Best MotherBoard for Butterfly Labs Monarch PCI card?

[xstr8guy]

Wouldn't it be more likely that this will just be a PCI and not a PCI-E card?
(As all here are stating you would need PCI-E slots)

Probably just a PCI USB-Controller, on which the device is mounted.

Most modern motherboards don't have PCI slots anymore, only PCI-e

[PuertoLibre]

Your Monarchs will need a very large home to "incubate" in,something like this MAY work,



Seeing as BFL will double the size & power consumption,as per usual.But,not to worry,you folks will have PLENTY of time to plan 

Amateurs!
Simple overview: (pull out the crappy teslas and replace with double height bitcoin cards...in theory)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LmzV87-b9M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1pM5WtAtV0

[DeathAndTaxes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LmzV87-b9M

Cool stuff huh.  Makes me miss the days I worked in a datacenter.  Always fun getting delivery of the awesomely expensive servers.

If BFL was serious about datacenter ready they would have designed the card to operate in that manner but they didn't. Datacenter servers (not just that monster in the video but even smaller 2 or 4 card GPGPU servers) don't have any fans on the CPUs and GPUs (or anything else).  Everything is cooled using the "case" fans pushing air in the front across all the components and out the back.



No fan, inside the shroud the heatsink runs the length of the card.  The server is responsible for pushing air through the card.  Notice the two versions and the "airflow ->" marks.  This is because there are two different versions of the heatsink.  It has more largers spaces between fins on the intake side and denser fins on the exhaust side.  This helps to evenly cool the card.  Still even NVidia isn't crazy enough to try and cram multiple 350W cards into a chassis.  The Tesla uses ~200W.



If BFL offered a 200W, passively cooled hashing card, and showed some mock ups of the non functional but physical card handling the thermal load in a densely loaded server well that would be different.  As it stands now it is just laughable.  Take the option to connect by USB. GPU pull some of their power from the PCIe backplane.  That is why despite the PCIe limiting the 8pin connector to 150W it is possible to power a 325W 7990.  Two 8 pin connectors (150W ea) plus 75W from motherboard.  Well in "USB mode" the hashing card won't be able to pull power from the motherboard.  So is BFL going to require three 8 pin connectors or just have the two connectors 17% over spec?



BTW back in 2011 when I was running out of space for GPUs I was looking into a similar rack with 8 dual width slot.  Very cool stuff but they are insanely expensive.  It was cheaper to build twice as many 4 GPU rigs instead.  Actually I think it was cheaper to build four 4 GPU rigs than one monster 8 GPU rackmount.  They may be cheaper now but I doubt it.

[Dalkore]

Here is a fun experiment.   Put 3x 7990s in a sealed 3U or 4U rackmount chassis and try to keep the cards from burning up.  There is a reason that people use open rigs.  Trying to remove that kind of heat is next to impossible.  Even if BFL delivers the form factor is next to useless because you are never going to be able to fill a rackmount server with 3 to 5 of them.

Correct, removing 1-1.7kW of heat generation in a small sealed form factor is challenging.  Water cooling is an option but with the pumps and tubes, it would be quite difficult to fit into a 4U case.  Open air cooling is by far the most cost effective way to deal with this heat like D&T said. 

[lumpycustard]

The best motherboard for the BFL monarch is the motherboard that has the BFL monarch in it.
It won't matter at all... as long as you can find one.

[Korbman]

Here is a fun experiment.   Put 3x 7990s in a sealed 3U or 4U rackmount chassis and try to keep the cards from burning up.  There is a reason that people use open rigs.  Trying to remove that kind of heat is next to impossible.  Even if BFL delivers the form factor is next to useless because you are never going to be able to fill a rackmount server with 3 to 5 of them.

Correct, removing 1-1.7kW of heat generation in a small sealed form factor is challenging.  Water cooling is an option but with the pumps and tubes, it would be quite difficult to fit into a 4U case.  Open air cooling is by far the most cost effective way to deal with this heat like D&T said.  

If you're serious about ordering a bunch of Monarchs, what about setting it up to utilize oil immersion? Obviously it would probably be a bit more expensive, and setting it up may be tricky, but the cooling aspect may no longer be a problem.


Side note: It's amazing how quickly this thread derailed into hating BFL.

[Viceroy]

Side note: It's amazing how quickly this thread derailed into hating BFL.

Really?  I'm surprised it didn't happen in the second post.  Anyone thinking BFL is anything other than a long con is a fool.

This is a new anti-bfl thread.  Not unlike the other 2500 anti-BFL threads:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279587.0

[zackclark70]

buy a 20x pcie-16  backplane and run them that way

[DeathAndTaxes]

If you're serious about ordering a bunch of Monarchs, what about setting it up to utilize oil immersion? Obviously it would probably be a bit more expensive, and setting it up may be tricky, but the cooling aspect may no longer be a problem.

That is an option however it eliminates the selling point of using a PCIe interface and a standard GPU form factor.  Unless you plan on having multiple cards in a closed rackmount case you gain more flexibility just using USB or plain ole serial interface (bitfury).  You can arrange them however you want and are constrained by slot spacing or thermal limits of a single chassis. The reason to use PCIe would be to rack up a bunch of them but given the cooler design (not suited for no 0 slots between cards) and the high power consumption that isn't possible. 

So you get all the complexity, cost, and risk for nothing.   The only advantage in theory does not exist in reality.

[zackclark70]

watercooling would be a good option if they made it a high flow block with standard fittings a 1080 rad will cool well over 1kw and still not be to loud

6 x 1080 rads 20 cards on 20 slot back plane would be fairly easy to do as long as drivers work well

[Rival]

For some people in some locations the generated heat is just an added bonus. There have been several reports of folks heating greenhouses with GPU farms. Might be a good idea to consider using the heat instead of blowing even more juice trying to get rid of it. Efficiency matters.

[zackclark70]

For some people in some locations the generated heat is just an added bonus. There have been several reports of folks heating greenhouses with GPU farms. Might be a good idea to consider using the heat instead of blowing even more juice trying to get rid of it. Efficiency matters.

watercooling is best as you can direct the heat wherever you want and even heat a swimming pool if you used an heat exchanger

[Rival]

For some people in some locations the generated heat is just an added bonus. There have been several reports of folks heating greenhouses with GPU farms. Might be a good idea to consider using the heat instead of blowing even more juice trying to get rid of it. Efficiency matters.

watercooling is best as you can direct the heat wherever you want and even heat a swimming pool if you used an heat exchanger

Or a jacuzzi 

[zackclark70]

For some people in some locations the generated heat is just an added bonus. There have been several reports of folks heating greenhouses with GPU farms. Might be a good idea to consider using the heat instead of blowing even more juice trying to get rid of it. Efficiency matters.

watercooling is best as you can direct the heat wherever you want and even heat a swimming pool if you used an heat exchanger

Or a jacuzzi 

yh 10 cards would be 3kw that's plenty to heat one up

[derr777]

by the time these are released motherboards will likely be totally different from today. i would look into this closer to release date

yes, as in possibly quantum or even using photons instead of current..  *smiles*

[ZetaOS]

Side note: It's amazing how quickly this thread derailed into hating BFL.

bashing BFL is always good  

[ScaryHash]

I run a pair of 7950 in a big tower case, and it's difficult enough to cool (Fractal Design Define XL with several 140mm and 120mm fans).  Keeps the bottom half of the house warm, though.

Exactly. There is no way you will dissipate the heat from multiple Monarch cards inside a closed case, and even running them on risers, multiple 350W cards will put out a LOT of heat.

I would guess any multiple PCI-E motherboard that has been tested by people on these forums would work quite well. Check the forums.

***edit****

They now have a 300 GH/s card on their website available for preorder  , with a 175 W rating.

That actually sounds a bit more reasonable, assuming it ever ships. 

[Bicknellski]

Motherboard?

What about the ASIC chip? Would you not want to wait till they have that done before worrying about a Mobo to fit given they have not even tested that prototype?

[Unacceptable]

I run a pair of 7950 in a big tower case, and it's difficult enough to cool (Fractal Design Define XL with several 140mm and 120mm fans).  Keeps the bottom half of the house warm, though.

Exactly. There is no way you will dissipate the heat from multiple Monarch cards inside a closed case, and even running them on risers, multiple 350W cards will put out a LOT of heat.

I would guess any multiple PCI-E motherboard that has been tested by people on these forums would work quite well. Check the forums.

***edit****

They now have a 300 GH/s card on their website available for preorder  , with a 175 W rating.

That actually sounds a bit more reasonable, assuming it ever ships. 

   175 watts............yeah right,times 3=525 watts.BFL is always off on power estimates by power of 3    And late by "2 weeks" times infinity 

[Eternity]

Use any intel original motherboards