Whats considered a smokin hot rig today?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

for 20K I can have 20x 4 core nodes... but still to have that 96 buckeds in 1 machine... mrrr =D GL waiting for that 1 bucked rendering glass hahaha =D

[tricky]

I think that's the thing though - all in one machine - one power socket! Amazing. Where will we be in 5 years time I wonder?

(BTW, the 20K system was on offer at around £12k!)

[super gnu]

yeah but ive seen those systems... supermicro 2u twin2 ?

if you self build them you can get them even cheaper than that.


its actually 4 slimline dual cpu systems in one box. so your still stuck with DR. plus, they are so compact, all that heat, all those 80mm fans, they literally sound like a fighter jet taking off when you start rendering.


although i have just noticed a new one in their list...

the Fat Twin (hehe) it has !8! dual cpu motherboards in one 4u enclosure. that one seems to use 30+ 60mm fans though so will probably sound more like a dentists drill 10mm from your ear drum.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Darn I saw 1u 2x xeon server the other day at one CGI company I was visiting... so tinny and cute! But slow and noisy hehe... I wonder how well would a water colling system work in server environment...

that 96bucked rig... was it like 2 ghz each core?

[super gnu]

i think you can spec up to near the fastest xeon chips ( 95w) so not necessarily. watercooling i think would be an excellent choice in that scenario... if it wasnt for the option of overclocking cheaper hardware, id be tempted to get a bunch of those motherboards and watercool them.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Aww thats like 3.5 ghz for 3k isnt it? =D You can always use EVGA sr 2 and get 6 core xeons OC to 4.5 each... Wish the motherboard was smaller tho ! :]

[super gnu]

which model of xeons do you have on your sr-2? im thinking of a new rig, and i want it to be a big step up from my current i7/920 oc'ed to 4.2 so a single 6 core wont really blow me away.. if only intel hadnt borked the sandy bridge xeons. its either the way youve gone, with older gen. cpus, or wait another year or so for the next usably oc'able xeons. i dont think my rig will hold out that long...

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I only have Xeon E5530 / OC to 3.8 ghz currently...

Id suggest for you to go for 560xx gen 6 core OC to 4.5 ghz throw 48gb ram + and enjoy...

[super gnu]

im having difficulty seeing why i would get a 5650 xeon (socket 1366, 6 core westmere, 2.66 ghz) for £785 at scan, over a Xeon W3680 (socket 1366, 6 core westmere, 3.33 ghz) which costs £466 on the same site.

it has a higher cpu multiplier, so potentially better max overclock, and its WAAAAY cheaper.


what gives?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

If my memory serves me well W - family has only 1 eee API (its actually QPI link) ? cant remember 1 Link which means u cant have a 2 CPU rig. U need to have 2 link CPU so they can speak to each other... Thats why they soo cheap comparing to E series.

I'm just thinking if getting W3680 and OC it to 4.5 ghz is better than http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...-cache-130w-re since the 3930 I hear eats like 200 wats compared to low power xeons... humhhhh - For single socked slave ofc...

Btw single socked slaves render faster than 2 socned slaves...

[super gnu]

yes i just found that same info on another site.. not clear at all in the scan pricelist. only one QPI link.. so a nogo for dual cpu motherboards. dammit.


btw, what do you mean when you say "single socket slaves render faster than dual socket ones?!?"

u mean 2, 4ghz single cpu slaves will render faster than one dual cpu 4ghz slave? a dual is not twice as fast as a single?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

It is if u read by numbers. But if u go over how does it breaks down in code you would see that dual sockets render slower that if u were to render on single socked...

basically - more threads u have the less optimization there is - its obvious, 1 core 1 thread 30 ghz system will render faster then 8 core/ 16 thread system - comes down to how well the software is threated...

Another example is ram speed, from what I remember a single socked DD3 triple channel can get write and read at around 15/17 gb if I'm not wrong... where as 2 socked can get up to 15/10gb or so. I tested it myself on SR 2 - since u can disable 1 CPU and make it behave like 1 socked system...

If u have 2 renders, they will render on 2x 1 CPU socked machine faster than on 1x 2CPU socked.

The only reason for the moment to go for 2x socked is if u are going to overclock it and need results very fast, other than that I'd go with single for nodes...