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matnath1
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Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 12:28 am

I do not have the expertise to build one myself. I am asking you guys to suggest eBay searchable Pre- Built Desktop PC's that can run 4 or more GPUS at a time . This rig will be used exclusively to fold 24/7 . I have been doing it the simple way for 10 years (*I am a folding billionaire) by installing single graphics cards into individual desktop PC Towers ..pre built by Dell etc.. And now have the money to kick it up to quald sli or higher system.s I do not know how to find these on eBay and after multiple search attempts I am hoping you guys can steer me in the rite direction.

Please reply with Pre-Built systems that run 2, 3, 4 or mores cards in one rig so I can fold with One tower instead of 2 3 or 4 towers for example. Nothing brand new. For Value and Depreciation purposes I want a 4 or 5 year old 2nd or 3 Gen Intel Processor based system that won't break the bank.

As an example of recent buys I have bought 4 Dell XPS 8300 MT i5 2400 8GB 500G Than I can Add in UP TO Gtx 1080 and or RTX 2070 and HIT 1 mill PPD Per tower. COST
$200 for XPS $300 For Gtx 1080 so $500 PER Million PPD
I have a Lenovo Y900 SLI rig running two cards as well but i am hoping for a suggestion on a pre-built OR a way to buy a Pre -MADE Custom built that will run 4 cards or more on ONe tower as stated above...

Or

Can Mining rigs be used "somehow " to fold. ( have seen this "THINGS" with 8 or 10 graphics cards in them and wonder if they can be adapted to fold).
 
mikewinddale
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 12:51 am

Whether a mining rig will be good for folding will depend on whether folding has high bandwidth requirements.

Typically, a mining rig has many PCIe x1 slots that are connected by a set of risers to x16 graphics cards, but with only x1 bandwidth. So each graphics card gets only 1/16 the bandwidth it would normally get. However, this is fine for mining because there is not much data to transfer between the motherboard and the graphics card. It is computationally intensive, but not bandwidth intensive.

So the question is whether folding is similar to mining in that regard or not.

My suspicion is that folding might indeed be like mining. The graphics card will just receive the molecular formula of the protein, and then it will have to calculate how that protein folds. So my guess is that the amount of data to transfer is small, and that the folding algorithm is computationally intensive but not bandwidth intensive. But that's only my guess.

One way to test this would be to buy a x1-to-x16 riser like this one and benchmark the folding on it. If folding is almost as fast using the riser as it is using a full x16 slot, then a mining rig would be perfect for you.
 
mikewinddale
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 1:02 am

People here are saying that when they use a PCIe x1 riser instead of a true x16 slot for folding, they experience a 10-20 percent performance drop.

But that's per GPU.

So if you can find a mining rig with (say) 10 GPUs, then you'll get the performance of 10 GPUs minus 20%, which comes out to 8 GPUs. So still pretty great.
 
matnath1
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 1:32 am

Risers may not be a fit as I have kids running around near my towers and I do not want them breaking my video cards.

The first question still remains. Are there any pre-built desktop pc systems that run 4 cards (quad sli) that are older models (ex sandy bridge based).

OR

Can you guys show me a few Pre-Built Desktop makes models *(such as my Lenovo Y900) that are sandy bridge with at least SLI capability (2 cards)?
Last edited by matnath1 on Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
Redocbew
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:16 am

Yeah, pretty much. One end of the riser cable fits into the slot on your board. The other connects to the video card. It's basically just an extension cable for the slot on your board.
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JustAnEngineer
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:45 am

Finding a PC that will accept four graphics cards shouldn't be too challenging. You may, however, need a larger power supply or a second power supply if the original PSU is not especially beefy.
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Redocbew
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:52 am

matnath1 wrote:
The first question still remains. Are there any pre-built desktop pc systems that run 4 cards (quad sli) that are older models (ex sandy bridge based).


Any machine with at least four PCIe slots could do the job, and I don't think you'd be using SLI per say. SLI implies using the GPU driver to help distribute a single workload across multiple devices. That's not really what you want, because you'll be installing multiple instances of the folding client and running each one independent of the others.

The thing is, you'll need a considerable power supply, and finding that prebuilt without buying an entirely different class of machine may be difficult.

Edit: Doh, ninja'd by JAE.
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matnath1
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 1:25 pm

Thank you for your advise so far:


For now I am once again asking for an eBay searchable name of Sandy Bridge or ivy bridge based Desktop that will come pre-configured with the ability to run 2 or more graphics cards. I am a very experienced eBay buyer (and seller0 but can not for the life of me find a way to search for what I am looking for so I am hoping you guys will know of say a workstation or older gaming tower "BY NAME" that will speed this up for me.I

Please don't recomend high end systems that still cost over $400 each even though they are 4 or 5 years old. I do not need water cooling etc in the case.
 
Airmantharp
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:41 pm

I think you should consider 'learning' to build.

The mechanical skills start and stop essentially at plugging in cables and turning philips head screws. The intellectual skills include doing the research on the parts and understanding build order; the latter is obvious when you have the parts in your hands, and the former you've basically mastered.

I say this because the likelihood of finding what you're looking for- especially for >2 GPUs- is almost zero. The market for consumer desktops with >2 GPUs is effectively zero, and the market for 1 to 2 GPUs is almost zero, and effectively zero from OEMs like Dell and HP outside of their 'gaming' lines.

If you want 3 or 4 GPUs in a system and you don't want to pay enterprise prices, your best bet is sourcing the parts and assembling yourself.
 
mikewinddale
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:48 pm

I second Airmantharp. The market for brand-new desktops with multiple GPUs is almost non-existent, and what does exist is very expensive and niche, so the market for used desktops is going to be even closer to non-existent. You're looking for a red polka-dotted needle in a blue striped haystack.

If you want pre-built, I think a mining rig is your best bet.
 
highlandr
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 6:20 pm

Instead of looking for a workstation that can handle multiple cards, what about a server? Dell's T610/T620 is a "tower" machine that can hold 5 PCI-e cards, and you can get beefy power supplies to run it. It won't be quiet, but you can get used ones on ebay for real cheap. Looking through the specs the slots are at least PCIe 2.0 x4, and the T620 might be even better (but cost more).
[ - THIS SPACE FOR RENT - ]
 
thebluebumblebee
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Sun Mar 31, 2019 7:46 pm

You'd still have to upgrade the PSU, and you'd most likely need to use blower style GPU coolers:
(I'd offer something like $700)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTEC-ELEVEN-H ... ctupt=true
 
matnath1
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Re: Please Suggest Pre Built Quad SLI or Higher Desktop PC for Folding

Mon Apr 01, 2019 2:33 am

Thanks again for all of your advise.

I decided to order two Dell Precision T3600 Workstations. They have two PCI X16 slots 650Watt PSU and are sandy bridge quad s that are under $250 ea fully equipped 8GB 500G HD or better. 10 Pro ....I just had add a pair of GTX 1060 and each will hit 800k ppd.

Thx.

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