Two questions

[mrDMxtreme]

Hey everyone,

I do like to fold, but the only thing I have right now is my main rig (which i can't always keep on to fold as its in my room at school and there are a lot of little things like heat, noise and the fact that i need to use it sometimes

)

SOOO i was think of two options of which i think i can live with, both of which include folding with 1 new gpu:

1) Put the new gpu in my main rig and fold with that 24/7, but with just one lower powered gpu, there will be less heat and noise (currently my 2500k and my 580 produce at lot of heat with their OC). Also i should mention since i am a student, and this is really just an extra computer part i don't realllyyy need, its gonna have to cost like $150 or less (like a 460 or a 550ti)

2) buy a new cheap case, and put the new new gpu in with my really old system, (well currently there are just parts at home laying around somewhere) its an old intel pentium D, with like 2 or 3 gb of ddr2 ram if i'm not mistaken, on some mobo that i can't oc with.... i don't know, its shitty but i am just planning to fold with the gpu anyways.

so my questions are:

- For the first option, what are the complications of having two different gpu in at the same time? are there driver issues or something, gimme an idea (so for arguments sake if i get an evga 460 and add in there would i have any issues?)

-For the second option, how fast a processor do you need to have a gpu folding? would my ancient 3GHz pentium d be enough NOT to bottleneck something like a 550ti?

which ever you guys help me pick, i'll be asking for the gpu in the beginning of december for my bday, so i got some time to decide. but i'm still excited about the idea that i could have a dedecated folding rig

even if it'll just be ~10k ppd, in a year thats a lot of points

 

[riotcity76]

I'm not much of a GPU folder but you shouldn't have any issue doing option #1...lots of people have multi gpu setups. With that said though if you're trying to cut down on heat this may not be the best option.

As far as option #2, a Pentium D would be fine for a gpu folder. The new client is very efficient and only uses 1-2% of a single thread from a core i7 from what I remember when I had my 8800 folding.

Either option would work, it just comes down to your personal preference.

 

[kup]

Personally I'd go with option #2 if you have the spare parts to build a rig capable of supporting a 460/560 GPU.

 

[mrDMxtreme]

sweet, thanks guys! i actually was leaning towards building a separate rig (that way i can heat up another room

) and electricity is free at school, so its all good.

i have a corsair hx650watt(overkill), the pentium D (which i wasn't sure was going to be good enough, but if it will be i'm very happy), the mobo and ram are crap, but whatever.... so i just need to find a spare drive and buy the cheapest case i find (probably a bitfenix merc

hehe)

now i can't wait for december, which just happens to be a perfect time to fold in canada

 

[yuri04]

Do remember that the Fermi GPUs have a little more CPU overhead than the non Fermi GPUs. However a Pentium D would be fine for this.

And depending on the amount of overhead you can even run some CPU uniprocessors on the CPU (or perhaps even an SMP client, depending on the speed of the CPU), to get the best PPD out of the rig this will take some experimentation.

Just remember if you try this to set the GPU client up at a higher priority in the configuration (when using v6).

 

[mrDMxtreme]

will do, just have to do the hardest part now.... wait.... lol