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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Hardware Chat Room
Thread: Greenhouse, a custom multi-machine chassis for crunching |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 9
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mdxi
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 6, 2017 Post Count: 109 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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It was suggested that I make a separate thread for this (thanks, Sheridon!), so here it is.
----------------------------------------I had 3 crunchboxes in commercial SFF cases scattered around my tiny apartment. I decided that I could do better, and set out to make a vertical chassis for 4 machines. Here's my dev diary: https://firepear.net/grid/greenhouse.html I posted on Reddit and got some surprisingly good conversation out of it, so there's a lot of questions answered here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/aruls0/my_stack_of_ryzens_mic/ A coworker asked why I didn't use splitter cables and power 2 systems from each PSU. The short answer to that is "it's a lot of hassle and messy cabling in order to save a bit of money and up PSU efficiency from 87-89% to 93-95%." I'm happy to talk about any aspect of this. It was way outside my core areas of competence, and was quite an experience for me.  [Edit 1 times, last edit by mdxi at Feb 21, 2019 4:23:07 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thanks for this! I find it always interesting how others set up their crunchers.
Of course I have some questions: - at what clock rate do you run the CPUs? - do you undervolt them? - what is the power draw of the whole system when running with 100% CPU load? - how much RAM do you use? In your article you write 2x4G in the beginning, but at the bottom 16Gx2? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Ok, I used your article as an inspiration to finalize an article about my crunchers, that was in the works since several days:
http://dc.sheridon.de/detailed-specs-of-my-crunchers There is not so much about the housing of them as in your article (they are simply kept in a metal cabinet), but details about the specs and components and why I chose them. |
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Seoulpowergrid
Veteran Cruncher Joined: Apr 12, 2013 Post Count: 823 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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That's very cool. Thanks for sharing your build and I love the small size of it all!
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Some nice computer case.
----------------------------------------But is the stool for? Heating next to computers?  ---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by KLiK at Feb 21, 2019 2:50:01 PM] |
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mdxi
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 6, 2017 Post Count: 109 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Clocks and volts: All stock. I sat down and looked at the BIOS to try undervolting once, but the options I was seeing didn't match what I had been told to expect, so I left it alone.
----------------------------------------System draw: I keep meaning to check this, because I do have a kill-a-watt meter, but I haven't done so. I'll check things this weekend and report back. RAM: Thanks for pointing out that inconsistency; I'll fix that shortly. The correct answer is that I'm in the middle of RAM upgrades right now. Since the new FAH2 beta WUs wanted 1G per unit, I decided it was a good time to bump up the memory in my compute nodes. At the moment 3 of them have 16G (2X 8G) of 2666MHz DDR4, but one hasn't been upgraded yet and is still running 8G (2X 4G) 2400MHz DDR4. The chair: It's just the chair in my living room, which the tower is temporarily sitting next to. It's probably moving to the bedroom soon :) |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7849 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Sheridon:
----------------------------------------First I installed Linux on 16 GB USB sticks – absolutely fine, as WCG does not write much data to the disk. However, after some months several of them failed and I switched to other options. 3.5″ HDDs are no option because they consume more electricity, which adds up over time. So I used two old 2.5″ drives from my laptops, which I exchanged for SSDs years ago. 2.5″ drives should consume only slightly more than SSDs and were and option therefore, as I had them anyway. USB sticks (flashdrives, thumbdrives) vary greatly in quality. I have used them on several systems and currently have them installed on 3 servers, Two with 24 threads and one with 8 threads. At first I used the cheapest ones I could find and they lasted a few months and then went belly up. I currently have Sandisk 16gb units installed and have had good luck with them. One of the 24 thread machines is approaching 2 years with the same USB stick. I will agree that if you had some old SSD's they are probably an even better option. Very interesting build. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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mdxi
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 6, 2017 Post Count: 109 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Ok, I used your article as an inspiration to finalize an article about my crunchers, that was in the works since several days: http://dc.sheridon.de/detailed-specs-of-my-crunchers Thanks for the fun write-up on your hardware! It's cool to see someone else's thought process on the topic :) |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
You are certainly right Sgt.Joe about higher quality USB sticks. The ones I used where relatively cheap ones. But when I thought about with what to replace them when they failed, I found the price difference between small SSDs and high quality USB sticks too low.
I changed the wording in my article a bit to make it clear, that higher quality USB sticks are a viable option. |
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