Researchers create supercomputer with four GeForce 9800 GX2 cards
by Donald Melanson 
posted May 29th 2008 at 4:48PM
It's far from the first supercomputer created with the help of some gaming hardware, but this rig built by a group of researchers from the University of Antwerp is certainly impressive enough in its own right, with it employing four of NVIDIA's high-end GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards (which combined pack eight GPUs) to help develop new computational methods for tomography. Dubbed the FASTRA, the system also packs an AMD Phenom 9850 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 750GB hard drive, all of which is powered by a 1,500W power supply (and tastefully lit up with some blue LEDs). That apparently lets 'em do calculations that previously took an hour in just a few seconds, not to mention finally get a decent frame rate in Crysis. Be sure to check out the video after the break for a thorough (and more entertaining than it should be) overview of the system.
Filed under: Desktops
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Pochi @ May 29th 2008 4:53PM
"...an AMD Phenom 9850 processor..."
lol
maty @ May 29th 2008 5:05PM
Muppet. Did you stop to think that the mainboard might not just support an Intel CPU?
Besides with that power, what does it matter anyway?
mike @ May 29th 2008 5:07PM
someone obviously doesn't know why they used an AMD proc
Conor Maher @ May 29th 2008 5:10PM
My thoughts exactly Pochi :D
What a failtastic CPU for an otherwise awesome machine....
Those two 9800GX2s in the middle will melt at full load also......
Pochi @ May 29th 2008 5:20PM
@maty
Did you stop to think that it should have?
@mike
Someone obviously doesn't!
Vic the One @ May 29th 2008 5:20PM
Pochi, they don't need the best processor in the world. The GPU's are doing all the work anyway.
maty @ May 29th 2008 5:21PM
I did.
But then again, I'm not the mainboard manufacturer. And neither are you.
So quit yo jibba jabber, crazy foo'!
Vic the One @ May 29th 2008 5:22PM
Pochi, they don't need the best processor in the world. The GPU's are doing all the work anyway.
OneLove @ May 29th 2008 5:26PM
...YOU DID WHAT WITH OUR GRANT MONEY!!???!!...but it plays crysis!
Blaine Oliver @ May 29th 2008 5:30PM
Surely they need memory bandwidth with all those GX2's so i assume they are using AMD's still superior bandwidth, even if the rest of their chip sucks, they on die controller was a brilliant idea.
WeeManFoo @ May 29th 2008 5:36PM
I'm pretty sure that intel doesn't have an off-the-shelf motherboard with four PCIe-2.0 slots spread out like this so that rules out every intel processor. If the 9800gx2s are doing the work, you could probably run an Semprom and still get the same speed for this kind of work.
Pochi @ May 29th 2008 5:41PM
@maty
lol, fair enough. Maybe we SHOULD be...
I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ May 29th 2008 6:27PM
Maybe if you watch the other videos, they may explain why it is that way.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FastraGPUSuperPC
Backlin @ May 30th 2008 9:00AM
That's my processor right there. It's pretty decent, but in my particular setup, need some graphics enhancements. This will do nicely, for when I make $75,000 a year.
Flashpoint @ May 30th 2008 12:49AM
BUT, and I know you all don't wanna hear this...
CAN IT RUN CRYSIS????
It should be able to, but we need a benchmark done to know for sure.
roflercopterer @ May 30th 2008 1:29AM
Hey Mister loves the caps lock.
What did I tell you about posting?
DO IT MAN.
usagi @ May 29th 2008 5:00PM
that's very cool but the guy is the prototype of the nerd!
Mujeeb @ May 29th 2008 6:08PM
You mean stereotype..?
Reader @ May 29th 2008 7:21PM
I believe nerds existed long before this one.
Low Ranked @ May 29th 2008 7:45PM
I think you mean 'posterchild' not prototype...
jP @ May 29th 2008 9:59PM
What?
Ace b @ May 29th 2008 5:00PM
Well it's a good thing he said it could play Crysis or else we'd get comments asking if it could.
And no,it will not blend either......but it could prob make a simulation about said pc blending in about 5 seconds...
retro77 @ May 29th 2008 5:49PM
We need a biiger blender.....
Bunson @ May 29th 2008 6:29PM
funny thing... my pc is a little over average and it can run Crysis... It's not that hard to run. So why don't we just kill the jokes...
ethana2 @ May 29th 2008 7:33PM
Simulation about blending? That makes no sense. meta?
OOH! Big Buck Bunny goes online tomorrow!
Ignatius @ May 29th 2008 9:36PM
Nothing so far can play it on Very High at a decent resolution with 16xQ CSAA.
Mine can barely (25-30FPS) play it on High with 4x AA at 1680x1050...
JJV @ May 29th 2008 11:19PM
I believe the first three commenters posted on the wrong message. Nice job guys lol
Reader @ May 30th 2008 1:29AM
No, try replying to the message above this one. Since they're both at the same time (5:00PM) it seems to put them on the second message. If you click on the date of the message above you can see all the comments correctly placed, but the comment system sucks.
Victor @ May 29th 2008 5:01PM
where is the motherboard?
Fray @ May 29th 2008 5:03PM
Underneath all the graphics cards obviously.
The silver block above the cards (black block) appears to be the CPU heatsink.
mike @ May 29th 2008 5:08PM
its probably an msi 790FX AMD board
space_man3000 @ May 29th 2008 5:19PM
# AMD Phenom 9850 processor + Scythe Infinity CPU cooler
# 4x MSI 9800GX2 graphics card
# 4x 2GB Corsair Twinx DDR2 PC6400 memory
# MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard
# Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB HDD
# ThermalTake Toughpower 1500W Modular PSU
# Lian-Li PC-P80 Armorsuit case
# Windows XP 64-bit
marK @ May 29th 2008 5:01PM
badass!
It's not easy being green...
stevo @ May 29th 2008 5:11PM
Most excellent !!
The guy was articulate and, for a non-native English-speaker, spoke English very well.
Grooming: don't care
Overall grade: A+
phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 5:15PM
It ain't easy being white.
It ain't easy being brown.
All this pressure to be bright.
I got children all over town.
phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 6:09PM
wow no love for the arrested development quotes? pffffft!
Holger @ May 30th 2008 4:20AM
Well actually I would think it uses a lot less power in several ways...
he said it performed on par with a 512 node cluster of computers . So using one computer instead of that would probably save some power. Plus if it computes faster than that it'll be able to do more work again saving power.
darkstar @ May 29th 2008 5:01PM
he gives nerd a bad name, in terms of looks.
Josh @ May 29th 2008 5:38PM
No joke - he epitomizes the stereotypical nerd if anything...
roro2210 @ May 29th 2008 5:04PM
gotta love the accent!
kal326 @ May 29th 2008 5:49PM
Yeah, but the hand gestures were getting pretty annoying.
I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ May 29th 2008 6:13PM
He looks and sounds just like Professor Fink from the Simpsons.
Amy @ May 29th 2008 6:34PM
He's like a cross between Thunderbirds Brains, and Kermit T. Frog...
Timothy Sottek @ May 29th 2008 5:07PM
They should market this to the gaming industry.
Character modelers, BEWARE!
Fray @ May 29th 2008 5:06PM
The lengths people will go to in order to get someone else to pay for their gaming rig.
Tomography my a$$.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to go convince my boss I need one of these for uh.. video editing or something.
Vic the One @ May 29th 2008 5:06PM
Is it strange that I'm tempted to worship it as though it were a god?
Bet that thing could play a mean game of chess, too...
whatishalo? @ May 29th 2008 5:49PM
But can it play Castle Wolfenstein??
JMMGoalster @ May 29th 2008 6:30PM
@whatishalo
yes im sure it can. and before you ask, it can prob play any game you throw at it. with 4 graphics cards, it better be able to. a better question would be what game cant this do?
with 8 gpus they could prob do some good crypto work too
captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ May 29th 2008 11:31PM
You know, it doesn't matter how fast the computer is when encrypting something, when it comes to DE-crypting something a quantum computer could do it in a few minutes
54ND3R5 @ May 30th 2008 5:34PM
@ Captain underpants
No proper quantum computer is in existence as yet therefore what you say is meaningless, viva la fastra.