Costs/Pricing:
How much does a GSCube cost?
We have several configurations in-stock. The in-stock items are priced according to the ordering pages. For large quantity orders, we can discuss discounts. Our manufacturing partners can build as many systems as needed with a small lead time (typically about 6 weeks).
How can I estimate the shipping costs?
Try using online calculators for companies such as FedEX and UPS:
https://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/standalone?method=getQuickQuote
https://wwwapps.ups.com/fctc/processfctcentry?loc=en_US
What are the shipping container dimensions?
The shipping dimensions are 20.5"x16.5"x17" and the weight is 20 lbs per GS Cube.
You will often need to enter in whole values 21"x17"x17"
How can I ship internationally?
You may find that an intermediary is the best deal to ship internationally. You can determine how much it will cost to ship to you from them. Those shippers send in volume to each country at reduced rates with common carriers and reduce your overall cost. Please see myus.com as an example. In one recent example, it would cost between $500 - $600 to ship from our offices directly overseas (not including taxes). Whereas shipping to myus.com would cost approx $40. Then from myus.com to the overseas location would cost an additional $130 ($170 total in this example). That would be a savings of $320-$420. Now if your country applies a VAT on shipping you would save on that tax as well.
Check your own international shipping estimate:
- Go to: https://www.myus.com/countries/
- Select your country, and scroll down until you see the rate calculator.
- Use 20 pounds or (9.07 kg) for the weight.
- Review the shipping costs in USD and Add approx. 40 USD for shipping to myus.com
- Note: It will typically take up to 3 days shipping to the myus.com shipping center plus their estimated delivery times.
Lead Times:
How long will it take for my GSCube to arrive?
If you live in the USA it will typically take 2-8 days from the time the order is placed and based on distance from the New England area. We try to ship the order within one business day of when it was placed.
I would like to order a significant quantity of GSCubes. When will you get more stock in?
Gabu Systems practices lean manufacturing principles. Therefore, we try to keep an expected number of GSCubes in stock at all times while limiting overall risk. If you need more GSCubes than we currently show are in stock, we can produce any number of GSCubes through our manufacturing partners with approximately 6 week lead time.
Motherboards/CPUs:
How Should I select a Motherboard?
When we do high end builds we try to give each GPU (up to 7) its own x16 connector directly from the motherboard. Here is one example motherboard:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99%20WS-E/
http://www.thessdreview.com/featured/asrock-x99-ws-e-motherboard-review/
This is a 10Gig Ethernet version:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/X99%20WS-E10G/
The above boards will support 4 GPUs at x16, and the other 3 at x8 if you use full width (x16) riser cables. If you are interested in using ECC memory, you would use a Xeon processor.
We have found that many GPU applications are bound by the bit rate between the motherboard and the GPUs, so we try to maximize the number of lanes available.
Can I use an Extended ATX (E-ATX) motherboard?
It depends on the actual size of the motherboard. A full sized E-ATX motherboard will not fit inside the GSCube. An E-ATX motherboard with the dimensions of 12"x10.5" would fit for instance. See all of the types of E-ATX here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX
We specify ATX only to be safe. In the future we may specify the maxW x L values so people can select motherboards that fit. The motherboards we mention in the previous answer are listed as EATX with dimensions of 12" x 10.5" so they do fit inside the GSCube.
Can I use PCIE Splitters?
We do not recommend using splitters, as the performance will degrade. There are motherboards available which do not require splitters (see "How should I select a Motherboard?" above). For example: If you split a single x4 connector to 3 or 4 x16 GPUs the bit rate to the GPUs will be greatly reduced. In fact, they will all contend for the single x4.
We have found that many GPU applications are bound by the bit rate between the motherboard and the GPUs, so we try to maximize the number of lanes available to each GPU.
What type of CPU do you recommend?
The GS Cube is designed to carry ATX and SSI CEB motherboards. This generally rules out all dual CPU motherboards. A good rule of thumb is to select a CPU that has one core per GPU. When using AMD CPUs this implies an 8 core part, with Intel CPUs this implies 4 cores (with hyperthreading) or better.
Finally, clock rate is important because it can decrease latencies in staging/managing GPU computations. Generally, the higher the clock rate, the lower the latencies and the better the performance.
Riser Cables:
Why do you use Riser Cables?
We developed the GSCube to use riser cables from the motherboard to the GPU's in order to appropriately divide up the space within the chassis.
What size connectors should the RIser Cables have?
The type of riser cables you choose will have a lot to do with your motherboard choice. Basically, if your motherboard has a combination of x16, x8, x4 slots you will need risers that match your configuration.
For best results use full width (x16) riser cables whenever possible by selecting a motherboard with as many x16 slots as possible. See the section on Motherboards.
Will riser cables degrade the performance of the GPUs?
If you use quality riser cables there is effectively no degradation in performance. Here is a good article describing the impact of riser cables:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1427731/pci-express-extender-cables-benchmarked
Where do I find Riser Cables?
Here are some example x16 risers, from high price/high quality to 'you can try it and see if it works'
http://www.mouser.com/new/3m/3M-PCI-Express-Extender-Assemblies/
http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Express-Extender-Flexible-Extension/dp/B008BZBFTG
How should I determine riser length?
Two common sizes for Riser cables is 250mm and 500mm. For the last one to two cards (that will be over the CPU) the extra length of the 500mm risers will be helpful/ease the installation (but may leave you with too much "extra" cable you will have to pull away from the CPU). In short, you will want to make sure the CPU has plenty of 'breathing' room. Given those lengths I would be tempted to use just one 500mm cable in the last slot.
The remaining risers can all be 250mm.
What is the best way to connect the Risers to the GPU and the Motherboard?
When installing the GPUs the easiest approach is to attach your riser cable to the GPU and then place the GPU in its holder and route the cable to the appropriate motherboard slot. We find that working from the CPU side first (the far left when viewed from the back) works very well. Keep the motherboard back panel off while doing this. It allows you to reach in and seat the cables in the motherboard from the back.
Power Supplies / Power Cables:
What do you recommend for power supplies?
The GS Cube is designed to carry 2 ATX Power Supplies. Total wattage can be determined by primarily by the requirements for the motherboard plus the requirement for the GPUs.
We have used dual Corsair AT1200i in our reference builds, see:
For example: At 1200 watts you can power up to 4 Titan Xs on each power supply (250W each), see:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan-x/specifications
One power supply will power the MB and 3 Titans, the other will power 4 Titans. You can opt for a larger supply if you want additional headroom.
Do you recommend active vs passive power cabling?
Although we prefer passive power cabling, there is very little real world difference between the active and passive power cabling. The passive cabling is nice because of its simplicity. The active cable can be useful if it has a staggered power on (a delay) for certain applications.
Here is an Vantacor passive power cable we have used with success:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DL3L2J6
Some people prefer an active approach like the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Add2PSU-Multiple-Power-Supply-Adapter/dp/B009P98Q8U/ref=pd_sim_23_3
Assembly/Installation:
What does it take to assemble the GSCube/ What does it take to install the components?
You can see all of the build steps at: