Ran across one of these on eBay. https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/H11DSi-NT Dual cpu with 5 pcie slots. From the photo on eBay it looks like the shorter x8 slots are open ended.
So if I start with one gen 2 Epyc CPU I can probably reach the Heaven of having way too many cores :) Eventually.
Tom M
I have this board, and yes the x8 slots are open-ended.
just keep in mind it's E-ATX and a bit larger than standard ATX.
this is also the board that has VRM cooling issues if you use 2x high power high core count CPUs. my 2x 48-core 240W CPUs needed water cooling on the VRMs
So the minimum cost for getting this up and running would be twofold. Buying the MB and being limited to between 2 and 3 PCI slots till I upgrade to two cpus. AFAICT I can run a P series (single socket) on the first CPU socket of an EPYC dual CPU MB.
To get a minimal cost two CPU rig going looks like it would be two 7261 (8c/16t) for $118, another CPU fan $60~ and preferrable 4 more memory modules ($300~) or go with two-channel memory setups (2 sticks per CPU). The upside is I would have full access to all the PCIe slots. And the ability to upgrade to a 128c/256t system.
The downside is I would start with the core/thread count of a Ryzen 9 3950x with about 2/3's, maybe, of the processing speed.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
this is also the board that has VRM cooling issues if you use 2x high power high core count CPUs. my 2x 48-core 240W CPUs needed watercooling on the VRMs
Nothing a huge noisy fan can't fix.
that was the immediate solution. 4x 80x38mm 9000rpm chassis fans to keep tons of airflow through the chassis. that was able to keep the CPU VRM 90-95C and just below the shutdown threshold of 100C. but very loud. system is in the basement, but was still audible upstairs.
a custom monoblock cooling both CPUs and the VRM dropped the VRM temps to ~60C, allowing me to swap in much quieter 80x25mm 3500rpm chassis fans, significantly reducing noise from the system.
one can also just reduce the TDP of the CPUs in the BIOS to reduce the stress and temps on the VRMs, at the expense of reduced compute performance.
I think I'm sticking with AMD Ryzen 9 3950X/5950X CPUs. I don't feel the Intel CPUs have come back into the limelight recently, nor do I expect them to any time soon. I'm also not wealthy enough to climb up into an Epyc CPU and MB at this time either. It may be another year or two before I decide to get a third desktop. I have plenty to do with the two that I have now.
A major advantage of the 3950x/5950x cpus is I already have the Motherboards, reasonably fast ram kits (up to 64GB at 3200Mhz), and CPU cooling hardware. So for the cost of as low as $600~ (if prices continue to be down), I could get a 5950x to "pair" with my 3950x. Then I would have to decide if I wanted to run one of the two with my 3 GPU server setup.
It wouldn't address the ability to get (eventually) to the 1M RAC club on a single system but it would almost certainly be cheaper.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
that was the immediate solution. 4x 80x38mm 9000rpm chassis fans to keep tons of airflow through the chassis. that was able to keep the CPU VRM 90-95C and just below the shutdown threshold of 100C. but very loud. system is in the basement, but was still audible upstairs.
a custom monoblock cooling both CPUs and the VRM dropped the VRM temps to ~60C, allowing me to swap in much quieter 80x25mm 3500rpm chassis fans, significantly reducing noise from the system.
one can also just reduce the TDP of the CPUs in the BIOS to reduce the stress and temps on the VRMs, at the expense of reduced compute performance.
I didn't even know you could get fans that fast. GPU fans and the better quality case fans I bought are 5000rpm PWM. I expect that sounded like a vacuum cleaner or hairdryer. Which I guess would also have cooled it well.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
I think I'm sticking with AMD Ryzen 9 3950X/5950X CPUs. I don't feel the Intel CPUs have come back into the limelight recently, nor do I expect them to any time soon. I'm also not wealthy enough to climb up into an Epyc CPU and MB at this time either. It may be another year or two before I decide to get a third desktop. I have plenty to do with the two that I have now.
A major advantage of the 3950x/5950x cpus is I already have the Motherboards, reasonably fast ram kits (up to 64GB at 3200Mhz), and CPU cooling hardware. So for the cost of as low as $600~ (if prices continue to be down), I could get a 5950x to "pair" with my 3950x. Then I would have to decide if I wanted to run one of the two with my 3 GPU server setup.
It wouldn't address the ability to get (eventually) to the 1M RAC club on a single system but it would almost certainly be cheaper.
Tom M
I concentrate on GPUs, you can get way more crunching done. The CPUs I have are because I need one to play a game, or an old one I was given, etc.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
I concentrate on GPUs, you can get way more crunching done. The CPUs I have are because I need one to play a game, or an old one I was given, etc.
I agree with your logic Peter. And on a project like Einstein@Home that is what I am doing to maximize my production.
Universe@Home doesn't offer any GPU tasks. So for that project at least you are stuck with straight ahead CPU processing.
I have been trying to maximize my cpu processing of a Ryzen 3950x cpu on an Asus b450-f motherboard with an AIO liquid cooler kit. The cpu temperatures rapidly rise to cpu shutdown/reboot levels. I can't keep the cpu voltage down and not have it droop so far that the system reboots.
My next attempted fix is the cheapest new Asus X570 MB I could find. The Asus bios for the x570 has very nice and granular LLC and other control voltage controls that I am hoping will allow me to wring full overclocking processing without the CPU heat/overheating. It should arrive in a week or so.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
I assume when you get it too hot you're overclocking? There's something very wrong if liquid cooling overheats though, overclocking or not.
Yes, I am OverClocking. If I simply set the cpu boost and the Precision Boost Overdrive to "auto" the temperature stays below 75C.
brb
It has worked its way back to 93C even though I am walking (slowly) the CPU voltage setting down. I am waiting for it to crash (once again) because of CPU voltage droop.
On x570 motherboards they are having much better luck keeping the temperatures down. But some are also using custom water cooling too.
I am not up to buying/installing a custom water cooling CPU rig so I am using the top reviewed AIO from Cool master.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
Yes, I am OverClocking. If I simply set the cpu boost and the Precision Boost Overdrive to "auto" the temperature stays below 75C.
brb
It has worked its way back to 93C even though I am walking (slowly) the CPU voltage setting down. I am waiting for it to crash (once again) because of CPU voltage droop.
On x570 motherboards they are having much better luck keeping the temperatures down. But some are also using custom water cooling too.
I am not up to buying/installing a custom water cooling CPU rig so I am using the top reviewed AIO from Cool master.
Tom M
Overclocking = spend days and days fiddling. Crash several times and corrupt half your disk. Tear your hair out. Gain 10% speed.
Not overclocking = accept the manufacturer knows what speed the chip will run reliably. Why would you think you know better than AMD? If your chip could go faster, they would sell it at that faster speed and make more money, they're not stupid.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
Overclocking = spend days and days fiddling. Crash several times and corrupt half your disk. Tear your hair out. Gain 10% speed.
Not overclocking = accept the manufacturer knows what speed the chip will run reliably. Why would you think you know better than AMD? If your chip could go faster, they would sell it at that faster speed and make more money, they're not stupid.
If it weren't for the fact that I can see some 3950x cpus under Linux getting RAC's as high as 516,000~ and I am currently thrashing along at 479,000~ I would agree. Set up everything except maybe CPU voltage under "auto" and go about my business.
The good news is I may have gotten my CPU temperature down near the mid to upper 70C's. At the same OC it was running as high as 91-93C with the possibility of creeping higher into cpu overheat/shutdown.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
Ian&Steve C. wrote: Tom M
)
So the minimum cost for getting this up and running would be twofold. Buying the MB and being limited to between 2 and 3 PCI slots till I upgrade to two cpus. AFAICT I can run a P series (single socket) on the first CPU socket of an EPYC dual CPU MB.
To get a minimal cost two CPU rig going looks like it would be two 7261 (8c/16t) for $118, another CPU fan $60~ and preferrable 4 more memory modules ($300~) or go with two-channel memory setups (2 sticks per CPU). The upside is I would have full access to all the PCIe slots. And the ability to upgrade to a 128c/256t system.
The downside is I would start with the core/thread count of a Ryzen 9 3950x with about 2/3's, maybe, of the processing speed.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
Peter Hucker of the Scottish
)
that was the immediate solution. 4x 80x38mm 9000rpm chassis fans to keep tons of airflow through the chassis. that was able to keep the CPU VRM 90-95C and just below the shutdown threshold of 100C. but very loud. system is in the basement, but was still audible upstairs.
a custom monoblock cooling both CPUs and the VRM dropped the VRM temps to ~60C, allowing me to swap in much quieter 80x25mm 3500rpm chassis fans, significantly reducing noise from the system.
one can also just reduce the TDP of the CPUs in the BIOS to reduce the stress and temps on the VRMs, at the expense of reduced compute performance.
_________________________________________________________________________
GWGeorge007 wrote: I think
)
A major advantage of the 3950x/5950x cpus is I already have the Motherboards, reasonably fast ram kits (up to 64GB at 3200Mhz), and CPU cooling hardware. So for the cost of as low as $600~ (if prices continue to be down), I could get a 5950x to "pair" with my 3950x. Then I would have to decide if I wanted to run one of the two with my 3 GPU server setup.
It wouldn't address the ability to get (eventually) to the 1M RAC club on a single system but it would almost certainly be cheaper.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
Ian&Steve C. wrote:that was
)
I didn't even know you could get fans that fast. GPU fans and the better quality case fans I bought are 5000rpm PWM. I expect that sounded like a vacuum cleaner or hairdryer. Which I guess would also have cooled it well.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
Tom M wrote: GWGeorge007
)
I concentrate on GPUs, you can get way more crunching done. The CPUs I have are because I need one to play a game, or an old one I was given, etc.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
Peter Hucker of the Scottish
)
I agree with your logic Peter. And on a project like Einstein@Home that is what I am doing to maximize my production.
Universe@Home doesn't offer any GPU tasks. So for that project at least you are stuck with straight ahead CPU processing.
I have been trying to maximize my cpu processing of a Ryzen 3950x cpu on an Asus b450-f motherboard with an AIO liquid cooler kit. The cpu temperatures rapidly rise to cpu shutdown/reboot levels. I can't keep the cpu voltage down and not have it droop so far that the system reboots.
My next attempted fix is the cheapest new Asus X570 MB I could find. The Asus bios for the x570 has very nice and granular LLC and other control voltage controls that I am hoping will allow me to wring full overclocking processing without the CPU heat/overheating. It should arrive in a week or so.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
I assume when you get it too
)
I assume when you get it too hot you're overclocking? There's something very wrong if liquid cooling overheats though, overclocking or not.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
Peter Hucker of the Scottish
)
Yes, I am OverClocking. If I simply set the cpu boost and the Precision Boost Overdrive to "auto" the temperature stays below 75C.
brb
It has worked its way back to 93C even though I am walking (slowly) the CPU voltage setting down. I am waiting for it to crash (once again) because of CPU voltage droop.
On x570 motherboards they are having much better luck keeping the temperatures down. But some are also using custom water cooling too.
I am not up to buying/installing a custom water cooling CPU rig so I am using the top reviewed AIO from Cool master.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)
Tom M wrote: Yes, I am
)
Overclocking = spend days and days fiddling. Crash several times and corrupt half your disk. Tear your hair out. Gain 10% speed.
Not overclocking = accept the manufacturer knows what speed the chip will run reliably. Why would you think you know better than AMD? If your chip could go faster, they would sell it at that faster speed and make more money, they're not stupid.
If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.
Peter Hucker of the Scottish
)
If it weren't for the fact that I can see some 3950x cpus under Linux getting RAC's as high as 516,000~ and I am currently thrashing along at 479,000~ I would agree. Set up everything except maybe CPU voltage under "auto" and go about my business.
The good news is I may have gotten my CPU temperature down near the mid to upper 70C's. At the same OC it was running as high as 91-93C with the possibility of creeping higher into cpu overheat/shutdown.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)