"Building" the ultimate vray computer

[Franx]

Thanks for the link. It explains so much..

I have seen a danish computer with 2 processors and with i Intel XEON E5-2650 2,0GHz 20MB cache (16 cores) and 64 Gb ram

For around: 5800$. That is much cheaper than buying a Dell T7600 or HP Z820. With same specs. Problably some quality differences, but are they worth the difference.?

See here: http://www.mm-vision.dk/produkter/vi...&type=pcsystem

To me, that seems ridiculously expensive for what you get. That system gives you 32 ghz of rendering horsepower (not bad in itself) but at 2.0ghz, everything that's not multi threaded (pretty much everything save rendering) will be painfully slow to work with. Note also that those cpus do not overclock. Consider a system built around a 3930K overclocked to 4.5 ghz will give you 27 ghz of total power, a bit less that the other one, but over twice the speed in single threaded processes. With 32gb of ram, a top of line Geforce, SSD + HDD, something like an Asus P9X79 WS or PRO and a decent case, you're looking at a ±2500$ self built computer. That would leave you around 3000$ to build a pair of reasonably specced renderslaves

[3dvizual]

Sorry but I am not the kind of guy who overclocks my machines. I have heard this should be very bad for the machine and unstable. (I have never tried, so don't know if this is true)

[super gnu]

this isnt really true.. if you go too far, with insufficient cooling, youll have an unstable machine of course, and at extreme levels you can degrade the chip, but it usually switchesoff rather than doing any damage. ive overclocked dozens of machines (ever workstation i ever owned, and way back to my pentium 2 350, which i ran at 400 mhz

once youve found a speed that runs ok, and not too hot, and tested it a bit, you should have a machine every bit as stable as a stock one.

its almost a crime to buy a machine lwith an i7 and not tweak it a bit. its so easy ( unless you get a dell, or similar, with no options to adjust things) and without even getting fancy components or adjusting more than a single number in the bios, you can take a 3ghz machine to 4 ghz... free processing power.

im the guy mentioned earlier who put two machines in one box. i have 2 six core mahcines, with 32 gb ram in each, both running at 4.7 ghz. totally stable and gives me (by the previous calculation) 56.4 ghz of rendering power for a bit over £3500.

granted its a slightly ott example, but building a machine is like building with lego.. it all clips together quite simply if you do a bit of prep work. you save a ton of cash. you can even buy pre-overclocked bundles like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=2384&subcat=

you just need to buy a few extra components, plug it together, install windows and its good to go.

basically you get a lot more for your money if you spend a day or two fiddling... i enjoy the process, but maybe thats just me .

[3dvizual]

Thanks for your answer "Super Gnu". Really exciting reading..

And for sure it makes me more curious on the subject.

What about making a tutorial (step by step) on how to build your own power machine for small money.

I can see on the link that this board only has 16GB of ram on it, that is not much.?

[3dvizual]

I have a desktop computer with a Intel -i/-3960X, 3,3 GHz. Can I do something with this as it is, without buying extra cooling etc.

I have read about software which can overclock your PC without harming your computer.

[joconnell]

Super Gnu - I'm in the same situation, I've a 3930k with a thermalright macho on it running for the past few weeks - do you have a solid guide or article that you follow to overclock on this?

[super gnu]

hehe well there are a million articles online, but i didnt follow a specific one myself.. can give some suggestions, but really if you google your motherboard name plus overclocking, youll get what you need.. however if either of you want further tips i can give a basic methodologly for oc'ing sandybridge later.. bit busy atm..


with regards to a step by step guide to building a computer, i suspect google might be your friend

p.s. 16gb of ram isnt a small amount.. for the vast majority of scenes its plenty. more always better of course.

[3dvizual]

I am just testing overclocking... Quite fun can see what you mean. My computer crashed with 4.8 ghz overclocking so now i am trying 4.7 ghz.
I have downloaded ada64 to monitor system, and I am doing a render right now with 4.7 ghz. And when I look in the monitor I can see some warning about overheating.. See this file.

Should I go further down to 4.6 or adjust some other settings.?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rexoyl4uxr...est_4_7ghz.PNG

[super gnu]

erm. the general idea with overclocking is to start at a low level, and once it is stable, work your way up bit by bit.

4.7 is very high if you only have a standard set of cooling. im not surprised you have overheating warnings. (and try to be more specific.. "some warning about overheating" should be "my cpu is at 107 degrees, is this too hot?") since the software will certainly tell you the temp. try to understand what you are doing before diving in at the deep end.

start at a nice sensible 4ghz or so, make sure you have temp monitoring software (realtemp is good) so you can see how hot your cpu is.. try to keep all cores below about 65-70 degrees max. then download a stress testing software (even tougher on your cpu than rendering) like "intel burn test" run this for a few hours, and if it doesnt crash, or get too hot, then increase the clock a bit and try again.

are you just changing the bclk in your bios or using some software that messes with settings for you? id avoid those as they tend to increase the voltage to your cpu much more than necessary, generating tons of extra heat. always do your overclocking in the bios if possible.

[3dvizual]

I found this article which is excactly the system as I have on this desktop computer i am testing it on.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/13hoqpzjkj...-3960x-ee-.pdf

And it says that the system is stable ewith 4.7 ghz. That is why I started there. (or actually i started at 4.8 ghz. because of a video from asus i saw)

But I don't know which tempetures which is good, so thank you for this info.

I am adjusting the settings in asus bios.

[3dvizual]

I have adjustet the ghz so the tempature fits 65-70 degrees, but I had to go all the way down to 3.6 ghz to do this.

Do I then have to adjust some other settings to get higher ghz again. I have not adjustet voltage or anything else. it is 1.410

[Franx]

What cooling device do you use?

[super gnu]

you can try dropping the voltage to say 1.35v and see if it still runs ok at 3.6, as this should drop the temperatures a lot. but if you set voltage too low it will crash.


the basic idea is to get the highest speed at the lowest voltage possible. this will give you as a result the highest speeds at the lowest temperatures.

key is to test well for an extended period if you dont want any nasty surprises.

another thing to realise is that not all chips overclock the same. its possible yours is just not a very good overclocker, although only 3.6 from 3.3 is very poor. id suggest another issue is causing this.

[3dvizual]

I have a corsair H60 cooler.

[3dvizual]

I have adjustet to 1.35 voltage and 3.8ghz and it stills run to hot. approx on 75 degrees..

Maybe I should go back to my original settings on this desktop computer.