unraid

[nick]

its almost time for an upgrade to my pc maybe a few months from now and I was thinking about making it my nas gaming rig and boinc machine all in one. unraid will let me split my cores up as well as any other device on the setup. so I can use my ssd as cache drives and setup a stripe on the mecs.

I have looked at bench marks and were talking nano seconds on lag running virtual machines on it. has anyone tried this or am I going to beta test this first. I'm thinking get an 6 or 8 core CPU dedicate one core to unRAID and on chip GPU. 3 to Boinc and a GPU. 4 to the gaming VM with a GPU that gets switched to another Boinc VM when not playing games.

if anyone has done this is there anything special I need to do?

anyone have a cheap pc part place?

on the boinc vms which os do you think is best?

[nick]

the cpu I was thinking this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251923938565? ... 1e703&cp=1
its old gen but xeon's tend to be a gen or 2 ahead of the icores plus old servers are cheap

[UBT - Timbo]

the cpu I was thinking this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251923938565? ... 1e703&cp=1
its old gen but xeon's tend to be a gen or 2 ahead of the icores plus old servers are cheap

Hi Nick

Believe it or not, I've just done something similar - I got hold of a Hexa core Xeon X5650 CPU about a month ago. Got an Gigabyte X58 mobo a few days ago and some DDR3 should arrive tomorrow. A 2nd GTX580 is already for it, and hard drive and CDROM's I already have, though I was looking at some cheapie SSD's just for a bit of fun. 120Gb SSD's are going for around £30 ea, and as this will be mainly used for crunching, plus some work stuff, then I don't need a huge boot drive, though I'll have some spinning rust as a data drive D:.

So, I'll spend a little bit of Easter, taking apart an old PC chassis (with a single core P4 in it) and then rebuilding with this nice new rig. Can't wait for all 12 cores to be running Might even put Win 10 on it

regards
Tim

[nick]

give unraid a go then you can use it as a nas/back/media server/what ever as well I like the whole vm not hurting performance .

i watched a video where they setup 7 gaming rigs on 1 pc using unraid seems like it can do some cool stuff. if you dedicate a core to unraid you can even webhost while streaming with zero performance impact. defiantly going to be my next os when I'm ready. I'm sure it can do more seem like a tweakers dream base system

going from p4 to a 5650 with 2 gpus you might wanna switch psu as well.

Also not all x58 desktop boards take xeon chips did you check?

[UBT - Timbo]

give unraid a go then you can use it as a nas/back/media server/what ever as well I like the whole vm not hurting performance .

i watched a video where they setup 7 gaming rigs on 1 pc using unraid seems like it can do some cool stuff. if you dedicate a core to unraid you can even webhost while streaming with zero performance impact. defiantly going to be my next os when I'm ready. I'm sure it can do more seem like a tweakers dream base system

Hi Nick

I've taken a look at the "unraid" website ( https://lime-technology.com/ if anyone else is interested ) and it looks pretty good.

I take it that it doesn't "sit on top" of WIndows/Linux, but it's own standalone OS ? (Unless of course it might run within a VM, in which case I haven't a clue as to how it would work !! ).

going from p4 to a 5650 with 2 gpus you might wanna switch psu as well.

Also not all x58 desktop boards take xeon chips did you check?

Yup - I have a couple of High-End 850W & 1000W modular PSU's, one of which will do. The X5650 have a TDP of 95W so it shouldn't run too hot, once I get a nice heatsink/fan for it. I might even put both GTX580's on this mobo as I have a spare GTX560 I can use on my desktop PC

I did check on a couple of websites and as far as I can tell, as long as the BIOS on this mobo is correct, it should work. Can't find out now, until Saturday, as the supplier of the RAM sticks promised to send by 1st Class, and they didn't.... (They sent 2nd Class, instead ).

But it gives me tomorrow to strip down a PC case. I might have to strip a different PC down though and swop between 2 different cases, as the mobo is an E-ATX - which is wider than the standard ATX form factor...

regards
Tim

[nick]

I've taken a look at the "unraid" website ( https://lime-technology.com/ if anyone else is interested ) and it looks pretty good.

I take it that it doesn't "sit on top" of WIndows/Linux, but it's own standalone OS ? (Unless of course it might run within a VM, in which case I haven't a clue as to how it would work !! ).

its a stand alone os ultra light weight lynx basically then your run vms from it and has a web shell so your can remote manage unraid with a vm which is nice and a few lines to the boot code and it auto loads the vms so you get an extra few second on reboot.

I'm off tomorrow so I'm gonna check out all the addons for it seems like an amazing os if your cpu and mb has virtualization.

[nick]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5 ... SwKtVWyIqX

future proof?

[UBT - Timbo]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5 ... SwKtVWyIqX

future proof?

Hi Nick

As far as BOINC goes, probably....

As far as your bank manager goes though....that's a lot of processing power for the money...

But it's probably cheaper to buy this (and the bits to go with it), than (say) 3x 4 core Intel i7's (= 24 cores with HyperThreading) + (say) cases, memory, boot drives etc...plus it'll be cheaper to run - only 105W TDP ???

regards
Tim

PS - My mobo boots beautifully with the Xeon 5650 + 8 Gb ram (for now). Only trouble is, I forgot to get a cooler for the CPU (as I thought I had one that would fit - so I used a spare heatsink that just sat on top of the CPU for some "out of case" testing - and now have to wait until next week to get it up and running.

[nick]

amazon 20 ish quid be here Monday

only issues is no onboard gpu so id have to put 3 in the rig or find a mb with onboard which I don't thing they do anymore

[nick]

have to wait until next week to get it up and running.

did you amazon it?

[UBT - Timbo]

did you amazon it?

Hi Nick,

I got a Noctua fan in the end, as it comes with an X-plate (that goes under the mobo, and helps spread the weight of the fan assembly). I saw the Intel "stock" fans - which look quite useless...I had a similar fan on a Socket 775 CPU and the pressure of the Intel fan, via those plastic clips, bent the mobo. So I wasn't going with that design again.

I love the look of the Zalman heatsink combos, but my supplier suggested the Noctua so I went with that and it should be with me by Tues/Weds.

regards
Tim

[nick]

did you amazon it?

I saw the Intel "stock" fans - which look quite useless...

If your not OC the chip the stock ones work well

I stick with cooler master for air using a Hyper 212 Evo on my i5 drops it about 20 C and can't hear it.

ive noticed the 8 core xeon is below 100 pounds now think Ill wait till my work trip to the states to buy a new chip and mb. can get the same stuff for about 40% of the price, guess people are to stupid to buy old server stuff there cause the used I core stuff is more.

[UBT - Timbo]

Believe it or not, I've just done something similar - I got hold of a Hexa core Xeon X5650 CPU about a month ago. Got an Gigabyte X58 mobo a few days ago and some DDR3 should arrive tomorrow. A 2nd GTX580 is already for it, and hard drive and CDROM's I already have, though I was looking at some cheapie SSD's just for a bit of fun. 120Gb SSD's are going for around £30 ea, and as this will be mainly used for crunching, plus some work stuff, then I don't need a huge boot drive, though I'll have some spinning rust as a data drive D:.

So, I'll spend a little bit of Easter, taking apart an old PC chassis (with a single core P4 in it) and then rebuilding with this nice new rig. Can't wait for all 12 cores to be running Might even put Win 10 on it

regards
Tim

Hi all

Well, it's taken longer than I thought to get various parts sourced and delivered, but as of about an hour ago,(hee hee hee), my new PC is up and running.

A Gigabyte G1 mobo, a HEXA core Xeon X5650, 8Gb of RAM, a nice GTX590 and it all went inside my old P4 case, which had the right placed holes to fit an EATX mobo.

So, I'm running a few tests at present, just to see what it does. BOINC is now running 2x GPU tasks and 10x CPU tasks simultaneously... SETI GPU tasks taking less than 10 mins each. Oh yes



EDIT: Actually, it's settling down now to abt 17 mins per GPU task. Still, not bad as it's doing two at once...so it's almost the same as one every 10 mins . I've joined a few CPU projects just to see how good the Xeon is...looking at the BOINC stats CPU performance page, it's not as good as the newer i-series CPU's...but then it is OLD TECH and I only got it working, as I just wanted a CPU with lots of cores on it. At least I can upgrade the CPU (once prices come down) to an i970 or i980 in due course It's running at it's stock 2.67GHz level, but the mobo can overclock it a wee bit, which I might try eventually.

EDIT #2: I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to why the GTX590 (on a WIn 7 x64 PC) is slightly slower than my GTX580 (on a XP Pro x32 PC), as they are essentially the same, the 580 is being under-clocked, while the 590 is at stock speed and voltages. I'll figure it out in due course !!

This should boost my stats a wee bit over the next few hours.

Only issue is that the on-board network port seems a bit tricky to set up - so, I'm using a USB wifi adaptor for the time being - and I'm just running Win 7 x64 off an old hard drive (for now, just for test purposes), before installing Win 10 over the weekend.

regards
Tim

[nick]

EDIT #2: I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to why the GTX590 (on a WIn 7 x64 PC) is slightly slower than my GTX580 (on a XP Pro x32 PC), as they are essentially the same, the 580 is being under-clocked, while the 590 is at stock speed and voltages. I'll figure it out in due course !!

the 590 is basicly 2 570's on top of each other the 580 has faster memory and a faster bus speed. for gaming the 590 is a better card as it basically sli on one card. but for this stuff since its 3d rendering and that type of stuff the 580 kicks its ass.

[UBT - Timbo]

the 590 is basicly 2 570's on top of each other the 580 has faster memory and a faster bus speed. for gaming the 590 is a better card as it basically sli on one card. but for this stuff since its 3d rendering and that type of stuff the 580 kicks its ass.

Hi Nick

Ah - so that's why

Well, the plan was to put my spare GTX580 in the Xeon, but that has the 590 now...so, maybe I'll put the 2nd 580 in with the first A quick tweak of the cc_config.xml and I'll have almost the same GPU processing power in 2 different PC's.

Mind you, I've now seen that the GTX750TI is a much better GPU card for BOINC, in terms of speed, efficiency and VFM....so, maybe I'll sell off the 560's I have and replace them with a 750

regards
Tim

[nick]

Mind you, I've now seen that the GTX750TI is a much better GPU card for BOINC, in terms of speed, efficiency and VFM....so, maybe I'll sell off the 560's I have and replace them with a 750
Tim

why not get an r9 270 for a few pennies more and kick that 750's butt

[UBT - Timbo]

why not get an r9 270 for a few pennies more and kick that 750's butt

Hi Nick

Thanks for the idea. Well, let's see. Where do I start?

I can get a GTX750 for less than £100 inc VAT (which I can claim back). R9 270's are about double that and seeing that I'm not into gaming anymore so I'm not really going to benefit much from it (I still have Doom and Quake CD's, though I haven't re-installed them on a new PC for ages.

Secondly, I used to support ATI as they were - since taken over by AMD. And I used to love the Catalyst drivers...but they got so "flaky" (IMHO) on the installs I did, that it became a real b*tch trying to sort out the mess left behind.

And lastly, more BOINC projects seem to support NVidia, than AMD/ATI. So, I'd prefer to be able to crunch any project of MY choice, rather than be restricted by the hardware I'm using.

BTW: I had a quick look here:

http://www.custompcguide.net/nvidia-gef ... omparison/

and the R9 270 is only 10% better in raw performance than the 750. Am surprised that the 580 is rated much higher than both !!

Seems I might be better off waiting for a 770 (or higher) to make it really worthwhile "upgrading" from the 560's.

regards
Tim

[nick]

I can get a GTX750 for less than £100 inc VAT (which I can claim back). R9 270's are about double that and seeing that I'm not into gaming anymore so I'm not really going to benefit much from it (I still have Doom and Quake CD's, though I haven't re-installed them on a new PC for ages.

you can find r9 270 and 270x for 80-90 quid on flea bay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-Radeon-R ... Sws4JW6-VS
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sapphire-R9-2 ... SwAvJXADuZ

here is an 7970 which is basicly an r9-280 for 105 just higher power consumption.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sapphire-HD-7 ... SwiylW~7Qz

or you can get another 580 for 65
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nvidia-GeForc ... SwGYVW-a4m

if your run an amd and NVidia in the same rig you can run anything just options for ya to think about since some projects run faster on amd for some reason. Since you have NVidia Cards already you have the bias covered already.

[UBT - Timbo]

Well, that was interesting.

The build went fine and the testing didn't.

The main issue was one of too high a temperature on the CPU and Northbridge/Southbridge....the CPU was running at around 75+ deg C, which is NOT good and the heatsink on the Northbridge was running more than a bit too warm. Plus I'd run out of thermal paste.

Had to "un-build" the mobo, remove the old paste on the Northbridge (which was pretty dried out and solid) and replace it, then add some paste to the CPU which I'd not done before simply because a) I didn't have any and b) I was monitoring the CPU temps anyways, plus the heatsink I have is pretty big. Hence even metal-metal contact should have allowed me to feel how warm the CPU was getting, just by feeling the bottom of the heatsink assembly. I'm using SpeedFan v4.51 and that showed what was happening temperature wise.

Anyways, the paste arrived this morning and everything was ready for it's application, so a quick dab here and there, re-assemble the whole lot, boot up and give it a few mins to settle down.

Idle CPU temp is now <30 deg C and with all 12 cores crunching (on PrimaBOINCA at present), it's now up to....between 28 and 33 deg C (depending on which core you look at).

EDIT: Oops - I'd forgotten that I'd underclocked the CPU (from standard 2.67GHz, down to 2GHz), to see if that lowered the core temperatures I was seeing and it did...had forgotten to reset the CPU frequency back to "stock" this morning. A quick reboot and set CPU to default and temps are now slightly higher at 37-39 deg C with the same 12 tasks running. Still a lot better than the 70's on the first test

Looks like this PC is ready to go into production

regards
Tim

[nick]

. Plus I'd run out of thermal paste.

next time you run out or can't find any paraffin wax will work almost as well they used to use it in the old days plus its easy to clean up once it cools.

but 70 deg is well within the temp range for that chip they were designed to go in passive cooled server racks

[UBT - Timbo]

next time you run out or can't find any paraffin wax will work almost as well they used to use it in the old days plus its easy to clean up once it cools.

Hi Nick

Nice tip - will have to remember that one !!

but 70 deg is well within the temp range for that chip they were designed to go in passive cooled server racks

Yup - I recall it could work at high temps, but I was so close to where I thought it might "burn out" (even with very little "load") that I thought I'd be patient and do it properly. I've also found out how high one can overclock these Xeons - over 4GHz if you have the right cooling system - that's around 50% more than the rating !! Will give that a go in due course

regards
Tim