Looking to add to the flock

[Vinster]

I have a line on a few well priced GPU's, I might be adding to the flock in the near future. I've moved my r9-290x to a dedicated PC. I built it for my mom last year, paid for by my dad, but now that they are both gone I don't have the heart to sell it.

It has an i3-8100, 8GB Ram, Samsung 970 EVO 250GB NVMe with an Asus TUF Gaming MB (2x PCIe slots), EVGA 750W G3 PSU (4x 8 Pin PCIe PSU plugs).

So I'm looking at some well priced GPU's in the RTX flavour. looking to get a 2070 Super and then maybe eventually replace the 290x with something a little more powerful. as long as things go well I almost think this dedicated PC will run 100%. Right now I've been folding on my 24/7 Rig with a custom water loop, This rig will be on air. I'm thinking it'll live in my electronics room with a window open in the Fall/Winter/Spring and in my cold cellar in the Summer...

I hope thing go that way. we'll see what she does.

I've started to work with Linux Mint, that seems to be the best OS for Folding, though it's a PITA to setup...

Getting MINT 19.3 going was easy, took a bit to realize that you have to install the FAHControl and Client separately in Linux (WhyTF would you have to do that, one doesn't work without the other) and I can fold with a CPU easily enough.. but then spend 6hrs trying to get the AMD 290x to fold...

it's just not working, I've gone through every MINT+AMD thread I can find and it just keeps giving me a BAD_WU (127) error and download/fail loop.. This being a dual boot system, I just opened Win10, installed the GPU drivers, loaded up FAH and in 10 min it was folding... WTH?? So I'm going for now, Seems Linux/MINT/ubuntu are nicer to nVidia and I'm going that way in my hopes, so Win10 will do for now.

Reason for MINT is from my research, that OS will gain you about 10% more PPD, and this being a dedicated Folding Rig, 10% in a year is a lot of points and a no brainer.

Vin

[Bones]

Linux seems to like Nvidia GPU's better than it does AMD GPU's.
Support for the Nvidia stuff is better, I do hope that changes soon (One day).

[Aleslammer]

I tried Linux 4 or 5 months ago, actually had the Nvidia VGAs working on a X79 platform but the LAN port on the board was faulty. Switched to a z270 and added USB Wifi couldn't get the VGAs or wifi to work under Linux.

[Vinster]

Dec 29, 2019 11:39:33 GMT -5 Aleslammer said:

I tried Linux 4 or 5 months ago, actually had the Nvidia VGAs working on a X79 platform but the LAN port on the board was faulty. Switched to a z270 and added USB Wifi couldn't get the VGAs or wifi to work under Linux.

Over the years of going in and out of Linux I've always had odd issues like this... they have always been my reasons for going back to windows.. I'll live with the issue for a while and then hit a wall and think to myself (F-This... no reason this should work, pop in a new drive install windows and boom, everything just works) One time I could never get my supported printer to work, another time was a supported audio card. This time a supported VGA..

Like I can see the r9-290x in the hardware list, I can see the temps in PSensor.. but I just can't enable it it seems.

Way back I couldn't get an RS232 mouse to work... I couldn't get COM1 to initialize...

This is my first MINT installation, I've usually stuck with ubuntu (I think my first time with ubuntu was version 4 or 5 like 10-15 years ago)

Vin

[prodigit]

I would recommend running either one RTX2080Ti, or 2x RTX 2070 Supers, of 2060 Supers in there, and take the case housing off.

In Linux, FAHClient works Independently from FAHControl. You can run a headless (DOS-like) OS, and configure Linux (and FAHClient) without a GUI.

I wouldn't say that mint is the easiest. I found Lubuntu easier. However, as far as I know, Ubuntu 19/Debian 10 and it's variants (that is mint, lubuntu, lubuntu, peppermint, and lots of other Debian based distros) have problems running FAHControl.
Also, Nvidia drivers don't allow overclocking on multiple GPUs on those versions. Actually, they do, but with a lot of desktop errors.

For compatibility with FAHControl, and multi GPUs from Nvidia, you'll be dependent on the LTS version 18.04 of any Ubuntu flavor or variant, which looks less nice, but runs stable.

Third, you may need to install opencl drivers, that should come with the AMD drivers, but often don't.
You could install generic drivers if you can't install the AMD ones, by typing in terminal:
Sudo apt-get install ocl-icd-opencl-dev

In case you want to try out Lubuntu, with Nvidia GPUs, here's a guide:
foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=31595

Just replace the Nvidia drivers with AMD's drivers, or in some ways, mint follows very similar procedures.

Also, if something breaks, don't be afraid to reinstall it. Unlike windows, where each broken installation leaves registry code, Linux only installs one version of a program in it's registry, without any garbage from previous.
So reinstalling something 10x won't slow down or break the OS.

Also, folding forum is available, in case you need help with drivers, or installation procedures.
If you want to learn how to use Linux, you can find cheap sub $100 laptops on Amazon or eBay.
As long as it has a dual core 1,4Ghz x86 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of ROM (or more), and isn't a Chromebook, it'll be able to run most Linux distros.

You preferably will want a 2Ghz dual core cpu, with 4GB of RAM and 32GB SSD of higher.

[Vinster]

I rand that sudo command, that's how I got the GPU recognized in the OS and started getting temps back from the gpu

my 1 deal fell through, too bad, was a great deal, I came down with the flu and couldn't get out there to get it... an RTX2070 Super for $500... great deal.. will keep on looking

Vin