Up-cycling an old server? pt 2

January 22, 2017
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So today I decided it was worth adding in the second GTX 750Ti that was donated to me. this was successful and I managed off a 500w PSU to have the dual core CPU and the 2 graphics cards folding. The cpu has a 65w TDP, and the graphics cards are supposed to be 75w ish each, which means 215w plus the HD all off the 12v rail. Well the PSU is 17A 12v which is a maximum of 204w…. hummmmm. But worked fine.

I did some measurements as I added bits in;

  • 0w unpluged (well durr),
  • 5w standby power consumption,
  • 69w powered on but idling (one GPU installed),
  • 139w with 1 CPU and 1 GPU folding at max,
  • 151w with 2 CPU and 1 GPU folding at max,
  • 81w powered on but idiling (two GPU installed),
  • 152w with 1 CPU and 1 GPU folding at max (2nd GPU installed and idiling),
  • 172w with 2 CPU and 2 GPU folding at max.

So, comparing this for folding to my post here, (based on 24hr period):
the M600 server blade 23000/8.64kWh = 2662 points/kWh,
the QC Core 2 Quad 6500/2.62kWh = 2480 points/kWh,
the QC with 750Ti 38000/3.6kWh = 10500 points/kWh,
the DC with 2 750Ti 76000/4.13kWh = 18402 points/kWh,

Meaning that the dual GPU setup is clearly the winner…

QC with the 750 would generate around 13,870,000 points/year and cost £130 a year to run, the DC with 2 750 would generate around 27,740,000 point/year and cost £150 a year to run… clearly the new setup wins… but… NO.

The problem here is that I want to use the host to run some VM’s doing specific tasks, but with each GPU tying up a CPU core, and only being a dual core machine this would be a hopeless setup. Not to worry – I have a few Quad core machines lying about not doing anything so, I pop in a Core 2 Quad and well… it didn’t work! back to the manuals. So this clearly shows that it does support Core 2 Quad’s, but not the quad core’s I have which are the Q9300. See comparison here between the DC and QC I have and the one I should install. Damn it.

I should really think about the 12v supply a bit more – moving buying and installing a Q6600. It would potentially push me way past the PSU supply limit (75+75+105= 255w, 204w limit). This is one reason why anyone using multiple graphics cards is installing massive PSU’s not for the Wattage, but need for a massive 12v supply rail.

Ah well – time to commit to the dual core with only 4GB RAM for the time being. 🙁

Forgot to mention i found this old diagram for the original motherboard

Original mobo

Original mobo