Helmer Renderfarm update

[artmaknev]

Hello guys,

Just wanted to share my updated renderfarm.

I updated the housings for my older ikea helmer renderfarm when I had to relocate to new location, each case is lasercut from plexiglas.

[Joelaff]

Pretty slick! Much nicer than the 42U data center racks full of Ark cases that we have.

I see you have a big floor fan for cooling

[artmaknev]

Pretty slick! Much nicer than the 42U data center racks full of Ark cases that we have.

I see you have a big floor fan for cooling

This fan is just there to push renderfarm from point A to point B

Its just a room fan for summer time, renderfarm seats at another location (average temp on full render is 65c)

[stevesideas]

Very nice. I was going to do this myself but never found the time to get it done !. Well done. Looks very slick.

[Syclone1]

Nice work, very slick setup!

[cheerioboy]

This looks so good! I'll take 2.

The helmer farm I put together is a hazard zone with all the cut out metal edges everywhere. I wonder if I can transfer my existing parts into a plexi drawer like this... I should also upgrade from my stock cpu fans, my nodes get much hotter than 65c.

I love how the PSU & Ethernet are located at the rear, and the power button is just within the front of the drawer.

Good work!

[artmaknev]

Thanks guys!

I have another update, now its possible to put certain size microATX board with 32GB RAM support!

Brendan - You can transfer your helmer setup to renderpockets solution with ease, these are for sale now, you can buy at indiegogo, look for "renderpockets"

[jacksc02]

Would a ASRock X99 Extreme6 Intel LGA 2011-3 fit in the drawer? sorry I mean Renderpocket

[artmaknev]

LGA 2011-3 is too large, only mini-ITX and some micro-ATX boards fit.

[artmaknev]

Its finally possible to do 32GB mini-ITX motherboard render node, with the new i7-6700 and 2 x 16GB DDR4 RAM sticks!

i7-6700 - $329
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117560

ASRock H170M-ITX/DL LGA 1151 - $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157669

DDR4 32GB RAM - $265
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231973

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

@artmaknev

Can i order some?

[Neilg]

Can I ask where you got the panels made? I have a side project i'm going to need panels cut for in about a month or so.

[glorybound]

Yes, how much to build one for me, too?

[artmaknev]

hi guys, for sale is just the lasercut files, its a 100% DIY Project, with the help of free guide that you can download from www.renderpockets.com

I did all my lasercutting at FabLab (http://www.fabfoundation.org/fab-labs/) and I highly recommend this place, they have locations in most major cities around the world.

Bobby - it costs about $50 to lasercut 1 complete case, so for 6 nodes it costs about $300. For each node, the hardware cost is about $950. The total investment into my own renderfarm was about $4500, that's for 24 core / 48 thread (84GHz total), also bare in mind, the cost will be higher now because of the new 32GB mini-ITX boards, when I built my renderfarm there was just the 16GB mini-ITX available. I split this investment in the span of 6 months, I assembled 2 nodes every 3 months, thats the nice thing about small renderfarm, you can expand slowly and start working right away.

P.S. in about 2 weeks, big discount coming for the Thanksgiving holidays

[glorybound]

I was getting excited until I realized I would need 5 more V-Ray licenses.