[gentoo-user] Re: nvidia w/ water cooling?

[James]

Jerry McBride <mcbrides9 <at> comcast.net> writes:


> Would you know if  there are any gotcha's with using SLI video cards? It seems
> this is getting harder and harder to avoid with current motherboards... From
> what I understan (yuk yuk) the SLI video looks just like AGP cards. Sound
> right?


Hello Jerry,

>From my research, SLI is where the video cards get power driectly from the
the power supply, instead of drawing power via the buss/motherboard.

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_ask_mmm001.html


As far as monitoring the output voltages and ensuring that the current draw
of the video card, does not cause 'voltage sag' on that part of the power supply,
choosing a power supply that puts out lots of (DC) amps to the video card
in very important. 

I'm also concernded with monitoring the fluid temperature, pump (voltage and
current draw) to ensure a safe working system.

One nice thing about the Nvidia 8800, is a *lifetime* warranty.

That said, I think I'm going to continue my research on water cooled PCs
(many are put together by companies that do not have a clue how to properly
monitor pumps and fluids) until I'm convinced I have a robust, linux friendly
solution.

Since a big part of my needs is to write custom software utilizing the
GPU as a specialized processors, I'm going with the ATI 1900, due
to it's support of open-source drivers and it's unmatched performance
for certain types of calculations:

http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/11/14/amd-launches-stream-
processor-accelerator-board/?url=http%3A%2F%2F
www.tgdaily.com%2F2006%2F11%2F14%2Famd_stream_processor%2F&frame=true

What confuses me, is that close source nvidia has a "C" software 
development kit:
media-gfx/nvidia-cg-toolkit

Yet the open-source ATI technology, does not have  similar
compiler kit, but, provides lots of informatino into the details
of the hardware, particularly useful for string-matching, searching
and sorting intensive types of algos.


Real confusing on which graphics card to choose for coding.

Also note, for those interested in video (Mpeg4-avc/h.264/x.264) 
recompiling code and standard optimiztion techniques can really
make video deliver systems, based on gentoo, *FLY*.


Last, if you are looking for an AM2 && SLI && Sata mobo, then here
is the best prices/performance board I have found:

http://www.pcstats.com/artvnl.cfm?articleID=1993

Like Richard stated previously, much needs to be tested
under linux......


hth,


James




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