Need advice for quad ati gpu cooling & motherboard

[Nanochiper]

Hi, i am new here , currently i am doing research on building small gpu farm for folding, my specification would be using 4 x ati 5970 + water cooling and a quad pcie x16 mobo, the problem is i am not generally water cooling kind of guy, normally i preferred my cooling solution into air, so i would need advice for those who experienced building something like this, what would be the best affordable mobo for quad pcie x16? in term of performance and reliability because i planned to run it for 24/7 for the whole 6 months or a year, the platform(lga 775, 1366,amd) would be not really matter, i am only on too opencl performance by using these setup.

And about the water cooling solution the question would be the same, what would be the best, affordable, easy to install? also which case do will be enough for this baby & it's coolant army? i am not looking good fancy housing only for fits not for display.

Is there any tips,tricks,critiques on how running quad ati for optimal cooling and 4 x water cooler placement? , do i need 4 x pci-e x16 extender to get the better card placement?.

And is there any review about general temperature outcome on running this kind of system?

 

[Red_Machine]

The drivers only support 4x GPU in Crossfire. Those extra 5970s would be wasted.

 

[erocker]

If this is for folding, don't bother with ATi. Nvidia makes use of folding way better.

 

[Nanochiper]

I am going to use debian as base OS which i've heard it support 8 GPU max, means if os detects 5970 as 2x then 4 of them will be counted as 8 which will be sufficient, and why i pick ATI? because i am going not only research for folding wise but also opencl application, i have done some research on GPU computing power between those 2, also i am a nvidia enthusiast(own a gtx 480 currently ) but my research requires these extra shader processor which only massive on ATI, so please i really need advices only about above specific question.

 

[erocker]

You will want a high end x58 chipset or possibly LGA1155 for this. Not sure what the best is for 4 x video card use as it's not my area of expertise but hopefully someone else can chime in.

For the cooling of this beast, I would go with two loops:

[2] 2x140mm Radiators
[2] MCP350 pumps
[2] Resevoirs and tubing..

As far as the blocks go for the GPU's, you could save a little cash and go with Swiftech MCW80's. Actually, it seems full coverage blocks would be better from a price and cooling standpoint when added up: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=26936

For cases, you'll need something large. Corsair 800D comes to mind, you should be able to fit everything in there.

 

[overclocking101]

I would get an evga classified 761 1366 board or an SR2

 

[Spectrum]

asus crosshair IV extreme motherboard.. it's got 5 pci-e slots (4 of which you should fill)

 

[Nanochiper]

Thank you for these and for quad i have take a look based on your guys references, it seems the current architecture really cann't support full x16 x 4? only dual x16 and dual x8 max? i assume i won't get full quad bandwidth afterall unless i built 2 rig with 2 gfx each ?

And is there any references or tutorials at all about building & designing my own water cooling system? i kind of really noob at this, so what i gather is i need the following
[2] 2x140mm Radiators , which brand you would prefer in term of reliability + price?
[2] MCP350 pumps
[2] Resevoirs and tubing.. , same question above
[4] 5970 plate

I really don't know on how interconnected between all of these

 

[95Viper]

I would get an evga classified 761 1366 board or an SR2

^What overclocking101 said^

Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16 7 (4 x16 or 6 x8 + 1 x16)

EVGA 270-WS-W555-A2 Classified SR-2 Motherboard - HPTX, 2x Intel LGA1366 x PCI-E, Dual GB LAN @ Buy.com

EVGA Classified SR-2 270-WS-W555-A2 LGA 1366 Intel 5520 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HPTX Intel Motherboard - Out of Stock @ Newegg

EVGA Classified SR-2 specs PDF