This guide will go through the process of building a new Folding@Home rig. first by selecting the right parts as well as explaining key features to look for in those parts. Then installing and setup for Linux Mint onto your new dedicated Folding@Home system.
 
 
Part 1: Selecting the right components. (last updated 6-14-2017)
Part 2: Installing all the Software (not yet written)
 
In this section we will be picking parts based on four assumptions:

1. you want maximum efficiency
2. you want maximum PPD
3. you want to spend as little $$$ as possible
4. you are looking at having two GPU's

 
The first and most critical part to any folding rig is the GPU that is doing the folding. at this time there are really only two viable options depending on your budget. Either a GeForce GTX 1080ti if money is no issue or GeForce GTX 1070. The 1080ti excels in the Points per Watt arena while the 1070 has nearly the same performance ratio but at a lower cost.
 
The second component for success, and the most complicated one to get right, is the motherboard. Here the key thing you must have is pcie 3.0 x8 on two separate slots, one for each GPU. you will need to look at the specs closely for something that says "PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16/x0/x4, x8/x8/x4 modes)" or something similar. you can even look at pictures of the back of the motherboard to see how many pins are soldered, if half are then you know that slot is at max x8 performance. if you get this wrong you could limit the performance of one of your cards to only 80% or less of its full potential. for me i have found that the MSI Z170A SLI or the ASUS Z170-E are two solid choices. (at this time ryzen is not cost effective for Multi-GPU setups)
 
The next part is CPU. here you are really looking for any modern CPU with high clock speeds. the Intel Pentium G4600 dual core CPU with hyper threading has been tested to run two 1080ti's to their full potential and is the CPU i would recommend. if you do not trust a Pentium than any LGA 1151 Core i3 will also do the job.
 
The last critical part needed is the Power Supply. here you'll need to pick a highly reliable brand as nothing is worse than a cheap PSU frying all your hardware. As to how large of a power supply you need if you are going the 1070 route you will only need 650W. but keep in mind that you can not run dual 1080ti with only 650W. dual 1080ti's require 850W of power. so if you plan on starting with 1070's and upgrading later pick the 850W power supply. the third important thing about power supplies is its efficiency rating. sense these machines are running 24/7 you will want an 80+ Gold, Platinum, or Titanium rated power supply. anything less and you are just wasting money to heat your room. cost does tend to shoot skyward after gold though so that is where i tend to draw the line.
 
From there all you need is 4GB of RAM, as each F@H slot can use between 250MB-1GB of RAM leaving 2GB for linux OS is plenty. A 16+ GB USB flash drive, again sense you are doing nothing but folding on this machine you do not need to waste power and money on a HDD/SSD unless you have spares laying around. You may also want a cheap USB Wi-Fi adapter if you are not planing on plugging in ethernet. A Case to put it all in is recommended as this way parts are less prone to accidental damage when compared to an open bench approach, kinda costly but so is dead hardware. And lastly you may want either a monitor to be plugged in at all times or a Display Emulator to plug into the gpu. linux kinda requires it if you ever want to remote in with a GUI, only 1 is needed per machine not GPU.
 
below are pics listing all the suggested required parts with newegg prices at the time of the last update.
 
1080ti's (~2.12M PPD)

 
1070's (~1.2M PPD)

Once all is said and done you should have a PC that you can remote into from anywhere, even your phone for free, with only a power cord connected to it. it will automatically boot into linux and start folding at the press of a button. and with the fan1 and fan2 files being autorun at startup your GPU fans will also be ramped up to a constant speed of your choosing. As of now i have yet to figure out how to automatically OC the GPU's at startup but i assume it can be done simply with another file just like with the fans, just need to put time into figuring that one out.
 

 
i went an optional step farther and installed liquid coolers for the GPUs. 
 

Great post Chris!
 
I have an idea of the ppd for both rigs but maybe you could offer your best guess for others thinking of getting into this.
 
 

OK, added part 2 and an estimated PPD of each build. its kinda rough but i do believe its all there. now i just need someone to follow it and give advice. i wrote it mainly trying to remember all the key points from when i last did this a few weeks ago.

@ Chris21010  
Under Linux Mint Cinnamon x64 what tools are their to Edit Text Files? Other than VI that it.

Chris21010
As for a text editor they have xed preinstalled and the one I used in the guide.

 
Thanks,
 

Very good write up!  I will be using it very soon I think.  I just got my two GTX1080Tis installed in the Wife's rig for the time being but that means I have three GTX960s collecting dust now.  I may build a cheap machine to run them unilt I can upgrad to a few more 1080Ti cards.  So far I am rolling a Pascal Titan, two 1080Ti's and a GTX690 since it's in my main rig.  So far the 1080Ti's are doing little over 950K PPD with Windows 7 Pro-64.  My titan does 880K while I use the computer browsing the web, and about 1.1 mil at idle.  The GTX690 does an average of 80K per GPU so 160k total(not great), but it's in there to drive cheap wonky 1440p Korean monitors that are picky with DVI converters so needed a card with three DVI ports.  But it is time to expand into the realm of dedicated folding machine to get my Titan back for gaming.  

Great guide Chris, thank you for putting it together. This should probably be added to stickies. 
When I ran the 4P set-up, it was great to have it all ran off of a flash drive. Of course I needed tons of help to get it going, thanks to Bowlinra I had all the help I needed. 

Thank you.  I've wanted a straightforward set of Linux instructions and haven't been able to find them. 

updated step #11 to include your OC for "GPUGraphicsClockOffset". this way you are now setting GPU fan speed and clock speeds automatically at startup.

Thanks redleader for sharing that information

Sadly, recent events in the mining world have rendered the GTX 1070 a "not so good" choice for folding - it's pricing is now in the bottom end of GTX 1080 pricing range and availability has gotten VERY scarce.
 
 The GTX 1070 build should work with no other changes if a pair of GTX 1080 cards are substituted for the GTX 1070 cards - the power consumption isn't enough more to be an issue for a good 650 watt PS.
 
 PPD should probably be in the 1.4-1.5M ballpark with a pair of GTX 1080 and a mild overclock.
 
 

Power draw increase will be less than 20% at the system level - more like 15%.
Cost increase .... isn't a factor any more, as 1070 cost has changed a LOT since you wrote the guide.
 
Availability is a major issue - Newegg, for example, had a choice of *3* total 1070 non-FE models as of 10 minutes ago, all $489 AND UP vs $499 for the lowest-price 1080 cards which makes the cost increase factor almost zero now.
1070 FE models they also had 3 available - $521 to over $700 each, or HIGHER than many 1080 models to higher than anything short of a top-end water-cooled 1080.
 
 It's been a week since I have seen ANY 1070 model listed at $415 - and almost that long since I saw any 1070 model listed under $450.
 
 Your numbers were valid when you wrote your guide, but the market has moved since then.
 
 The "single 1080 ti then add another one later" option is certainly valid, especially since 1080ti pricing seems to have dropped a bit over the last month.
 

yes, you will need a separate drive for the OS to be installed on. if you find anything else that needs clarification let me know so i adjust the post.

Can this be done on an X99 FTW K with 5 x 1080ti and a 6850K? I mean, linux support for this number of GPUs and other quirks to expect.
 
Thanks.