Adventure 2800

Anyone see these? Looks like it could be a nice solution for a multi-GPU setup. With all those slots would need a special case too.

I did email them a couple of times back in July to try and see if I could get an Adventure 2500, but got no response from them.

Edit: Found the original thread re: Adventure 2500 here

I got a reply to my email. They want $5000 USD for the Adventure 2800. Still haven't got pricing for the 2500.

I think the EVGA X58 would be a better deal. Its got 7 PCIe slots single spaced and costs $400 USD. It would allow for 4 double-width cards and it supports quad-sli.

There is also the ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer with 7 PCIe slots. Probably a few more out there as well with more reasonable price tags.

ASRock supercomputer works quite well.

gdf

I think motherboards with 4 well spaced out PCIE slots are nicely balanced; a good number for those wishing to use 4 GPUs supported by a quad CPU or better. When you go past this number of GPU’s you start running into difficulties.

While there are plenty of motherboards with 7 PCIE slots they are more expensive and can still only facilitate 4 double width cards; as yet there isn’t a high end slim line Fermi that will actually fit a single slot, and at this stage we would be talking about a 500 series card (7 GTX470’s would only do the same work as 4 GTX580’s, but use more electric). 7 cards would also need to be water cooled, but water block connections tends to stick out into the adjacent slot space. Even if someone did get pricey bespoke water blocks for 7 cards, they would need two active PSU’s, and a high end i7; all very expensive. With all their eggs in the one basket; downtime would be a potential problem. One failed card, fan or RAM module would mean all cards stop, and a replacement PSU or drive could mean a lengthy outage.

I wonder if there would be any performance loss if you add lots of high end cards to a good system, an i7, plenty of RAM and HDD space? It may depend on the motherboard chipset. I know that for a second card it is negligible but by the time you add a 7th card it could become significant.

From memory nvidia has hobbled the GeForce drivers so they only support 4 cards per machine. I gather the Quadro and Tesla drivers don't have this restriction. If that is the case then there is no point in having more than 4 PCIe slots in a machine, at least for graphics cards.

Can anyone who has tried more than 4 cards in a single machine confirm this?
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BOINC blog

Almost a year on since the last post in this thread and I am in Tokyo. I have managed to get one of these from ELSA Japan. Now all I have to do is get it home...

While shopping in the electronics district I also spotted the hard to get single slot GTS450. So I picked up a few of them. They are also ELSA branded cards. I have asked if I can get a few more (actually 10) to put into my Adventure. Unfortunately I don't have the room to carry them all in my luggage so will have to get them shipped over.

I think your adventure will continue when you get home!




While many of these slimline GTS450's will fit on the board, each GTS450 only has 192shaders. As it's GF106 only 128 will be usable here.

Yes the expansion board is an excellent idea, but I'm not sure GTS450's are the answer.

Even with 11 GTS450 cards that's only 11*128 active shaders (1408).
So just one GTX590 and one GTX580 would match 11 GTS450's. Three GTX580's would outperform the 11 GTS450's, as would 4 GTX470's... That said I'm not aware of the purchase costs, and the running costs might not be too bad; 106W TDP, but I would guess more like 75W per GTS450 when running GPUGrid tasks. There are slim-line GTX460's too; might be slightly better.

The ADVENTURE 2800 has 11 PCIE 2.0 slots. Four slots can operate at X16, up to 8 will work at x8 downstream, but what about the other 3?

While the board could in theory fit six GTX590's I doubt you would get full performance.
Despite my concerns, I'm sure you will have fun. Would be interested to hear how you get on, about noise, performance, running costs relative to GPU's inside a system...

Good luck,
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FAQ's

HOW TO:
- Opt out of Beta Tests
- Ask for Help

I think your adventure will continue when you get home!




While many of these slimline GTS450's will fit on the board, each GTS450 only has 192shaders. As it's GF106 only 128 will be usable here.

Yes the expansion board is an excellent idea, but I'm not sure GTS450's are the answer.

Even with 11 GTS450 cards that's only 11*128 active shaders (1408).
So just one GTX590 and one GTX580 would match 11 GTS450's. Three GTX580's would outperform the 11 GTS450's, as would 4 GTX470's... That said I'm not aware of the purchase costs, and the running costs might not be too bad; 106W TDP, but I would guess more like 75W per GTS450 when running GPUGrid tasks. There are slim-line GTX460's too; might be slightly better.

The ADVENTURE 2800 has 11 PCIE 2.0 slots. Four slots can operate at X16, up to 8 will work at x8 downstream, but what about the other 3?

While the board could in theory fit six GTX590's I doubt you would get full performance.
Despite my concerns, I'm sure you will have fun. Would be interested to hear how you get on, about noise, performance, running costs relative to GPU's inside a system...

Good luck,

May I ask what you intend to do with this stuff?

MrS
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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

I'm thinking star ship so Scottie can half-day any problem (:P
____________
FAQ's

HOW TO:
- Opt out of Beta Tests
- Ask for Help

May I ask what you intend to do with this stuff?

MrS

Alright, that makes sense: Einstein and SETI "still" need CPU support, so more mid-range GPUs are better there than few high end GPUs.

MrS
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Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002