Bitcoin Forum

I realize nvidia cards don't do well for mining. That being said they do have an interesting "desktop super computer" that consists of several workstation cards in their own enclosure that can be connected to a host machine with a single interface card.
This is the quadro plex.
 http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadroplex.html
Does amd/ati make an equivalent or is there something generic that is capable of the same thing?

Nope, AMD doesn't have anything similar to whole Quadroplex workstations.

While AMD lacks in distributed computing tasks and single/double-point precision compared to the insanely priced Tesla and Quadro cards, they do have excellent 3d-rendering cards like the FirePro. See the performance below.

http://tech.icrontic.com/files/2010/06/V8800_viewperf_ugnx.png

Neither series are viable for mining though. The Firepro series cards get from 250 to 300mhash/s but cost $1400 dollars.

An nVidia Tesla card can cost $20,000 and yield just a few hundred mhash, they aren't designed for mining.
Great for password cracking on the other hand
http://www.elcomsoft.com/edpr.html#formats

Build your own. You just need a PCI-e expansion chassis. Speaking of has any one used one of these http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-c410x/pd (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-c410x/pd)

That thing is awesome...I am always afraid of "call for pricing" though...makes me think if I have to ask I can't afford it.

That may be with a call but I'm afraid with dell on it I have to have a power edge server.

Would this possibly work? Looks like a separate PSU would be required.

http://www.buy.com/prod/startech-com-pci-express-to-4-slot-pci-expansion-system-pci-express/q/loc/101/205124277.html

or this with PSU:

http://www.cyclone.com/products/expansion_systems/index.php

4 x 1400W hot-plug, high-efficiency power supplies
N + 1 power supply redundancy
Maximum draw of 3600W

17 amps at 208, 30 amps at 120
that'll make your lights dim

Looking at those the startech would on handle 2 double slot cards. the other is a bit more interesting however the prices of both seem to put them at a level where building an individual computer for each card would be more price efficent much less building a pc with a custom case risers and a motherboard with several pcie slots...
However it does look like that answers my question with possible not cost effective.

Be aware of this:

StarTech.com's innovative PCI Express to PCI Expansion Chassis provides a quick and simple solution to I/O expandability on almost any PCI Express (PCIe) enabled system. Adding external PCI slots to a server/workstation or laptop, this cost-effective and time-saving method of simply adding additional PCI cards to a server/workstation or providing a platform to be able to swap PCI add-in cards between a mobile and desktop setup is the optimal method of maximizing the I/O capabilities of new or existing systems.

The external expansion chassis adds four PCI slots (32-bit/33MHz) to the host computer system, through a single PCI Express connection. Providing total bandwidth of up to 250MBps from the x1 PCIe host controller card, which allows the host computer to function as though the cards in the expansion chassis were connected directly to the motherboard.

For mobile applications, the Expansion Chassis can be connected to an ExpressCard enabled laptop using StarTech.com's ExpressCard connection cable (EC2PCI), which adds the same functionality offered by the Expansion Chassis to a laptop. This eliminates the expense and need of having to purchase different card adapters for the laptop. A dependable I/O expansion solution, the Expansion Chassis is backed by StarTech.com's 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical support.

Yes that model was pci. There is a pci express counterpart