So, crypto prices are down for quite some time now and many crypto-communities here on Steemit have quietened down... but #Gridcoin is active as usual! No surprise here, since Gridcoin community is probably the most dedicated BOINC community out there and BOINC had millions of users long before Bitcoin even existed. Regardless of currently prevailing crypto-trends, the world of computational science continues to stir the curiosity and attract hundreds of thousands of users who want to run various scientific computations on their PCs. I am proud to be one of those users and just recently, I have built a new, powerful PC which will be used for non-stop 24/7/365 BOINC crunching and various scientific projects.
CPU: Intel Skylake-X i9-7900X
MB: ASUS Rampage VI Extreme
GPU: Nvidia Titan V
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 32GB (4x8GB)
Case: Lian Li PC-A76X
PSU: Seasonic PRIME Ultra 1000 W Titanium
The naked beauty of Skylake-X i9-7900X processor. There are 10 independent CPU cores underneath, enabling 20 simultaneous BOINC CPU tasks. Delivered from Intel without a stock heatsink - perfect for hard-core enthusiasts (stock coolers are never good enough for them!)
Lian Li PC-A76X case offers plenty of space for your main rig. And of course, no ambitious BOINC rig intended for 24/7 operation is air-cooled. So yes, those strange, black, clamped tubes are for water and they are connected to those expensive looking black rectangles - waterblocks.
The shiny beauty of EK-FB ASUS ROG R6E RGB Monoblock (Acetal+Nickel). This single, monolithic waterblock cools both the CPU and the power regulation (MOSFET) module on the ASUS Rampage VI motherboard. Can be configured to glow in any color you like. Bright white vertical strips on the sides are sticks of Corsair RAM, reflecting the camera flash. Also, notice the shiny reflection on the GPU backplate :)
On the other hand, Nvidia Titan V comes with a beautiful, goldish, stock air-cooler. Unfortunately, I had to remove it to install the EK-FC Titan V waterblock. This is a VERY expensive (it costs more than all the other stuff here together) and powerful GPU, so it certainly deserves the best cooling there is.
And there it is - the naked beauty of Titan V, with stock cooler removed. Notice how large that freaking GPU chip is. Those white, rubbery strips to the left and right are thermal pads, intended to ensure the best possible heat transfer from the graphic card to the waterblock. Thermal paste is required for the GPU itself - it was applied later on, so that you can enjoy those reflections on the spotlessly polished GPU surface :)
Of course, all those shiny waterblocks would be useless without a watercooling pump and a reservoir. For this rig, I am using EK-SBAY Dual DDC 3.2 PWM Serial. It's a reservoir built around two DDC pumps and the whole unit can fit into a single 5.25 bay. Very practical, but can store only about 1 decilitre of water (should be enough for most builds).
And at last, powering the whole rig: Seasonic PRIME Ultra 1000 W Titanium. Titanium line of power supplies is Seasonic's latest and greatest, offering incredible 94% efficiency at 50% load (considerably outperforming both Gold and Platinum standards). Of course, 1000 watts is an overkill for a single-GPU configuration, but one has to plan for future upgrades too.
That wraps up this little hardware photo-review! In next articles, I will analyze the BOINC performance of this new machine, in various interesting BOINC projects.
Once I thought of building a monster like this one. But then compare the computing power to a few of lesser PCs and he loses )
I end up by renting the power in DC. Such a way it provides power to my apps and DBs with crypto data and you could simple double your power in times of BOINC challenges like Pentathlon.
Also if invested that money in STEEM and use reward cash-flow to rent the computing power is a way of free boincing 24/7
You are right, for the cost of this machine, you can build ten "lesser PCs" and have at least 5x bigger total BOINC output. But high-end gear is always more captivating :)
2-CPUs server Xeon maybe? )
512 Gb of RAM. STEEM full node as a bonus.
Beautiful beast! I should also build something similar.
By the way, what OS are you going to use?
This is now my main rig, so Win10. Will be used for general desktop stuff too.
What a monster rig! What kind of BOINC projects do you plan to crunch with this hardware? Please let us know what kind of magnitude you get!
Running Asteroids@home on it, currently #3 at the Top Hosts list. And that's without using Titan V. More details to follow :)
EDIT: New article about Asteroids@home is out!
https://steemit.com/gridcoin/@vortac/skylake-x-plowing-through-asteroids-home-avx-tasks
Sick rig! I'm well jelly, haha!
We can all dream.
HAL 9000 and Skynet look like raspberry's compared to this! Nice!
Holy cow, that thing is gorgeous. Just a little jealous! Here I was thinking of a modest upgrade soon.. but this thing blows my ideas out the window 😂.
My god, monsters do exist!
As others already have mentioned in the comments section, this is a great looking system.
I think your choice of PSU is also really great and overlooked by many people. It is nicely balanced to power the connected kit and give optimal efficiency with limited heat dissipation. The CPU/GPU cooler is "cool" as well, being silent and having redundancy with 2 pumps in series to keep your system crunching for science 24/7.
If I see your system, I really want to build one myself now! :)
Indeed, pump redundancy was an important factor in choosing that pump/reservoir combo. My last BOINC rig was also equipped with two pumps and one failed within a year, but the other one kept me in the business. It's not easy to replace a pump (the whole system has to be drained first) so it's always a good idea to have a spare one ready in the loop.
Incredible rig. Can it run Crysis?
Confirmed! Averaging around 90 FPS (Benchmark_GPU.bat)
I can't believe Crysis is 10 years old (looking at that top left corner). What does that say about the state of gaming.
Yeah, diminishing returns. In terms of graphics and gameplay, there was a huge leap from Quake 2 (1997) to Crysis, but from Crysis to today's FPS... I guess most people wouldn't even be able to spot the difference.
Holy crap this is godlike :O
Never read about this rig before, looks like a good investment. I can't afford this now, but this would be a good reference for me in the future.
Nice one! I started off with the beginnings of Seti, even way before it all was intergated into the BOINC system.
I also build some water cooled PCs specially for that, that worked quiet well with the overclocked CPUs and was less noisy.
But I had to give it up years ago, because electricity costs have gone through the roof.
Happy crunching!
Crypto has gone through a much higher roof in January :)
Wow that is a really cool rig. Nice build what does something like that cost to put together ?
Depending on the definition of the "rig". Counting the gear not reviewed in this article (monitor, speakers, radiator, printer, SSDs, HDDs, UPS...) it's more than $10k.
Im about to ask the $$, you already answered here. Oh my... that cost a lot.
Wow did not realize that beauty cost that much. Wish you great luck with it! Have to stick to my Dell Desktop and HP laptop for now. Gives me something to dream about.
Thanks for being honest and posting the price.
Ohhh BOINC porn, my favourite kind ha ha
Posted to https://cryptocurrencytalk.com/topic/41967-boinc-hardware-porn-thread-show-your-rigs/?page=13 too!
Impressive rig you got there !
Will crunch data like a breeze :)
I’m still BOINCing but with a less powerful rig as you have my friend !
What a wonderful equipment.
Beautiful beast !
Thank you very much @vortac for your share in my post:
https://steemit.com/gridcoin/@newtechblog/solar-kit-gridcoin-new-proyect
Following you ! and upvoted
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congrats! looks sexy. reminds me of my 2013 amd 9590 build i still need a new board for. i had gridcoin plans to sell off and a new build by now but it mass tanked and hasnt recovered from july 2017.
soon as i recover from last weeks surgery i need to swap out my xeon x5550's for x5560's since i have them and 16-96gm ram to 192gb since i have stacks of 16 and 8gb sticks and each gen6 blade only has 12 slots and im robbing the 10 gen7s i have.soon as i read and learn tcp/ip over fiber gen8's and 32 thread 256gb here we come.im so sick of being sick and bed ridden barely able to movr reaching to type onscreen with a trackpad.yes im jelly i think i need a boinc/desktop go fund me. id accept a donation from the foundation ( to cure lupus ofcourse ) to go away for good.
Thank you for your cooperation