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Thread: Building a 24 thread cruncher

  1. #1
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    Building an AMD-based 24 thread cruncher

    As every Tom, Dick and Harry can build his/her 16 thread cruncher nowadays by simply buying an AM4 mobo and a Ryzen 7, let's try for the next level:
    The 24 thread cruncher.

    Goodbye to Socket 940, as there are no mobo's with 12 sockets for ye olde Socket 940.

    Socket F:

    1. Buy a quad Socket F mobo and four six-core Opteron 8400 EE- or HE-series "Istanbul" of 60-79 Watt TDP.


    Socket G34:

    1. Buy a dual Socket G34 mobo and two twelve-core Opteron 6100 HE-series "Magny-Cours" of 85 watt TDP.
    2. Buy a dual Socket G34 mobo and two twelve-core Opteron 6230 HE-series "Interlagos" of 85 watt TDP.
    3. Buy a dual Socket G34 mobo and two twelve-core Opteron 6300-series "Abu Dhabi" of 99-115Watt TDP.

    I've read reports of SETI.USA members that prefer the old K10 core over the Bulldozer for performance reasons, so if you want to give Socket G34 a try, go for the Opteron 6100 HE-series.

    No Socket AM4 here -yet. This might change with Ryzen v2 or Ryzen v3, as Starship is rumoured to have 48 cores.

    Socket TR4

    1. Take any TR4 mobo and buy a 12-core Ryzen Threadripper 1920X. [recommended]

    Advantages of Threadripper against the Bulldozer-based Dual Opterons is the amount of PCIe lanes and the fact that a single CPU system requires less space. Disadvantage is the fact that the quad-channel RAM dictates that you have to buy the RAM in quantities of at least four sticks at a time. This option also gives you the opportunity to make your cruncher a 32-thread cruncher in time though.

    No Socket SP3 either, there are no 12-core EPYCs planned yet.
    Last edited by Dirk Broer; 09-07-2017 at 09:05 AM.


  2. #2
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    Going the Threadripper road here costs you -at least- a mobo, the $339.99 Asrock X399 Taichi as most economical choice gets my recommendation here.
    A few years ago I never thought I would ever recommend Asrock, but they have some rock-solid boards nowadays, and never shrink away from being the only supplier in a given niece (e.g. Socket 478 with DDR3)
    You need a Threadripper too, and that 12 core is gonna cost you some $799.99
    I'd buy -at least- 96GB of ram in a 24-thread sytem. A 128 GB G.Skill quad channel set sets you back some $1,170.99 though...and that's the cheapest option at Newegg.

    $339.99 + $799.99 + $1,170.99 is some hefty $2,311.....

    What does socket G34 offer?

    Don't ask me why, but Newegg has a hard to beat offer: an OEM Dell DW8Y5 Dell PowerEdge C6145 Server Quad Socket G34 for $113.90 . No need to fill them all at the same time. I'd say...
    Two Opteron 6338Ps for this mobo will cost you $392.37 each at Newegg and two sets of 48GB of Crucial Registered ECC DDR3 RAM will cost you $489.00 each,
    -> grand total $1877,00 for the G34 that has only half its sockets filled. Not too bad. Hard to make a choice here, especially when you already have some G34 hardware lying around.


  3. #3
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    I was able to get my g34 server blades for about 150 each used with 2 6174's and 32gb of ram :P



  4. #4
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    I'd buy more RAM, if I were you. Pity you can't carry over the RAM of Socket F unto Socket G34...


  5. #5
    Don't forget about server pulls, I have been playing with the idea of a 48-core for a month or so, probably going to pull the trigger before years end. I have seen single CPUs under $7 and sets of four slightly faster ones for $30-40. My current plan, though always subject to change, is 48-core in a quad G34 board, speed somewhere in the 2.1-2.4Ghz range. Used board and CPUs ~$100-150 haven't priced out RAM yet as I am fearful to do so, but server pulls may be dirt cheap as well.

    I have always been an avid supporter of used GPUs, thanks to our friendly neighbourhood miners and "1337 gamers" dumping top end cards dirt cheap when the next gen comes out. Though just recently I stepped into the realm of used storage, picked up a set of four 500GB VelociRaptors for my cold-storage server at less than the price of similar sized "normal" drives used or otherwise. The raptors were $13 each shipped, zero SMART errors as advertised, and a destructive run of badblocks tossed 0/0/0 after four passes. This is what inspired me to turn all my builds to used when possible, will still be getting a top-end threadripper, but for non-flagship rigs I will be going used until it bites me.

    As far as GPU, if you run Milkyway you almost have to go used these days, all the R series can't hold a candle to the 6000-8000's double-precision. Current king of the hill is the Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid with an IMPRESSIVE 13.7 TFLOP single, but a sad 859 GFLOP double and costs around $700. HD 7970 puts out 4 TFLOP single 1 TFLOP double, and runs you $150 currently. That's top of the line R serious though, have a look through older R lines and lower ends of all lines, pathetic output. For example an RX 470 will run you about the same as a 7970, but 3.7 TFLOP single, 239 GFLOP double. R9 390 5 TFLOP single, 640 GFLOP double, and runs about $200.
    Last edited by SuicideCabbage; 09-18-2017 at 07:17 AM.

  6. #6
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    The ram seems excessive already with Linux and the projects I run with it.



  7. #7
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    I like the idea of the used GPU as its nice to find a used with a nice water blocks.



  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jason1478963 View Post
    The ram seems excessive already with Linux and the projects I run with it.
    I run several projects that sometimes needs as much as 3GB for a WU.
    A 24 thread cruncher runs 24 WUs at a time, so 96GB of RAM should be safe/enough.
    If you have several Virtual Box WUs running -they eat RAM like it is nothing-, 32GB will not be enough.

    Did you never encounter a 'waiting for memory' message in the BOINC Manager?
    Last edited by Dirk Broer; 09-20-2017 at 02:57 PM.


  9. #9
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    I'll keep it in mind but I haven't had any issues at WCG lately with 1GB per core. This system is mostly run in the winter months and a few races here and there do the high number of BTU(around 9000)it puts out when running all the blades. If I remember right the memory banks are full and should be matches serer memory making that a bit more painful. I think i did slightly better on the Ryzen builds but I may have fallen short of the 3GB per core. I think it may be in my best interest to have a mix of projects and app_config files when it comes to memory hog projects. My gut feeling is most computers aren't that loaded with ram and reduce the computers that can work on projects like that. If i recall WCG tries to keep the apps as computer friendly as possible.



  10. #10
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    9000 BTU, It should come with its own windmill and solar panels....
    I have two servers myself I daren't run -but mainly because of the noise.
    One is a 3U dual Xeon III 550, the other a 1U single Pentium III-1000 in a dual mobo.
    I tested them once, they can be booted with a Knoppix live CD.
    Last edited by Dirk Broer; 09-20-2017 at 10:17 PM.


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