Building yet more renderboxes!

[tricky]

On the cusp of building another set of renderboxes to add to our mini-farm. This time we are basing them around a mini-ITX case/board with an i7 4771 CPU and 32GB memory. Hopefully they will be a quicker build than some of the previous setups we've built.

Anyone using mini-ITX for a farm?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I am. works good. I got in H90 wate cooler. Was just tall enough to fit it in. OC to 4.5ghz stable.

[Morbid Angel]

I'd be really interested in knowing how they perform. Please let me know when you do get them built, since I was considering the same, but I don't know who the performance of 4770 cpu would compare to larger 3930k.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

6 core will eat alive 4 core.

[cheerioboy]

What mini-ITX mobo handles more than 16gb ram? Also I don't think there's a mini-ITX mobo that handles CPUs over 4 core... could be wrong. Tis a shame

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

X79 Extreme4-M 32 gb of ram. 6 core CPU, OC, 2pcie X - u wont need them and more. I also run Mini ATX PSU 550W on it.

[cheerioboy]

That's an ATX board.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Oh you guys mean I-ATX no that dont exist yet... you can get M-ATX one

[tricky]

I meant to say mATX. Mini-ITX would be great, but 16GB limit is a bit restrictive for us.

[jacksc02]

Richard,
What are the complete specs of the boxes you are building?

[tricky]

Richard,
What are the complete specs of the boxes you are building?

MSI Z87M-G43
Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10666 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.5V (4x8gb sticks in total, so 32GB)
128GB SanDisk Pulse, 2.5" SSD
Intel Core i7 4771
Fractal Design Core 1000
430W Corsair CXM Builder

Nothing too fancy - just a means to have a fast CPU with 32GB ram in a small space. On-board graphics are fine. Didn't bother with a 'k' series CPU as I never have any luck with overclocking and don't fancy trying with it again.

[chrisjacks21]

MSI Z87M-G43
Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10666 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.5V (4x8gb sticks in total, so 32GB)
128GB SanDisk Pulse, 2.5" SSD
Intel Core i7 4771
Fractal Design Core 1000
430W Corsair CXM Builder

Nothing too fancy - just a means to have a fast CPU with 32GB ram in a small space. On-board graphics are fine. Didn't bother with a 'k' series CPU as I never have any luck with overclocking and don't fancy trying with it again.

Hi Tricky - how much is that coming in at?

[tricky]

Hi Tricky - how much is that coming in at?

Around about £550 +VAT. This doesn't include OS though. Its a pain having to buy a license of W7x64 just for it to sit there and have max/vray etc installed. Any cheaper work arounds to buying a full blown OS?

[algato]

Hello

"Any cheaper work arounds to buying a full blown OS?" -> just look at this great article:

http://thinkhypothetical.com/blog/3d...-as-you-think/

I hope so much, somedays the Max-renderslaves will don't need windows anymore.

Kind regards
Alex

[stevesideas]

This sounds like quite a nice system to go inside the Helmer drawers.