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Forum: Hardware Chat Room
Thread: Optimizing my future dedicated cruncher build |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 21
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Hey All,
I am building a dedicated cruncher in 2 weeks time when I get home after 4 months away. I've bought most of the parts, but I have some questions if you could help me out. This cruncher is designed to be sat in my spare room crunching 24/7. I want it to be wireless so that it just sits in a corner doing it's thing. Specs Bought - CPU - 2 x ES Xeon E5-2698 V4 (Each 20 cores with HT) Motherboard - Supermicro X10DRl- (ATX form factor) Cooler - 2 x Zalman LQ 320 water coolers Memory - 4 x 8gb DDR 4- 2133 ECC modules GPU - AMD 6450 SSD - Sandisk Z400s 128GB Wireless card - Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I REV 4.2 OS- Linux server (probably) but a linux system for sure Still to buy PSU - Probably going with an ANTEC 550W or 650w platinum. Case My questions 1) I want to buy a cheap case which allows plenty of airflow and good dust prevention. The environment can get very hot and humid in the summer and is pretty dusty all year round. Any recommendations? I don't want to run without a case though. There are no size restrictions, but I don't want a huge case if I can help it. Hence I got an ATX motherboard. 2) My estimated power draw from the coolermaster PSU calculater is 396-426w load and recommends 446-476 psu wattage. Would the 550W be best or the 650W? There is only about $10 difference in price. I plan on running this 24/7 for several years and electricity is not cheap here. 3) I am going to use the wireless card to eventually check on the computer via teamviewer. I have never really used Linux though. Will the server version be a pain for a novice like me? Would I be better off going for a version with a GUI? 4) Once the build is complete, I'll not have a keyboard/mouse/monitor attached. Could I also run it without the GPU to save a few watts? I've never done that before. Thanks a ton! |
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KerSamson
Master Cruncher Switzerland Joined: Jan 29, 2007 Post Count: 1684 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi vcd683s,
----------------------------------------I am not very experienced with SuperMicro mainboards. However, I would like to recommend you to check the Linux compatibility of your motherboard. Even if Linux (Ubunutu, LinuxMint or LMDE) is very supportive, it is anyway a good idea to check upfront. I am a little bit concerned with the sizing of your PSU, I would prefer at least 750 W especially because the water cooling system will take some watts. Since you plan to use watercooling, you have to take care of the airflow inside the case. You should foresee a couple of ventilators in order to move the air appropriately around the motherboard (chipsets). In all cases, you should select a case with good air filters and you HAVE TO plan to clean those filters REGULARLY (e.g. monthly or quaterly). Because you mentioned being novice with Linux, it is probably a good idea to start with a GUI. As long you don't have any compatibility problem, I would recommend you to use LinuxMint (Cinnamon or Mate), Ubuntu Mate, or LMDE 2 (Linux Mint Debian Edition) (I still dislike Unity). Based on my experience, SSD or HDD do not make a real difference by computation work. Nevertheless, because you will have 40 threads, a SSD (SATA 3) is a good choice but, if you wish to keep it healthy for years, I would prefer a larger SSD (at least 256 GB) in order to slowdown the ageing process. In all cases, you should configure the host crunching profile (device profile) to limit the disk usage; e.g.: Write to disk at most every: 600 seconds. Enjoy your new host, Yves |
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OldChap
Veteran Cruncher UK Joined: Jun 5, 2009 Post Count: 978 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Any dedicated rig running 24/7/365 needs the best quality psu possible as this is the heart of the system everything relies on it. good voltage regulation and ripple figures will help with the longevity of your rig.
----------------------------------------Reference to the charts shown at plugloadsolutions (the 80plus charts) most pus's are at their most efficient when running at around 40-60% load. Running that way means that the psu itself is adding as little as possible to the heat generated. When you set up the ssd leave part of it unused. This will allow it to run its self cleaning routines in the background at any time. This overprovisioning is similar to that seen on enterprise drives. A bigger drive would be better in this respect too. I recommend you consider around 20% unused. Agree with above about air movement to keep the chipset cool. you might consider a fan mounted pointing at the board directly then the intake and extract fans resolve the buildup of heat in the destratified air. Dust: If the intake is not sufficiently filtered consider adding pantyhose  if necessary stretch across the whole intake area (whole front of case typically)I am running E5 v1 and v2 on supermicro using Linux Mint cinnamon with no issues. You get the best of both worlds GUI or CLI. Great when learning.  |
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KerSamson
Master Cruncher Switzerland Joined: Jan 29, 2007 Post Count: 1684 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi OldChap,
----------------------------------------Dust: If the intake is not sufficiently filtered consider adding pantyhose It is a great advice, I did never think about this alternative until now. Cheers, Yves |
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PecosRiverM
Veteran Cruncher The Great State of Texas Joined: Apr 27, 2007 Post Count: 1054 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Ummm no not going to say it.
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fuzzydice555
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Mar 25, 2015 Post Count: 89 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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4. You can definitely run it without the GPU, since the X10DRl already has an onboard GPU. The few 2011/2011v3 boards I tested either had an onboard GPU (server/WS board) or booted without one without any trouble.
----------------------------------------Might I ask why are you planning on watercooling it? AIOs aren't meant for 24/7 usage. If the pump fails (it will!), hopefully you'll only get a shutdown. If the cooler springs a leak... 135W can be handled safely by a good tower cooler. I've run a 120W 14 core Xeon on a Hyper 212 EVO, an Alpenföhn Brocken 2, a Scythe Fuma and a Raijintek Something. All did the job admirably, the Fuma was also whisper silent. PS: congrats on the build, dual 2698V4s are truely epic  [Edit 1 times, last edit by fuzzydice555 at Aug 1, 2016 10:08:02 PM] |
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kylinblue
Cruncher Joined: Jun 18, 2015 Post Count: 11 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Thanks guys for the replies.
I just got back home yesterday and tomorrow morning, I should (fingers crossed) get the build up and running, jetlag permitting. Sorry about the late reply to this Oldchap - I went with your advice, splashed the cash and went with a Corsair HX850i. A strong heart should help everything I hope I shall also try to leave more of the drive overprovisioned then. I have a 128gb drive which I think is enough as my 48thread cruncher is currently only using 800mb of disk space. So excluding CEP2, I see this build using not really going over 5gb. Even with OS, this is big enough I feel. Right??? For the case, I went with an NZXT Source 530 which is a little over kill for an ATX board but hopefully big enough to give good airflow after some tweaking. I shall look at Linux mint as the OS then. Fuzzydice gave me great instructions for Ubuntu server, but we shall see where my confidence levels are. Fuzzydice555 - I have a spare GPU with me and I plan on using that to build with and then removing it. AIO? Hmm, I just like the idea of the heat being carried away by the AIO. I sincerely hope that they don't fail but I see your point. I currently have AIO in all of my 2P builds and this is a little bit of a worry. I guess now that I know, I will replace the AIOs with with a tower cooler if and when they fail. I still have a lot to learn about this crunching game. And thanks, I am really looking forward to getting it up and running. I will be eagerly looking at what numbers it generates once it has been running a few days. |
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fuzzydice555
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Mar 25, 2015 Post Count: 89 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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128GB is more than enough. I use 32GB SSDs for my Ubuntu Server and my Windows 10 NAS/cruncher. For win10 it's cutting it close but it's plenty for linux.
----------------------------------------I have no data on the failure rates of AIOs, they may be safe, maybe not. Using water near electronics just seems like a bad idea for me personally |
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OldChap
Veteran Cruncher UK Joined: Jun 5, 2009 Post Count: 978 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Agree with Fuzzy on the ssd's
----------------------------------------I don't know about AIO but I have a duallie running here since not long after e5-26xx came out but it is liquid cooled albeit hand built cooling. I only did it because I could, not because I needed to. That rig has run a normal intel 520 ssd since then too (120GB) If you get stuck with anything, build or OS, shoot me an email |
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