The (insanely obscene) fast pace of desktop/side scientific computing [geek alert]
Remember those machines I purchased to support the crazy ass nVidia graphics cards that we are using as computational engines, not (and I can hear the screams of thousands of hardcore gamers) for actual gaming?
Guess what, just a year after we bought them, they are too wimpy to support the even newer, even crazier-ass, cards that nVidia is giving us to play with. We even have a 'graphics' card that has no port for graphics output - a T10 which is solely for computational use. Ooof.
The major problem? The new version of PCIe provisions more power and an 8pin power connector instead of the 6pin one used in v1.1/1.0. So far, our machines won't even power on these cards. I'm awaiting adapters to help bring the right pins out to the newer cards. But I am also looking seriously at having $lab purchase more machines or find some way to upgrade the power supplies. Yes, you read that, right, upgrade power supplies that are already rated for 1 kilowatt.
I'd rather buy new machines. It would solve the power issues cleanly, give us more machines to handle more cards at any one time, and give us new systems to benchmark (We have a guy who, everytime we get a new machine, abuses it for a week running benchmarks). But, they are big machines, take up room, power, and air conditioning. It's a tough choice, though I'm aiming for new machines.
Once again, Sun, HP, and Dell are unable to supply us a system to support these cards - they were hardly able to do it with the previous batch of cards. It looks like we, once again, are going to go with Alienware as it seems the gaming system companies are the only ones who really keep up at all with these things. Man, I'm going to be pissed if we buy new boxes only to have this happen again in the next year, though I think we have until 2010 when PCIe 3.0 comes out.
Guess what, just a year after we bought them, they are too wimpy to support the even newer, even crazier-ass, cards that nVidia is giving us to play with. We even have a 'graphics' card that has no port for graphics output - a T10 which is solely for computational use. Ooof.
The major problem? The new version of PCIe provisions more power and an 8pin power connector instead of the 6pin one used in v1.1/1.0. So far, our machines won't even power on these cards. I'm awaiting adapters to help bring the right pins out to the newer cards. But I am also looking seriously at having $lab purchase more machines or find some way to upgrade the power supplies. Yes, you read that, right, upgrade power supplies that are already rated for 1 kilowatt.
I'd rather buy new machines. It would solve the power issues cleanly, give us more machines to handle more cards at any one time, and give us new systems to benchmark (We have a guy who, everytime we get a new machine, abuses it for a week running benchmarks). But, they are big machines, take up room, power, and air conditioning. It's a tough choice, though I'm aiming for new machines.
Once again, Sun, HP, and Dell are unable to supply us a system to support these cards - they were hardly able to do it with the previous batch of cards. It looks like we, once again, are going to go with Alienware as it seems the gaming system companies are the only ones who really keep up at all with these things. Man, I'm going to be pissed if we buy new boxes only to have this happen again in the next year, though I think we have until 2010 when PCIe 3.0 comes out.