# GPU Milking Machine



## omaryunus

omg that is AMAZING! dude your gonna destroy everyone with that


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## r34p3rex

WOW. great idea with the risers xD

@nitteo, knitelife is coming for ya! lets see some friendly competition going!


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## Mootsfox

I didn't know you could stretch PCI-e slots that far









That's pretty sweet though, good luck getting 12 GPUs up and running!


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## drawz

thats flippin sick.... i want one... god 6 295s u just droped 3 grand on gpu's now thats why we need tax deductions!
might want to think about setting them a little further apart... and maybe get a window a/c unit cause that thing is going to get hot!


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## noahmateen1234

jesus. maybe you could put this rig in my room at my new house in MN next winter, and save me some $$ on my heating bill lol.

honestly, if you u cant find a place for 2 or 3 of those GX2's I can use them in a folding rig for me


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## P?P?!

i call hax!, awesome dude and w/ 295's youd kill the 100k ppd mark


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## BLKKROW

Just looking at this makes my face melt.

It is so amazing, any link to the PCI-e extensions? Or did you make them yourself?


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## low strife

That's incredible... Imagine having 10 of those machines setup next to each other. With the 295, 1m ppd in one room.

If you had 350 grand to blow, imagine getting 100 machines running.... 10m ppd.


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## zomgiwin

rediculous man








let us know when you get it working, and put a real cooler on that i7, take 'er to 4.0 and SMP like nobodys business

edit:
no dummy plugs? sillly


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## mcgrunt42

sub'd


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## Mebby

I'd have though this would have latency issues. I bet its a hazard to anything sensitive to EMI to! No pacemakers near this! lol


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## Puscifer

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Mebby* 
I'd have though this would have latency issues. I bet its a hazard to anything sensitive to EMI to! *No pacemakers near this!* lol

LOL, Look at my new folding rig grandpa....... Grandpa?

Very nice though, Knitelife!


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## Ecchi-BANZAII!!!

White PCI-e Expand cables to simulate milk [I see what you did there]


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## Megas3300

Neato, but:

-Shield those risers, or get shorter ones and lower the cards. You could be getting massive amounts of crosstalk.

-If you have trouble getting them all to post, have you tried rotating the risers? Cards?


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## rla4000

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Megas3300* 
Neato, but:

-Shield those risers, or get shorter ones and lower the cards. You could be getting massive amounts of crosstalk.

-If you have trouble getting them all to post, have you tried rotating the risers? Cards?

You speak sense.


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## nitteo

WoW...just WoW.

It takes alot for me to say just WoW.

Dude, I though *I* was crazy!

Hmmmm....now I gotta find an 8 GPU board.


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## ENTERPRISE

Wow awesome work. I didnt realise you can get PCI-E Extension cables.


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## nafljhy

you are nuts knite! wow... my jaw actually fell open.


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## SSE4.1

Subbed, this is just amazing


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## mega_option101

Looks really good Knite


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## aksthem1

Last week I was contemplating on how to get 6 dual slot GPUs on one board. Thought about riser cards then that led me to ribbon cables.

I was going to suggest it, but since people have trouble running 4 of them. I thought it would be a lost cause.


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## bluedevil

Omg!









Wow........I wish I had your cashflow......


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## ENTERPRISE

Quote:


Originally Posted by *bluedevil* 
Omg!









Wow........I wish I had your cashflow......









Dont we all lol


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## Frank Nicolas

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
I grew up in a farming community in a small town in Idaho, so I saw my fair share of dairy farms and milking machines. As I was building this I thought.

Sounds like Vietcong to me.....


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## -iceblade^

that is epic...


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## {core2duo}werd

woah.....


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## CL3P20

Hope you get the 5th and 6th up running..I want to see some PPD action out of that rig!!


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## Tandem_Riders

Sweet







Sweet







Sweet


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## {core2duo}werd

i thought windows couldn't recognize that many gpus.


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## dcshoejake

holy ****


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## Gill..

Gotta post to keep thread alive - this dude needs the recognition for his ridiculousness!

Great job, truly an amazing setup!


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## Valicious

Holy hell...I think I need to go change my pants...









PCIe extenders might be a good idea on a GX2 rig to help keep temps under control..
what mobo is that?


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## mortimersnerd

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Valicious* 
Holy hell...I think I need to go change my pants...









PCIe extenders might be a good idea on a GX2 rig to help keep temps under control..
what mobo is that?

P6T6.

You can also get a 775 Asus board that has 6 PCIe slots too.

Isn't XP/Vista limited to 8 GPUs?


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## tubesaddict

That... is simply amazing. Words cannot describe how.... damn.


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## Atlas Folder

Knitelife, that's great! Good work.

I researched doing this kind of project myself but unfortunately the results were not very encouraging. You can see my summation here in the [email protected] hardware forums from March 18th: asus p6t6/p6t7

I hope you find that I was wrong because a 100k+ folding machine was my goal too. I think it would be a great thing.

Jason


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## ipod4ever

woooooooooow thats all i can say, those risers are funny looking xD


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## admin

Awesome!!


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## Tufelhunden

Completely off the charts!!!









BTW where in Idaho I'm a native myself. Emmett.


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## Knitelife

Thanks for all the comments.

A few answers:

Shielding of the PCIe Extenders: The image does not show it, but they are shielded pretty well. Here is an image, they just reflect real well for the camera. Here is a link to where I purchased them. LINK









As far as getting more than 8 GPUs to show up with the Nvidia Drivers, once I get over the bios issue I will try to deal with that. Maybe 2 sessions of Wine over linux. I just love the challenge and the journey, and to be honest, I usually pick the tasks that others say is not possible.

I will update as I make progress.

P.S. Their is one more project under way in the "Knitelife Folding Skunkworks" codenamed "Pande Cube" that I will hopefully be posting information on after this weekend of tinkering.


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## {core2duo}werd

you might need to use crossover instead of wine because crossover lets you set up individual "Bottles" that can even be set to "emulate" different OS's


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## Boyboyd

My friend...that is simply amazing!


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## nckid4u

Quote:


Originally Posted by *{core2duo}werd* 
you might need to use crossover instead of wine because crossover lets you set up individual "Bottles" that can even be set to "emulate" different OS's


Better idea.


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## CudaBoy71

You sir are oofc..lol..nice job


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## accskyman

That is flipping awesome.. Hope you figure out the problem and get it working with more than 4 of the cards at once.

Just a thought, you've probably already checked, but can you run all 6 of those from the same place you have them plugged in? I don't know the exact wattage req's those have but I'd imagine it's got to be over a 15 or 20amp breaker's limit with 6.


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## lordikon

Quote:


Originally Posted by *drawz* 
thats flippin sick.... i want one... god 6 295s u just droped 3 grand on gpu's now thats why we need tax deductions!
might want to think about setting them a little further apart... and maybe get a window a/c unit cause that thing is going to get hot!

That is 6 9800GX2s, they're $250, half the price of the 295s.

@Knitelife: That setup is absolutely awesome...


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## Russkiy

Just buy 3 Tesla's (for cuda) and one Quadro.... Screw experiments


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## rush340

Quote:


Originally Posted by *lordikon* 
That is 6 9800GX2s, they're $250, half the price of the 295s.

@Knitelife: That setup is absolutely awesome...









He did mention replacing them with 295's if he gets it working well though









Craaaazy setup!


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## nafljhy

but once he's worked it all out. he'll be using 295s instead.









truly a monster rig.









Quote:


Originally Posted by *Russkiy* 
Just buy 3 Tesla's (for cuda) and one Quadro.... Screw experiments


sadly, i think he would have the same amount of PPD. there is still the same amount of SPs. and i don't think the OCs differ too much. the bios is what is really different between them.

plus its much more fun to experiment and i'm sure its hell of a lot cheaper than getting those cards.


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## CorporalAris

What's the problem with it anyway?


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## accskyman

Quote:


Originally Posted by *CorporalAris* 
What's the problem with it anyway?

I don't think he can get it to post with more than 4 of the cards/ 8gpu's.


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## jaakennuste

Knitelife, really hope to see it working despite of NVIDIA and BIOS current limitations.
But would You tell few words about Your PSU solution.


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## admin

My jaw still has not gone back to normal after it dropped when I saw this earlier. Kudos to your commitment and creativity!

Maybe we need a "Fall Fair" to allow all of the farmers to show off their machines. You may even win a blue ribbon!


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## CyberDruid

What can I say...

Let's get this beast firing on all twelve cylinders...the Ferrari of Folding must run!


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## Bonz(TM)

Holy (insert inappropriate word here)!!!!!

Subbed for sure.


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## Indignity

Dude, just stop it!!!!

Not really, I just wanted to be confrontational!!










I've heard that things are tough round the St. Louis area. Glad you have a niche in something good!!!! I've actually considered relocating there a few times as I have kin around there & two friends in the greater SL area.


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## omaryunus

hey knitelife

have you tried this setup with other cards as in 6 single core GPUs?? I know that wont be as beastly as 12 but it would be cool to see


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## CyberDruid

And a good test of the system...


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## Knitelife

Quote:



Originally Posted by *jaakennuste*


Knitelife, really hope to see it working despite of NVIDIA and BIOS current limitations. 
But would You tell few words about Your PSU solution.


Thanks for stopping by Jaak, I have followed your work on the folding forums as well as interaction with other sites. Needless to say I think you, Atlas, and I think a lot alike.

About the PSU setup.
Not at home at the moment, but so will have to post pictures later. My solutions for running the motherboard on any cheap PSU, and the GX2s on these:









LINK

Referbished of course because thats how I roll, lol.
They each handle the load of 2 GX2s (4 GPUs) nicely and come with 2x6 pin PCIE and 2x8pin PCIE and fit nicely in a 5 3/4 drive bay if needed.

I have been quite happy with these PSUs and have several of them running GX2s 24/7. I am running a GTX 295 on one as well, but have not had time to test if the 450watt is good enough to handle 2 295s. If not, I will use the 650w version.


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## Knitelife

Quote:



Originally Posted by *omaryunus*


hey knitelife

have you tried this setup with other cards as in 6 single core GPUs?? I know that wont be as beastly as 12 but it would be cool to see










If the final solution does not allow for all Dual GPUs, I will try 285s/275s or combinations of 295s and others to get the most out of it. I will test it with 6 9800GTX+ or GTs this weekend.


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## Knitelife

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Russkiy* 
Just buy 3 Tesla's (for cuda) and one Quadro.... Screw experiments

Best way to explain my thinking:

With enough money, anyone can win a race.
I'm the guy that wants to prove you can win the Daytona 500 with a jet engine shoehorned into a Ford Pinto driven by a chimpanzee.


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## CyberDruid

Sig worthy material right there.

Can I be the engineer


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## Tandem_Riders

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
Best way to explain my thinking:

With enough money, anyone can win a race.
I'm the guy that wants to prove you can win the Daytona 500 with a jet engine shoehorned into a Ford Pinto driven by a chimpanzee.

Ford Pinto = Kaboom!































































:

I wanna be the guy that runs around the car with the jack.


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## nitteo

Knitelife, the only way I can top this if I can get my Microwave to fold WUs while I pop some popcorn...


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## Knitelife

Quote:


Originally Posted by *nitteo* 
Knitelife, the only way I can top this if I can get my Microwave to fold WUs while I pop some popcorn...









That give me an idea. I might have to prove you realy can fry an egg on 4 GX2s folding. Time to break out the thermometer. Now that would be youtube worthy.


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## DesertRat

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
Best way to explain my thinking:

With enough money, anyone can win a race.
I'm the guy that wants to prove you can win the Daytona 500 with a jet engine shoehorned into a Ford Pinto driven by a chimpanzee.

OK! That's sigged!


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## Playapplepie

Sweet Jesus on ice skate how did you do that to the pci-e slots?

Anywho thats too insane!


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## Spectre21

Superb idea, wow!!!! Amazing!


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## nafljhy

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 







That give me an idea. I might have to prove you realy can fry an egg on 4 GX2s folding. Time to break out the thermometer. Now that would be youtube worthy.









now that would be crazy!


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## omaryunus

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
If the final solution does not allow for all Dual GPUs, I will try 285s/275s or combinations of 295s and others to get the most out of it. I will test it with 6 9800GTX+ or GTs this weekend.

Awesome cant wait to see how this turns out good luck bro


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## Tandem_Riders

The 12-cylinder theme is cool.

V-12, and make your GPU support rails form the \\/ shape once you get her purring on all cylinders.


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## Atlas Folder

Knitelife,

I agree completely with what you're saying. I like the challenge also.

I wasn't trying to be a wet blanket, I really hope you get it going.

Jason


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## Tandem_Riders

What does each 295 put out, anyway?


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## nitteo

Maybe a nice email to Asus tech support/marketing would yield some Bios tweaks.

Show Asus that this would help them sell MORE of those boards and I am positive they will work on it...


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## Atlas Folder

My overclocked 295s put out around 15,000 PPD peak.

Jason


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## gonX

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Tandem_Riders*


What does each 295 put out, anyway?


It's still "only" a 9800GX2









I have to say - that is truly astonishing! You have MULTIPLE cards that are oceans better than mine - and better rigs.

I bow to you my good sir, somebody takes folding seriously, DIY style!


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## ZTR1760

are you running SMP on the chip as well or just folding using the cards?


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## iKxGaMeX

You sir, are legendary. I hope you pull it off with all 12 GPU's running.
Have you considered virtual machines? It would be a feasible option if there isn't a performance hit on your folding...


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## The Duke

Now thats cowlicious









Quote:



Originally Posted by *Knitelife*









That give me an idea. I might have to prove you realy can fry an egg on 4 GX2s folding. Time to break out the thermometer. Now that would be youtube worthy.


An egg you say, HAAA, perhaps a 3 egg omelette


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## CyberDruid

Quote:



Originally Posted by *nitteo*


Maybe a nice email to Asus tech support/marketing would yield some Bios tweaks.

Show Asus that this would help them sell MORE of those boards and I am positive they will work on it...


It sure couldn't hurt.


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## H3||scr3am

godly rig knitelife







thats a great idea I hope you get it working


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## Papa.Smurf

Quote:



Originally Posted by *nitteo*


Maybe a nice email to Asus tech support/marketing would yield some Bios tweaks.

Show Asus that this would help them sell MORE of those boards and I am positive they will work on it...


That's a great idea might even get some Asus sponsorship going....


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## Tweex

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Tandem_Riders* 
What does each 295 put out, anyway?

Here is a screen shot of what a 295 does. These cards are sick overclockers and crunch 768 pointer in just over 2hrs.

But back to why I am here...you sir are a genius but I would hate to see your electric bill. Good luck getting that beast going. Props to you.


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## dreadlord369

As soon as I saw the picture I was like




























What in the flippin .... I swear that is awesome.
BTW: Would be cool if you do email asus and they offer a sponsership


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## MESeidel

Are you actual booting to OS right now?
I remember some nVidia Driver Dev. guy saying they tried something similar and found the system BIOS to not handle all Cards BIOS on boot.

Good luck....


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## Tufelhunden

Holy cow look at all the linkbacks!! nice!!


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## bucdan

what board has 6 pci0e slots?????!!! omg!!! that is uber


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## [pi]

I can't even get my GTS250/8600GTS rig started up









I r fail.


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## pheoxs

Hey Knitelife ever consider something like this?

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expa...pcie412403.php


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## h3xw1z4rd

That's beautiful *wipes away tear* lol


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## Knitelife

Quote:



Originally Posted by *pheoxs*


Hey Knitelife ever consider something like this?

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expa...pcie412403.php



I did actually, from a company called magma. They have something like it. They are quite expensive, and at that point, I felt like I would be using 2 motherboards instead of 1, which defeated the purpose of trying to get it all to run on one rig. Add a CPU and you end up with 2 computers anyways. I wanted the challenge of using almost all off the shelf items that regular overclockers would have. Of course the PCIe extenders break that rule a little, but who counts cables







.


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## pheoxs

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
I did actually, from a company called magma. They have something like it. They are quite expensive, and at that point, I felt like I would be using 2 motherboards instead of 1, which defeated the purpose of trying to get it all to run on one rig. Add a CPU and you end up with 2 computers anyways. I wanted the challenge of using almost all off the shelf items that regular overclockers would have. Of course the PCIe extenders break that rule a little, but who counts cables







.

My theory was if you could get something like that working you would still be looking at 12 GPU's with only two boards which is essentially what you'd be trying to do here if you made 2 "Milking machines" but it would only take 1 set of RAM and CPU so its slightly less components but I'd imagine you are correct about them being quite expensive.


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## Tandem_Riders

Quote:


Originally Posted by *gonX* 
It's still "only" a 9800GX2









I have to say - that is truly astonishing! You have MULTIPLE cards that are oceans better than mine - and better rigs.

I bow to you my good sir, somebody takes folding seriously, DIY style!

Well, GTX295s are more like 2X GTX280s. Where 9800GX2s are more like 2X 9800GTS cores.

GX2s are doing 10 - 11K ppd and 295s then more like 14 - 15K per day (or more).


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## Atlas Folder

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
I did actually, from a company called magma. They have something like it. They are quite expensive, and at that point, I felt like I would be using 2 motherboards instead of 1, which defeated the purpose of trying to get it all to run on one rig. Add a CPU and you end up with 2 computers anyways. I wanted the challenge of using almost all off the shelf items that regular overclockers would have. Of course the PCIe extenders break that rule a little, but who counts cables








.

Knitelife,

I have to say that using a board like that one would not be the same as using two motherboards and I would not consider it "cheating" any more than your riser cables. If you could fill that with 295s, connect it to a motherboard and run it (which has odds approaching zero), I would call it good. IMO that board is a very fancy cable and merely gives a system access to more resources.

Jason


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## Naja002

Sub'd!









Curious on the cost of those cables....? From what I saw--~$50 each....

Too Sweet.


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## edwardm

that's crazy, good job!


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## K092084

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Naja002*


Sub'd!









Curious on the cost of those cables....? From what I saw--~$50 each....

Too Sweet.


Actually about $95 each with them being 12" long.


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## CyberDruid

That expansion unit is relevant t my interests....

http://yhst-72904622531421.stores.yahoo.net/

But well beyond my budget









Neat tech to be aware of though...


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## targitaj

Hello from TSC! Russia.
http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.ph...art=105#p93374
http://forums.overclockers.ru/viewtopic.php?t=309417








Waiting for your answer


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## CyberDruid

Ahoy!


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## Knitelife

Quote:


Originally Posted by *targitaj* 
Hello from TSC! Russia.
http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.ph...art=105#p93374
http://forums.overclockers.ru/viewtopic.php?t=309417








Waiting for your answer









Awsome score!!







70K ppd. My russian is a bit rusty, been a few years since I spoke it. Will have to brush up so I can follow your forum better.

I admit I have not focused on the milking machine this week as I had a dozen GX2s just sitting idle. Hopefully have them all crunching by the end of this week, and then be back on the milking machine this weekend.


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## Tandem_Riders

V-12 is much more sexier sounding than Milking Machine.......

er......I guess it depends on how one looks at it......


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## Ruredee

I was shocked how much those pci-e extensions cost.

Very nice looking setup.


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## Russkiy

Quote:


Originally Posted by *targitaj* 
Hello from TSC! Russia.
http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.ph...art=105#p93374
http://forums.overclockers.ru/viewtopic.php?t=309417








Waiting for your answer










Здраствуй брат!!!


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## MadCatMk2

Hey man, you are SO outdated







































They should had named it Asus SuperFold Knitelife Edition Â®


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## Nightz2k

Quote:



Originally Posted by *MadCatMk2*


Hey man, you are SO outdated






























[pic]

They should had named it Asus SuperFold Knitelife Edition Â®


Wow..I thought you just made that one up, _(your link wasn't working either)_ lol. I had to see for myself, that's awesome.









P6T7 WS SuperComputer


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## MadCatMk2

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Nightz2k*


Wow..I thought you just made that one up, _(your link wasn't working either)_ lol. I had to see for myself, that's awesome.









P6T7 WS SuperComputer


Indeed, link fixed.


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## CyberDruid

Quote:



supporting up to *four* dual-GPU graphics cards


I have a feeling this board has the same limitation as what Knitelife already has.


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## wierdo124

Haxor.


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## el gappo

yes but can it play crysis







lol


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## mega_option101

Interesting


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## MESeidel

Quote:



Originally Posted by *CyberDruid*


I have a feeling this board has the same limitation as what Knitelife already has.


Board has six 8x Slots and one 1x.
So nothing pointing out, it only support 4 Cards.
Limitations are still the Driver and the System BIOS.
But I bet you can boot with 6 or even 7 single Chip Cards - just not dual Chip Cards.
The News is some weeks old and the Board has been discussed in all famous folding communities...


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## Le_Loup

Can't wait to see if he gets a board to put them all in 6x sli... o_o Sixtuplet Sli... O_O

Performance... Thing of the flippin past... O_O

3dmark score... Nothing would match for about a year! O_O

- Le_Loup


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## quakermaas

Its a folding rig and you can not run that many cards in SLI.
Quad SLI is the most you can go, which would be just 2 of these cards.


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## Le_Loup

One can dream eh?

Curious, 4890's, 6x, crossfire, external dongle thingers = original crossfire, why not?







Possible? (drools even more!)


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## Hueristic

Quad SLI is max till Hydra.









Edit: Knite you might want to consider trying a pci-e splitter on this if you can get all gpu's recognized.

Great job BTW!


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## Threefeet

Only just discovered this thread, f'ing amazing work!

Love the milking machine theme lol

Best of luck getting them all to POST


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## Tandem_Riders

Once Knitelife gets his life back from being the chief chimp and his software launch, hopefully we will get an update on this project.


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## thepiratemonk3y

Wow... I need a better paying job.


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## Jamar16

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Knitelife* 
Thanks for stopping by Jaak, I have followed your work on the folding forums as well as interaction with other sites. Needless to say I think you, Atlas, and I think a lot alike.

About the PSU setup.
Not at home at the moment, but so will have to post pictures later. My solutions for running the motherboard on any cheap PSU, and the GX2s on these:









LINK

Referbished of course because thats how I roll, lol.
They each handle the load of 2 GX2s (4 GPUs) nicely and come with 2x6 pin PCIE and 2x8pin PCIE and fit nicely in a 5 3/4 drive bay if needed.

I have been quite happy with these PSUs and have several of them running GX2s 24/7. I am running a GTX 295 on one as well, but have not had time to test if the 450watt is good enough to handle 2 295s. If not, I will use the 650w version.

Nice set up man, and i am assuming that you are the one that bought them out and left none for me lol


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