Multi CPU board for rendering - is there one available?

Chocki · 14 Apr 2010 at 12:51

Hi all, I've been out of the loop for quite a while now but would like to know if it is yet reasonably priced to build a multi CPU render farm.
This would be for use with Blender.
What do you recommend for price versus performance?.
This would be running Ubuntu with nothing more than basic graphics capability as it would be a dedicated box without a monitor connected most of the time, or a keyboard and mouse for that matter.

Last time I checked it was cheaper to buy multiple MB's each with one CPU but things may have changed.

Anyway, any thoughts / advice please.

Thanks.

smilertoo · 14 Apr 2010 at 19:45

Only decent one i know of is Xeon based, but the cpus cost a metric **** load.
Probably better to overclock normal 4 core i7s.

Ryan-3 · 14 Apr 2010 at 19:55

If you went on the socket 771 route, you could get a D5400XS, and some Xeons to go with it.
But I think a core i7 would be the best route to go down, and by the prices, they seem a lot cheaper too.

But if you insist with 2 cpu's, search ''Intel Skulltrail'' if you want a powerful setup.

cmndr_andi · 14 Apr 2010 at 20:41

For Cost/performance - your best bet is to get an i7 920/930, overclock it to 4GHz and use several of them.

You can get muti-CPU Xeon boards that use Nahalem bases CPUs, but they cost a lot more.

Temi_D · 14 Apr 2010 at 20:48

Since rendering favours more cores, Id say look into the upcoming Phemon II X6s

smilertoo · 15 Apr 2010 at 19:32

only faster if the cores are faster, most charts ive seen show i7 are much faster than amd.

Stupot_ · 15 Apr 2010 at 19:44

Don't know if you've seen this before but it looks pretty cool

http://helmer.sfe.se/

matkeys · 19 Apr 2010 at 08:09

thats quite cool, cant work out how he can get all the boards to work together from the input of a single board, first guess was via the lan ports

Chocki · 26 Apr 2010 at 09:55

Thanks for your help guys, Guess I won't be building a server farm just yet.