Nvidia Quadro FX cooling
6 Feb 2011 12:49:57 UTC
Topic 195630
(moderation:
Hi All
I run three HP workstations, all of which have excellent core cooling designs. I use Nvidia Quadro FX 1700 and 1800 video boards for my professional CAD work and they have always worked well for that purpose. When I started using the Quadro boards for BOINC I found that many of the CUDA runs had regular errors. This only happened on two of the machines (1 water-cooled 6-core and and 1 air-cooled 4-core). Following the advice of another thread I took off the side plates of the workstations and added a small room fan (on low speed, and 100V rather than 120V to reduce noise) blowing directly at the input of the on-board Quadro cooling fan. The CUDA error problems have stopped. My third machine has an 8-core design with robust air cooling and has never had a problem with its FX-1700. For what it's worth.
Nvidia Quadro FX cooling
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Hi!
Welcome to Einstein@Home, and thanks for sharing your experience. On one of my PCs, a budget Core 2 Quad core design, I had to remove the stylish but almost air-tight front panel plus install a slot fan to get the GPU down to a safe temperature, especially in summer.
CU
HB
Hi Again another day has
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Hi Again
another day has passed and still no errors after adding the external cooling. I also note that the "marked as invalid" WU's have also stopped for both BRPcuda32 code and the code for the standard Xeon processors that my water-cooled 6-core machine uses. My internally air-cooled HP xw8600 Workstation has not had problems with either of those codes, even without additional cooling.
RE: Hi Again another day
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Yeah most bulk pc makers did not envision us putting major heat producers inside their machines! I have some Dell and Compaq machines that I cannot even put the side on or they will just crash from overheating! I do not have anything but air cooling, so far.
RE: RE: Hi Again another
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It depends what you're prepared to pay for. I have a Dell machine with beautifully-engineered cooling, to the extent of having dedicated fans to cool the memory sticks - but it's a Precision Workstation, built like a server, and cost about four times what you'd expect to spend on a typical consumer desktop.
RE: RE: RE: Hi
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Yeah! I did had one from IBM. I thought it is a great server from great company. And was surprised when opened it. It is almost made of Chinese FoxConn components both case and motherboard. Processor were the only ones not made in China. So, I prefer to build rigs myself with 20$ per system case, but absolutely quiet. I just plan the airflow and use cheap but quality components, low speed big fans and medium power but high efficiency PSUs. So I even can sleep near the computer and not hear it at all.
So, there is no need to overpay for the quality if you have your hands growing a little bit higher than your basin joints ;) This way you can do the same, but yourself (e.g. you have not to pay somebody for this).
RE: RE: RE: RE: Hi
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LoL, sure - but have a look at host 831490. That's genuine - a true 8-core dual Xeon, activated here on 1 January 2007, and at SETI a month or two before. That would have been difficult for a home-build, over four years ago. It was supplied with Windows XP, and has been upgraded (in-situ) twice, first to Vista and again to the current Windows 7. Without losing a BOINC task on either upgrade. And processing - now with added CUDA (with a ZOTAC AMP 9800GTX+ replacing the original Quadro FX 1500) - 24/7 as we speak. Not too bad.
RE: RE: RE: Hi
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Yes you are correct, but I, like alot of folks, bought the cheapy ones never imagining that I would even want to put a 'gaming' gpu in the thing, after all I am not a gamer! But here we are several years later and low and behold I now want to put a fancy dancy gpu in it, oh well live and learn!
When I started crunching
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When I started crunching scattering codes I bought a quad-core motherboard and put it into a tiny box... How hard could it be? When I ran 4 instances of my scattering code the first time it ran fine.... for a while... then started beeping at me. That cpu was never the same. Later a 110V fan built onto the box fixed the problem but my co-workers complained a bit about the noise. Go with water cooling, heat pipes... or buy it from someone who has paid real attention to the engineering.
I don't game either, but after starting with BOINC I have this urge to buy a Tesla 2050 just to do work for other people. Vanity can be expensive.