3 x 3930K (or 4930K) vs. dual Xeon E5 2680

[baastyan]

Hi JezUK,

Yes I have seen the missing bitmaps. I just assumed that they are not needed (or relevant) for this scene/rendering. And my rendering looks pretty much the same as the one on the video on YT.

I am glad you will do the test too. So did you buy your render nodes? Or sitll looking for best stolution?

[JezUK]

Hi baastyan,

And thanks for all your information - I will run a test render on my single machine (i7 4930K o/c 4.25ghz) and let you know the results later this evening.

However, there are several bitmaps missing from the scene - did you have this problem also ?

They are;

LMP~SHADE 02.JPG
LMP~SHADE ILL 01.JPG
01_DIF.JPG
01_BUMP.JPG

[baastyan]

I did some tests to compare performance of my 3930K workstation with xeon e5-2696 v2

I tested this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwzKQd8-B5s
You can see on the end of the video that the render time is : 10 min 17s. (xeon e5-2696 v2)

And here what I got:
TEST A: 1 workstation (i7 3930K - no OC): 25 min. 33s.
TEST B: 1 workstation (i7 3930K - no OC) + 3 render nodes using DR (i7 3930K - no OC) : 7min. 11s.
TEST A / TEST B = 3,57 times faster !!
I assume that with OC ( that I am planning) performance will increase 25-30%.

So I need to say that I am really glad to see how good DR works. Of course it may not be that good with other scenes.

I am not the one who shared this 3D scene on YT (link above) but I think it would be good to campare the results on your machines as well!

[baastyan]

Hi baastyan,

Can you give me the specs for your 4 machines please ?

I'm pricing up my first homebased rendernodes and would like ideas for what I'm letting myself in for in terms of price, hardware and software as well.

(I build my own machines, currently using a 4930k oc'd to 4.25ghz, but this is a new branch out for me).

Thanks.

JezUK you asked a aquestion and it took me only 4 months to answer you:

Here comes the specs for my 3 render nodes:

Intel Core i7-3930K 3,2 GHz
GeForce GTX 650 Gigabyte 1GB
Kingston 2.5'' SSDNow V300 120GB
Corsair CX Series 600W ATX, Modular, 80 Plus Bronze.
Noctua NH-D14 SE2011
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
MSI X79A-GD45 Plus
Kingston HyperX DDR3 2x 8GB 1600MHz CL10 Blu
NZXT H230

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Oh dont tell me that your floor cant take it

Well I send you link with switch. That will take care of CAT 6 cable connections. You need modem(like virgin/o2/etc etc) to get DHCP server from. Modem will manage network. (I am speaking about cheap /free options here). Then once you install windows on all machines u set up static IP's so they all have the same IP everytime they start. You need some network managing software like ReFaMo to see if they are up and running/how they run/send CMD/etc commands and files.

[urbanite]

I am using ATEN KVMP switch JezUK.

[JezUK]

You get that http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/networ...140726085124:s

Connect all with cables
You need to connect it to ur Modem for DHCP manager as this one dont have it.
You set up static IP's afterward.

And you finish. - in very basic sense...

Thanks Dariusz,

But I guess you still need some sort of switch box to be able to see all the machines signing in etc ?

Damn, that Blade solution looks so convenient, and having 128 cores would be real nice....... (just weighs too much )

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

You get that http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/networ...140726085124:s

Connect all with cables
You need to connect it to ur Modem for DHCP manager as this one dont have it.
You set up static IP's afterward.

And you finish. - in very basic sense...

[JezUK]

Yea it might be 200kg.,.. Its very heavy as its metal and hard stuff... !

Its 16 nodes. Each node has 2x 4core CPU and 16 gb ram. They are OLD cpus ! If you dig more you can find newer ones for simmilar price Also you need an separate room for it...

They are just like normal pcs. Just very tightly packed...

Yeah, I don't think I can go down that road - nice and convenient as it seems, that weight plus noise/heat would be too much for my current working arrangements

I'm really keen to learn more about how to have 4 x 4930 and connect them all up - many many years ago I did have my own 3 machine network and used a Belkin KVM switchbox - but that was a long time ago, how do people do this stuff nowadays ? (be nice if baastyan got back on here )

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Yea it might be 200kg.,.. Its very heavy as its metal and hard stuff... !

Its 16 nodes. Each node has 2x 4core CPU and 16 gb ram. They are OLD cpus ! If you dig more you can find newer ones for simmilar price Also you need an separate room for it...

They are just like normal pcs. Just very tightly packed...

[JezUK]

I mean you could haver gotten this :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-C7000-B...item19d5e4e8a5

Which will take less space than your 4 computers

And that will give you 300 ghz of power :- )

Then again this is a 5 second find with and old cpus. I bought from them a server that had 8 x new 6 core CPUS which are totally awesome

They have different offers every month so its all about bargain scouting

Yeah, this is what I want !

Thanks man

But....... I know very little about this sort of hardware - in fact, I'm struggling to even understand exactly how many nodes/cores etc are in the ebay config you attached.

And.... is that weight correct (on that ebay item) ?? 200+ kgs ?? Surely not

[AlexP]

I mean you could haver gotten this :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-C7000-B...item19d5e4e8a5

Which will take less space than your 4 computers

And that will give you 300 ghz of power :- )

Then again this is a 5 second find with and old cpus. I bought from them a server that had 8 x new 6 core CPUS which are totally awesome

They have different offers every month so its all about bargain scouting

These things are a bitch to power and cool though.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Sorry, I misunderstand your point (sorry, I'm learning things here) - you're saying for the same price, I can have 10 machines instead of 4 ?

If anything I'd prefer these to take less space, so 4 would actually be better to me than 10, but also, for dynamic rendering, I'm guessing the i7's would be quicker ?

In any case what quad/6 core servers are you referring to (model) ?

Many thanks.

I mean you could haver gotten this :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-C7000-B...item19d5e4e8a5

Which will take less space than your 4 computers

And that will give you 300 ghz of power :- )

Then again this is a 5 second find with and old cpus. I bought from them a server that had 8 x new 6 core CPUS which are totally awesome

They have different offers every month so its all about bargain scouting

[JezUK]

Hyea

Just an idea but on Ebay you can get entire quad /6 core servers for around 300-400£ second handed. For the price of 4 i7 3930k you can get like 10+ servers with the same power non OC rigs. Its way better buy than i7 tbh...

Sorry, I misunderstand your point (sorry, I'm learning things here) - you're saying for the same price, I can have 10 machines instead of 4 ?

If anything I'd prefer these to take less space, so 4 would actually be better to me than 10, but also, for dynamic rendering, I'm guessing the i7's would be quicker ?

In any case what quad/6 core servers are you referring to (model) ?

Many thanks.

[Morbid Angel]

Hyea

Just an idea but on Ebay you can get entire quad /6 core servers for around 300-400£ second handed. For the price of 4 i7 3930k you can get like 10+ servers with the same power non OC rigs. Its way better buy than i7 tbh...

very much agreed.