AMD Magny Cours 16-Core, Now Folding for Team 93

LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciersEagle River, Alaska Icrontian
edited December 2011 in Folding@Home
16 Cores of Magny Cours fury is now Folding for Team 93. I built this machine last weekend and have been validating the hardware and BIOS this week in Windows 7 Pro. Within a couple weeks, I'll have it running in Linux and Team 93 will see a boost in production.

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Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Specifications:

    Mothterboard: Asus KGPE-D16, Socket G34 (northbridge fan is my own add-on)
    CPU: AMD Magny Cours Opteron 6136, 8-core, 2.4GHz, 2X
    CPU heatsink: Thermaltake, heatpipe, aftermarket fan
    PSU: Corsair CMPSU-AX750
    Memory: 16GB (8 X 2GB) G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600
    Case: 'nekkid' and happy!
    GPU: integrated, on-board, A-Speed Max-Garbage Thriller (....or something like that)


    A couple more images for you:

    13G341636M.jpg
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    This is my first AMD build since my Thunderbird XP 2800, Abit NForce 2 platform in mid-2003.
    My thanks to _K_ and Tushon for advice in BIOS settings. This build was my first peek ever into a server BIOS. (lots of strange stuff there :eek: )

    3G341636M.jpg
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Wow very nice for dedicated folders - boxen. Will you plug in some folding GPU's as well? I mean it's not like you need the points or anything. :csimon:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    GPUs? I don't know yet. If I get Linux running this coming weekend, I don't think I'll bother with GPUs.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Fantastic build! 16 cores. wow.

    Are you ever going to case it, or just leave it out?
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    primesuspect wrote:
    Fantastic build! 16 cores. wow.

    Are you ever going to case it, or just leave it out?

    As much as he loves nice cases I bet he lets this bad boy go commando!

    Leo, Congrats on the awesome build! If you are trying to lead by example again, I think you should have new followers now. ;) I noticed in the first pic that the PSU appears to be levitating. Or is it just hovering from the brute power around it? :)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    As much as he loves nice cases I bet he lets this bad boy go commando!
    It needs to go in a case, in the garage. I've enough whirring fans in my office/computer room, and I just can't leave it out, exposed on the garage workbench. I'd end up accidentally knocking it off the bench or smashing it while doing some type of home maintenance job.

    Mr. Goat, I will be taking my Rocketfish/Lian Li case out of retirement for this little beast. I had tried to sell that big aluminum box before, but couldn't. Well, I'm glad now that I still have it.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    AWESOME Folding rig, Leo! Cannot wait to see how it bulldozers WUs.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Man... I was just about to pick up another 6 core Magny Cours for the 2nd socket in my server... but now it just seems so inadequate.
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Holy shit that's some serious horsepower!
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Welcome to my world Leo. The playground is a little empty right now but we should have fun any way.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Holy shit that's some serious horsepower!
    I believe that to be so, but it just doesn't get good traction with Windows tires. SMP2 Core A3 (standard, non-bigadv) work units are processing at about 37,000PPD. Not bad, but not great considering this machine has 16 real cores. We'll see what it can do when Linux is mounted on the rims.
    The playground is a little empty right now but we should have fun any way.
    The weekend is almost here. I've got an Ubuntu load on a USB stick and a freshly formatted HDD waiting to go.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Leonardo wrote:
    I believe that to be so, but it just doesn't get good traction with Windows tires. SMP2 Core A3 (standard, non-bigadv) work units are processing at about 37,000PPD. Not bad, but not great considering this machine has 16 real cores. We'll see what it can do when Linux is mounted on the rims.

    Honestly, that sounds about right for non-bigadv ppd. My 2.6GHz 6 core Magny Cours server running Debian 6 puts out around 10k ppd. If you scale that up to 16 cores, that works out to around 28k ppd. Of course, I do have things (like the minecraft server) running on that box as well, but still.

    Where you're really going to get the ppd is chewing through bigadv workloads.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    ardichoke wrote:
    Honestly, that sounds about right for non-bigadv ppd. My 2.6GHz 6 core Magny Cours server running Debian 6 puts out around 10k ppd. If you scale that up to 16 cores, that works out to around 28k ppd. Of course, I do have things (like the minecraft server) running on that box as well, but still.

    Where you're really going to get the ppd is chewing through bigadv workloads.

    Yeah, it's about right for Windows, but there's a lot of potential that Windows can't tap. I'm not speaking as an OS expert, just from what I've seen in my forays in the Folding world.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Pretty sure Windows has more or less caught up to Linux as far as CPU folding ppd output.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    No it has not. PPD will at min. double when you go to linux.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Hmm.... that's odd... I have 2 Phenom II 925 systems. One windows and one Linux. Last time I had them both folding (at this point, the Windows one isn't for power saving reasons) they were within a few hundred points of each other.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Ardichoke, here's how I understand it:

    I assume your Phenoms were folding standard (A3, non-bigadv) SMP work units.

    Standard SMP work units don't receive as much of an aggressive bonus for early return as the bigadv units. The bonus awards achieved by the faster work completion and return times from Linux processing are much more pronounced with -bigadv work units than with standard SMP units.

    I don't plan on running Linux for any of my 8-thread Folding machines - I7 Sandy Bridge and Lynnfield CPUs.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Leonardo wrote:
    Ardichoke, here's how I understand it:

    I assume your Phenoms were folding standard (A3, non-bigadv) SMP work units.

    Standard SMP work units don't receive as much of an aggressive bonus for early return as the bigadv units. The bonus awards achieved by the faster work completion and return times from Linux processing are much more pronounced with -bigadv work units than with standard SMP units.

    I don't plan on running Linux for any of my 8-thread Folding machines - I7 Sandy Bridge and Lynnfield CPUs.

    That makes lots of sense, Linux for the machine that is 16-core total as Linux does not care how many cores it has (it was designed for servers from day one), and Windows for the lower core amount machines (Windows now is finally (IMO) catching up with Linux as to how many cores it can use on non-server versions).
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Double is a stretch for sure, but Linux typically has better performance for folding than Windows.

    Great build and I'm excited to see how your PPD increases with the switch to ubuntu. Will send you an email about samba config for sharing
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    A BIG shoutout to Tushon for assisting me with Folding configuration in Linux. :rockon:
    Yessiree, this beast is now Folding in native Linux, Ubuntu 10.10. Huge learning curve for me. :crazy:
    Tushon wrote:
    Great build and I'm excited to see how your PPD increases with the switch to ubuntu. Will send you an email about samba config for sharing

    Outstanding performance increase so far. I haven't folded any bigadv work units yet, as I'm starting and stopping, and reconfiguring - learning Ubuntu (at least I think I'm learning). But anyway, take a look at this:
    P6098 (Core A3, standard, non-bigadv, SMP2)
    Ubuntu - TPF avg. 5:00, est. PPD 47,700
    Windows 7 Pro - TPF avg. 6:30, est. PPD 32,500

    I'm really looking forward to the Samba guidance. I've got Samba already installed, but can't for the life of me figure out how to get my my Win7 boxes to see the Ubuntu machine.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    That's a pretty remarkable increase in points just from switching OSes. Is the Linux client just that much more efficient, or does Windows overhead really chew that much CPU time up?
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Probably overhead, but I don't know the actual answer to that question. Also, there is a wrapper for linux that fixes CPU scheduling issues, so that the CPU is utilized that much more efficiently.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Leonardo wrote:
    I'm really looking forward to the Samba guidance. I've got Samba already installed, but can't for the life of me figure out how to get my my Win7 boxes to see the Ubuntu machine.

    Think of linking to a limited NT Server emulator-- that is what SAMBA does. Seeing the whole Ubuntu machine is improbable, you will see areas shared via Samba, just as a more modern peer-to-peer network shares limited specific file areas and/or printers on each machine if it is set up right.

    I won't hog this thread anymore, Tushon has it in hand it looks like.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    primesuspect wrote:
    That's a pretty remarkable increase in points just from switching OSes. Is the Linux client just that much more efficient, or does Windows overhead really chew that much CPU time up?

    Windows non-GPU client chews up CPU and RAM/CPU interfacing resources and RAM, and due to CPU resources being reserved in Windows for client with priority that can be set too high and leave CPU idle but unable to release resources at times even folding itself can be inefficient in Windows.

    Linux handles process priority better, and processes that are inactive can be state-suspended while active ones get their freed resources-- and Linux is more active in doing so. This is partially an artifact of Linux being designed for servers, which have to balance more tasks efficiently than do plain old desktops. Win 7 is not even a server o/s in the full sense, so it has a different resource recovery and allocation strategy (sloppier one) than Linux does.

    But(BIG ONE), what Leonardo has on his new 16-core box are also more of workstation-and-server-also designed CPUs from the bottom up(marketing viewpoint), so they are a great match for a server o/s as far as efficiency being more fully uniform in the system Leo is configuring.

    From my point of view, system is software (O/S is software too) plus hardware plus people involved, and tuning Folding extremely is a great learning exercise in I/S analysis.

    One more thing-- FERMI Labs is NOT folding in Windows(suspect Unix/Solaris/BSD/possibly Linux boxes in a mixture there), and they fold so fast there that Vijay had to ask and beg them not to fold too much and too fast and discourage others too much. There is no Team FERMI now(not sure there ever was one), but FERMI folds blazing fast with their boxes' spare time cycles. Vijay is leading dev into new clients away from what FERMI would find best tuned for them ("NOT FOR FERMI" is in one older Forum thread (about a beta client)'s title).

    John.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Lots of progress to report. Samba wasn't too difficult to figure out. I have HFM.net on two Windows computers now monitoring the Linux Folding client.

    P6904, TPF 53:03, PPD est. 111,745
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Time for an update, average times per frame and corresponding points awards:

    P6901 - TPF 16:45, 71,700
    P6903 - TPF 37:35, 115,000
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Have you thought about tossing a couple GPUs in there to fold on? I saw you sold off all those cards...not worth the power usage?
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    With bigadv, multiple GPU3 folding clients can push the bigadv over the WU preferred deadline, causing a big drop in points. The PPD gain is also accompanied by a greatly increased electricity draw and heat output, so there are several things to consider. I imagine Leo will chime in with his reasoning.

    He is also folding on Linux (better for bigadv, but worse for GPU3 to my knowledge as you have to add WINE into the mix)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Moving forward, my Folding hardware and software upgrade configurations do not include GPU Folding of any kind:

    1. My dedicated Folding rigs are all Linux now. You can set up GPUs to fold in Linux, but it's a pain.
    2. Multi-core CPU Folding in Linux has become very productive. With respect to the compromises one must make concerning hardware purchases, power consumption, and plain old whirring fan noises, GPU Folding doesn't make sense for my Linux platforms strategy.

    For Windows, GPU Folding, IMO, still makes sense. Unless you are running Sandy Bridge E or I7 9XX class CPU, GPUs can produce a large proportion of a system's Folding output. You do though, have to take heat output and power consumption under consideration. I used to fold with 9800GX2s and GTX 295s, but the power bill got a bit high and I scaled down to GTS 450s.

    While we are on this topic, I've got two more GTS 450s for sale. If you want to fold with them, expect about 100 Watts each at full load; 7,200 PPD advmethods; 9,000 PPD non-advmethods.
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