7, while some other people are recommending a high end desktop CPU for their high performance and price tag. If I had LOTS of money, I'd probably go for a dual socket Xeon board with 2 X5600 series, but these beasts are easily $1,300+ each in Canada and its way over my budget, and I really wonder if they are that worthwhile for crunching tasks.
CPU: AMD or Intel? I've built machines with both brands in the past, I used to be "Intel" until I built my last machine with an Athlon II X4 640 CPU which exceeded my expectations for a price tag that was much lower than Intel. All benchmarks I've seen so far are clearly showing that Intel's high end CPU's are more performing than AMD's high end equivalents, but some benchmarks are not very convincing with 5-7% performance differences for almost 400% price tag difference. Again, if money wasn't a concern at all, I'd go for the super duper king of the hill (Core i7-990X Extreme Edition) but at over $1,000 price tag for a single chip, no thanks! On AMD's side, for the desktop market, their Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz seems to be the best they have for now. They just released the 8 core Bulldozer CPU but its performance is very disappointing (look in the components review here at TH) so I think I would hold on for now with this one.
GPU: Considering that I will be running Slackware-Linux 64bit on this cruncher rig, I am heavily leaning toward Nvidia for their better (in my experience) driver support and the CUDA framework which I am already using on my XPS laptop. I am leaning toward a quad SLI setup with GTX580's and will wait a bit until their price tag falls below $350 each. Nvidia could very well release the 600 Series soon so I'll stay tuned for the price.
GPU: For crunching tasks, especially on projects like GPUGRID, is GPU RAM very important? In other words, given the choice between a 1GB GTX580 and a 3GB GTX580, should I spend the extra to get the additional 2GB RAM? Are crunching tasks effectively using the onboard RAM?
RAM: Are you guys recommending that I load the mobo with as much RAM as it can take or is it a waste of money? I am leaning toward a minimum of 16GB of RAM, my current crunching rig is crunching for both WCG & GPUGRID and with my current settings, WCG's tasks are not taking more than 300MB of virtual memory while the task from GPUGRID is taking a 16.25GB chunk of virtual memory...
Water cooling or not? If overclocking will provide higher performance at the cost of increased electricity usage, I am ok with this but I am not entirely comfortable to overclock without aggressive cooling, especially on a $3000 machine.
My main confusion is regarding the CPU type VS price. For example, I could go for a single high-end desktop CPU with 3 or 4 GPU's in SLI, or go for a server CPU with 2 GPU's in SLI. My ideal configuration would be like 2 Xeons (L3366) with 4 way SLI using the EVGA Classified SR2 mobo, but the overall price tag is way above my budget, even for a low end CPU...
In the hope I will receive some guidance and pointers from this valuable community, I am continuing my research!
Thanks!
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