I think it's safe to say, I win for now.

[kimgar]

haha, that's just insane man, love the task manager screen!

heh, yes, please post your adress, my uncle nasty wants to deliver you a pizza

[Syclone1]

OMFG I think I just got an adrenalin rush from looking at the task manager. Sweet box buddy

[Lucetius]

RePlay,

We're burning some frames on it now for testing, I'll try to run a PPT over the weekend. If you have suggested settings/size, let me know.

I'm running a short animation on it at the moment. 1800 frames averaging 10sec per frame. I've got the same animation running on 6 - 2x2 Opteron 275's. They are averaging 45 sec per frame. The performance seems to really depend on what you throw at it.

As for the cost, it was way below wholesale. The cost of the processors are the killer. Cheapest place I've seen is Monarch at $1,200 ea. I took a huge risk and purchased them on Ebay for $500ea. I was very lucky as they all checked out / passed rigorous testing.

Actual costs are as follows:

Case:
This was tough and there aren't many options for an 8way setup. I ended up using tinkertoys for grownups and built a case with a Lubic set. It's a little hokey but it works. I had to custom quite a bit.
Cost $110 Newegg
Plexiglass: $75 USplastics

PowerSupply, again not easy. you need 2 x 24pin & 8 x 8pin power connectors. I ended up using 2 x 850w Zippy/Emac's
Cost $700 Antron Electronics

Motherboard S4881 & M4881
Cost: $2,426.61 Ebuyx.com

Processors: 875 6 from ebay, 2 from Monarch
Ebay: $2,981 (this is where I really saved)
Monarch: $2,028

ram: corsair 1gig x8
Cost: $1,160 Newegg

HD: 4 x WD Raptor 150
Cost: $796 Newegg

Video: XFX FX7950 GX2
Cost: $500 Newegg

Heatsinks: Cooljag. (only side flow setup I could find that would fit) BARELY!!!
Cost: $280

Fans, Misc
Cost: $100

Total around $11,000.

If you can build one for less, I highly recomend it!!


As for the rich boss, he's not that rich and he's me Only reason I built it is because of the deal I found on Ebay and work as been pretty good this year. I don't get to do much production work any more so I try and have fun where I can. Usually it's building up new gear. Fun for me, great for the guys when they get to use it.

I'm building a new storage array now. 8Terrabytes with 1Gbs througput. Cost to build so far is 10k. Were sorting out some driver issues but when finished, it should speed up our disk access quite a bit. (especially since our current storage is barely pushing 150Mbs.) [/list]

[Syclone1]

Lets see some pics of this power house

-dave

[priad]

I'm curious too

[Lucetius]

O.K. Don't laugh.

Here are the pics. I took it home this weekend and started to cut/install the plexiglass. Case fans and a multi card reader will be here this week, then I can finish it up. Not very pretty but it works and for the price......


Full res here: http://www.lucetiusdesign.com/Temp-F...y/DSC02094.JPG



Full res here: http://www.lucetiusdesign.com/Temp-F...y/Dsc02095.jpg



Full res here: http://www.lucetiusdesign.com/Temp-F...y/DSC02096.JPG



Full res here: http://www.lucetiusdesign.com/Temp-F...y/Dsc02097.jpg



Full res here: http://www.lucetiusdesign.com/Temp-F...y/Dsc02098.jpg



Full res here: http://www.lucetiusdesign.com/Temp-F...y/DSC02099.JPG

[mdi]

thats realy cool

[DaForce]

hahaha thats awesome!!

Although 3 wheels thats just asking to topple over.

Sure hope your able to get some good airflow in there!!

[Neilg]

Its like someone stuck a bentley engine in a robin reliant.

I love it.

[stochastic]

beautiful

[jacksc02]

i just messed myself!

6 opterons for that price from ebay has to be the deal of the year!

[Da_elf]

id mess myself just to get that deal

[Lucetius]

This is the 2nd time this year I found a deal like that. The 1st time, I hummed and hawed about it for so long that by the time I felt comfortable with the seller, they were already gone. I did some searching, made a couple phone call and pulled the trigger with my fingers crossed this time. Glad I did it.

[cpnichols]

What? No SLI? wimp.....

[Lucetius]

I thought about it but I wanted to try the 7950 GX2. It's basically sli on one card. (2 sandwiched together.) I would have loved to try 2 of them for Quad SLI but the slots are to close.