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Hi chaps, I am currently in plans to build a small budget render farm to increase my productivity. I've got a few questions but basically if I explain everything on my mind about this build and my current plans, I am hoping someone could perhaps point out if i have missed anything or if anything is wrong or could be improved upon, thanks!
Here's a quick rundown of my setup right now: I am using a 27" iMac to do my work on, and doing 3D in Cinema 4D and also doing lots of work in After Effects, so these are the two bits of software that I would like to have my render farm work on. I do also use vray4c4d sometimes, not sure if that requires a different bit of software on the render farm to render with so thought I would also mention that.
I currently have my server case, which is a Helmer unit from Ikea which fits micro-ATX boards perfectly. I am currently thinking and planning the hardware layout inside each drawer, but currently considering mounting the PSU to the back of each drawer on the outside to allow more breathing room for the motherboard, so I can also place fans into the drawers for better cooling.
Other people have gone a different route, putting everything inside but I am worried that this way is perhaps too cramped and won't be able to give ample cooling. Here are a few photos from other people's builds:
From this website here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/24core-linux-cluster-in-30-ike-79331
or the famous Helmer build which actually completely disregards the drawers and just uses plexiglass resting on the runners which has the motherboard mounted to it, with the PSU mounted to the back of the case.
From this website here: http://helmer.sfe.se/
Now that one I am not too keen on, as frankly I want to make this a neat build and not have any mess so more like the first build I mentioned.
Here's a crappy iPad photo of my case as it is in it's stock state:
Now because I am building on a budget I have a problem. Right now my plans include adding a hard drive to each node, but this is obviously expensive so I was wondering if for a render farm it is possible to run nodes without any hard drives, and all of them run off like a base computer with hard drives attached. The computer beside it in the photo is my "gaming PC", but I could always add hard drives to it or in fact just use the ones I have in there right now and perhaps use that as the base for the server. That would save me a nice bit of space in each drawer and also save me money that could either just be saved or perhaps go into other areas that might need a bit more spending on it.
The next problem is now choosing what I want in it. I have given myself three (rather similar priced) options to go for here and they are an i5-2500k, an i7-2600k, or the new AMD Bulldozer FX-8150.
Here is all the items I've looked at on the overclockers shop:
Both the PSUs are there as I couldn't figure out if the OCZ one would be worth the extra, and I picked that hybrid drive as it didn't seem that much more than the other drives and seemed to offer faster speeds, but then I am not sure if it would be utilized well on a server.
The other thing is I am guessing that GPU rendering is not readily available for the software I use so am I right to just ignore this exists and go down the CPU route?
So what do you guys think? Would the extra cores of the 8150 be worth it considering it's only a bit more expensive than the i5? Benchmarks I've seen have said yes at least when running Cinebench, but the i7 did prevail in all tests I've seen but not sure if I can dish the extra cash or whether the extra cash is worth it.
Right now I am looking to build just two nodes and will add more nodes when I have more money to play around with.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the scattered writing. Thinking about this is giving me a headache!
Cheers
Here's a quick rundown of my setup right now: I am using a 27" iMac to do my work on, and doing 3D in Cinema 4D and also doing lots of work in After Effects, so these are the two bits of software that I would like to have my render farm work on. I do also use vray4c4d sometimes, not sure if that requires a different bit of software on the render farm to render with so thought I would also mention that.
I currently have my server case, which is a Helmer unit from Ikea which fits micro-ATX boards perfectly. I am currently thinking and planning the hardware layout inside each drawer, but currently considering mounting the PSU to the back of each drawer on the outside to allow more breathing room for the motherboard, so I can also place fans into the drawers for better cooling.
Other people have gone a different route, putting everything inside but I am worried that this way is perhaps too cramped and won't be able to give ample cooling. Here are a few photos from other people's builds:
From this website here: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/24core-linux-cluster-in-30-ike-79331
or the famous Helmer build which actually completely disregards the drawers and just uses plexiglass resting on the runners which has the motherboard mounted to it, with the PSU mounted to the back of the case.
From this website here: http://helmer.sfe.se/
Now that one I am not too keen on, as frankly I want to make this a neat build and not have any mess so more like the first build I mentioned.
Here's a crappy iPad photo of my case as it is in it's stock state:
Now because I am building on a budget I have a problem. Right now my plans include adding a hard drive to each node, but this is obviously expensive so I was wondering if for a render farm it is possible to run nodes without any hard drives, and all of them run off like a base computer with hard drives attached. The computer beside it in the photo is my "gaming PC", but I could always add hard drives to it or in fact just use the ones I have in there right now and perhaps use that as the base for the server. That would save me a nice bit of space in each drawer and also save me money that could either just be saved or perhaps go into other areas that might need a bit more spending on it.
The next problem is now choosing what I want in it. I have given myself three (rather similar priced) options to go for here and they are an i5-2500k, an i7-2600k, or the new AMD Bulldozer FX-8150.
Here is all the items I've looked at on the overclockers shop:
Both the PSUs are there as I couldn't figure out if the OCZ one would be worth the extra, and I picked that hybrid drive as it didn't seem that much more than the other drives and seemed to offer faster speeds, but then I am not sure if it would be utilized well on a server.
The other thing is I am guessing that GPU rendering is not readily available for the software I use so am I right to just ignore this exists and go down the CPU route?
So what do you guys think? Would the extra cores of the 8150 be worth it considering it's only a bit more expensive than the i5? Benchmarks I've seen have said yes at least when running Cinebench, but the i7 did prevail in all tests I've seen but not sure if I can dish the extra cash or whether the extra cash is worth it.
Right now I am looking to build just two nodes and will add more nodes when I have more money to play around with.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the scattered writing. Thinking about this is giving me a headache!
Cheers
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Thanks for that.