Wow.


All things considered, there's a lot of limiting factors to the idea I've got as far as this backplane goes, but with that SHB, while the chips on it would be good for a parallelizable workload, they'd likely be terrible for gaming

I was doing some math... Without an AMD option, even if I could pack the machine with the appropriate Intel chips, it'd likely be more than 3-4x the cost of putting together multiple boxes, even considering duplicated hardware such as cases, power supplies, and so on.  I naturally expect a premium for enterprise hardware, but at some point.... I'm sure you get th idea

Part of me really wants to see the sight of 15 or so monitors plugged into a noisy metal behemoth.

Shame I didn't catch this thread back in February.  Even if VTd passthrough weren't an option, I probably could have helped you with using Xen PV passthrough to make it all work, and that would have been a real pleasure to see!

Oh well.  If you want to take a stab at making it work again, drop me a line.  I could at least point you in the right direction

Also, thanks for the quick reply!

Probably a bunch of people, myself included, but I guess I would need some more info.

How's the 3D performance of the PCIe cards through the x4(?) electrical connection?

To your knowledge, is there an SHB available (probably AMD-based) that will allow me to pack at least 36 cores into the box?  And at least 64 GB of RAM?

I've built two multi-headed gaming boxes now out of my old mining hardware.  Fun stuff.  If there's a realistic way to stuff 18 heads into a single case (Oh hrm, I'd need more GPUs ), I'd be open to looking into it.

Just a report that I got the six I ordered within just a few days of payment.  GREAT packing job too!  No wasted space, and thank god, none of that brown paper that I'm getting increasingly sick of un-crinkling so that I can throw it away

Haven't installed them yet though, as my work schedule just plain sucks

Thanks again!

One of my best friends is a professional blogger.  I can drop him a line if you like, but 3 BTC is likely too low on a per-article basis.  5-7 BTC would probably be more along the lines of what I can recall about the industry, but I can't be certain.  He does find bitcoin to be very intriguing, though

Just let me know if that's something that interests you.

You can boot from HTTP (my preference for booting WinPE over LAN) using iPXE.

The lead developer has been making some strides with the SAN boot code, such that you can hook directly into an ISO image and boot it from SAN.  You can boot WinPE from an iSCSI hard disk, but if you're gonna do that, make sure that you disable or remove the iSCSI initiator from the PE, sort of a one and done that way once everything's in RAM.

A Winbuilder script would be ideal though, as MS frowns on redistributing their binaries

If you want to mine on your GPU at the same time as playing games or doing other things, simply use m0mchil's poclbm miner (you can download GUIMiner, which includes poclbm) and add "-f 120" to the command line.

The -f switch tells the miner that you want it to back off so that you can maintain a certain frame rate in other programs, like Everquest 2, while it mines with your video card.

For the CPU miner, just lower the priority of the process using task manager, and it'll only use "spare" CPU resources.

Yup!

Overall, I am very pleased with the way it has turned out.  Looks awesome when the lights are off, too

I'm not too sure if it's completely cost effective when compared to some cases that are available, but at just under $60 each, it's basically a drop in the bucket when you're loading them up with 6990s


Vladimir:

If you're gonna show off like that, please have the courtesy to leave us some toast for all of this jelly. 

I would like to buy 6, or however many fans you would recommend to cool 3x open air rigs via "appropriate" positioning of said fans.

Please send me a PM with a Bitcoin payment address with the total number of fans (if you recommend a different count), total, and price per unit, and I'll reply with my shipping and contact details, along with proof of payment.  My zip code is 44138.

(Assuming that's how this works, of course )

Appreciate the service.  I'm told that Delta fans really have no equal

Cheers.

Heh, funny story

It's sold as "Stackable," so I figured the stacking hardware would be in the box... but it's not.  MyOpenPC sells an "Upgrade Kit," also on Amazon, that's specifically for this bench, and it has the stacking hardware in it.  Like $15 I believe.

Welp, so long as we're all showing off, these are two of my dedicated miners:

http://i.imgur.com/jza5z.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Bqko0.jpg

The top one is 2x 6990, and the bottom is 2x 5970.  You can see three and four on the right and left of the benches, respectively.

I've got to shuffle some hardware around before I install the board in the top bench.  I found the benches on Amazon, but the "Stackable" part was what sold me   Linky.

I've since moved everything to the garage.  Installing some air ducts today to pipe the heat out of the gable fan that vents the garage.  I'll post more photos then!

Also, let me say: God damn, we're all a MASSIVE bunch of nerds

More photos for the cable management nerds.

I have to admit I'm extremely intrigued.  30" IPS panels are like the holy grail of the LCD for people like me who long for the color reproduction and contrast that you used to get on CRTs and now have to go out of your way to find.

You can send me a PM if you like, as I'd need to haggle a bit with your price, assuming you can't find any takers at 150

Cheers

Buy the Azza PSAZ-1000A14 PSU from TigerDirect.  I'm using it to power dual 6990s, overclocked.  Runs like a dream, and I'm ordering 3 more.  $99 with coupon LKH29905

they have the Sapphire 5850s still in stock.  You'll want those or the ASUS ones because of the cooler design: best airflow.

Get the MSI board I mentioned, it works very well.

Buy an AMD quad athlon for $99 or something.  Newegg has them.

Get your free ram, find a spare hard drive, and off you go.  Should total you under $1000 I think, before shipping.


If you're worried about heat, buy these: http://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-Riser-Flexible-Cable/dp/B004XD74MC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1305302419&sr=8-1

While 1X risers will work perfectly, these are the only [cheap] ones I've found that will get to you in under 2 weeks

A budget helps

My friend and I put together a 1.2 GHps rig for about $1100.  No case, no hdd/optical.  <$1 per MHash is very doable.

5850s, AMD quad, free RAM, and MSI 890FX board with 1 kW PSU.  Should work well.  Building tonight =)

Overclocked to what speeds?  I see about 300 per GPU at 810 MHz, but I'm on f=120 right now.  f=1 seems to be worse.