Tricky Node Options

[re:FORM]

<edit> hmm maybe its not so tricky! </edit>

I'm looking to get another node for the farm.... Its a tossup between building an i7 920, overclock it a bit, 6Gb ram, decent case, cooling and PSU, or getting a refurbished E5440 2.8Ghz 8-core Dell, 3-year onsite .

The I7 :-

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £229.99
(£199.99) £229.99
(£199.99) Biostar TPower Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £223.09
(£193.99) £223.09
(£193.99) Antec Sonata Plus 550 Quiet Midi-Tower Case - Black/Silver (NeoPower 550W Modular PSU) £120.74
(£104.99) £120.74
(£104.99) Corsair 3GB DDR3 Dominator PC3-12800C8 1600MHz (3x1GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X3G1600C8D) £92.99
(£80.86) £92.99
(£80.86) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
(£79.99) £91.99
(£79.99) Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366) £57.49
(£49.99) £57.49
(£49.99) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST380815AS) £31.04
(£26.99) £31.04
(£26.99) Asus GeForce 6200 LE 64MB DDR TurboCache DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £21.84
(£18.99) £21.84
(£18.99) Samsung TS-H353B 16x DVD-ROM SATA (Black) - OEM £11.49
(£9.99) £11.49
(£9.99)

Total : £880

The Dell :

• Grade: Dell Refurbished
• Model: PowerEdge 1950
• Colour: N/A
• Cabinet / Case: Rack Unit
• RAID Controller / Level: SAS 6/iR (RAID 0, 1)
• OS Provided / Type: N/A
• Processor / Installed Qty: 2
• Processor / Type: Intel Xeon E5440
• Processor / Clock Speed: 2.83 GHz
• RAM / Installed Size: 2 GB
• RAM / Technology: DDR2 ECC Fully Buffered FLS
• Memory Clock Speed: 667 MHz
• Storage Hard Drive / Capacity: 73 GB
• Storage Hard Drive / Interface Type: SAS
• Optical Drive: CD-Rom
• Storage Floppy Drive / Type: None
• Removable Storage Type: N/A
• Removable Storage Capacity: NA
• Video Memory / Installed Size: 16 MB
• Graphics: On board
• Network Cards: 2xBroadcom NetXtreme II 5708 Gb Ethernet
• Modem / Type: None
• USB: 4
• DIM used: 2
• DIM free: 6
• PCI free: 0
• PCI express: 2
• Serial Port: 1
• Keyboard: UK PS2
• Rail Kit: No
• Open Manage CDs: Yes
• DRAC: No
• TOE: Yes
• Backplane: 2 Drive
• Facia: Yes
• Feet: No
• Redundant PSU: NA

Total : £1500
Os + 100
Memory + ~£100


This would be my first rack mounted rendernode if I go for the Dell option. 3yr support would be nice, but then again, I've never had a system I've built go down on me (ooh err)...

Now that I can see the numbers in hard type, I think I'll go for 2 x i7 nodes... twice the performance for the same price... the only hassle is I need to build two computers !

Any suggestions? Where do you guys get reasonable priced rack-mounted nodes?

[glyph]

shouldnt you get a more powerful PSU for overclock?
(and then you can get a cheaper case)

[re:FORM]

Well, given I'm not going to have more than one HD and the gfx card will be doing nothing, I would have thought the 550W would do the job. I've already got a Q6600(@3.1ghz) with 8800gt running in that case, the build was nice and easy, and the powersupply didn't seem to complain.

[re:FORM]

seems like some people think the 550 will be ok. http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...readid=2265346

[jacksc02]

where are you pricing your bits from patrick?

[re:FORM]

overclockers.co.uk

[cecofuli]

Hi re:FORM,

see here

bye

[re:FORM]

Hi Francesco ,
Thanks, yep I've seen that thread. What am I supposed to take from it though? Pure jealousy at the size of your farm!? hehe

Yep, now I've thought about it, I'm not going to sacrfice speed for stability at this stage in my farmin-ing. I need the raw power at the moment, which is what the i7 offers.
Looks like I'll be ordering the parts for 2 i7 systems tomorrow... woohoo.
That's another 50ghz to the farm (roughly)...

[re:FORM]

One other question. What is the best OS for a node? vista Home Basic ? Premium ? XP64?

[cecofuli]

I'm happy with XP64, so, I don't need another OS.

[re:FORM]

Yep, but its £20-£30 more than Vista 64 HP.

[jow]

Patrick, both Vista HB and BP have lower RAM limits than XP64.
Home Basic= 8GB
Home Premium= 16GB
Bear that in mind if your nodes are going to get RAM upgrades in the future.

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/...ons/64bit.mspx

[re:FORM]

Oh that is interesting information. I don't think my nodes will ever need more than 16Gb so home premium should do the job.

[jacksc02]

but vista is hideous!
XP64 use much less memory so it leaves more memory avalible for rendering

[re:FORM]

shouldnt you get a more powerful PSU for overclock?
(and then you can get a cheaper case)

Well, I've built the system, and with it clocked at 3.3Ghz its only drawing 150 Watts at the socket when rendering. Not bad ! Seems the PSU is hardly getting stressed at all!