Cost optimized GPU farm

[moroz]

Stay away from the 2027GR-TRFH. I know it looks tempting, six GPUs in 2U, but it does not work for our purposes.

First, it requires passive GPUs with a special mounting bracket (which Teslas have.) You can pull the shroud, fan, and PCI bracket off a 7970, but then there's no way to mount it in the carrier without the Tesla-specific mounting bracket.

Second, the chassis can only handle six GPUs if you're using low-power GPUs which only take one 6-pin or 8-pin PCI power cable. If your GPU requires both an 8-pin and a 6-pin like the 7970, then you can only use at most three GPUs in this chassis.

Third, this chassis was designed for GPUs which have their PCI power connectors on the rear of the card. GPUs which have their PCI power connectors on the top of the card, like the 7970, will not work in this chassis because you will be unable to plug in the power cords!

So yeah, as you said, this chassis was designed for Teslas. It will not work with 7970s, no matter how hard you try.

7047GR-TPRF is a pretty sweet chassis though, and you can easily run 4x 7970 in there.

Thanks for clarifying about 2027GR, didn't throw out 2 grand for nothing
Yeah, then Supermicro 7047/7046 looks like best choice for me atm.
I'm still looking for something with more GPU per rack space density. Apart from Supermicro and Tyan, i found OSS (http://www.onestopsystems.com/expansion_enclosures.php), but they are not answering mails and i can't find a vendor to buy and test one. There is Magma too, but their pricing is insane.
Maybe there are alternative solutions i missed. Will keep digging