Watch out with that 24gb memory because its a triple channel kit and it’s for socket LGA 1366 processors. The core i7 2700K (socket LGA 1155) needs a simple dual channel kit and the core i7 3930K (socket LGA 2011) needs a quad channel kit for maximum performance. If I were you I would build 4 PC with core i7 2700K from the price of two core i7 3930K 
Good catch on the memory. I fixed it to use 4 x 4GB dual channel pieces.
I’m leaning that way too (re: build (4) 2700K’s for the price of (2) 3930K’s). First, the 3930K’s are hard to find right now. Second, they’re almost 2x more money with only about a 20% increase in performance.
4 of those would get me 32 efficient cores. That should smoke some HD frames.
Just pulled the trigger. I guess I bought all the 2700K’s they had because they ran out on my order and I had to get a 2600K to be able to build them all. Now I need to make room for all this gear. Thanks again for all the help guys!
I wanted to drag this thread up to ask a few questions. Right now I’ve got 4 machines that I’m rendering with. It’s all well and good and they’re built on the i2700 & i2600 processors. Now I’m working on some more animations and I need more render power. I took note of the idea of a micro ATX build and that’s what I’m thinking. Rather than stuff them in a case, I’m thinking of building a rack for them. I’ve got a pretty complete machine shop at my disposal, so i can fab up all the parts.
I’m a fan of intel chips but as I’m looking at the cpu benchmarks, I can’t help but notice the AMD FX 8120. There are a ton of micro ATX board w/ AM3+ support and onboard ati graphics (don’t care about graphics other than w/ onboard you don’t have to buy a gpu) for cheap. That 8120 chip is an 8 core w/ performance on par with $600 xeons for $180.
Question is, are there any issues mixing processor types? I remember it used to be a problem or could be a problem with differences in frames if they were rendered on different processor architectures. Is that still an issue?
Any comments on a micro ATX farm build on the AMD’s?
I think that the 8 core amd is not as fast as intel in terms of computing, not sure. But yea I have sameq uestion as u, any1 got answer? I think they all render that same…
I’m looking at this: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high\_end\_cpus.html#. Scan down the right hand side from top to bottom. Essentially, that 8120 is the highest up the list for the lowest price. In that list,you see that the 8120 is only marginally slower than some $1,000 + chips. Looking at the list in this mode: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high\_end\_cpus.html#cpuvalue puts it in perspective also.
I was loking at this http://pcpartpicker.com/benchmarks/cinebench/render-multiple/overall-list/ The AMD is slower than the 2600k one… 
NM. You’re right. The cinemark test is better than the 3dmark test from the other list. It’s also worth noting that the 8120 is a good bit cheaper than the 2600 and 2700 and not much of a performance drop. Doh. I was looking at the i5’s…
I think it comes down to the price for entire rig ratio and how well they OC. U might be able to OC 2.6k to 4.3-4.6k (I dunno how well they OC) and AMD might go to 5.2 or so… Then the gap might be smaller or so…
Yep, total rig cost is important. I did price out an i5 farm of 5 micro ATX rigs and an amd fx farm of 5 and I think the difference was $200. OC’ing them plays a big role in performance/cost. I’ll have to look into that. Bottom line, it looks like, initially anyway, that either would work for about the same price. I figured around $2,300 for a set of 5 nodes without any cases since i’ll put them in a rack.
i didnt look super recently but last time i checked (a few months ago..) the intels all overclock -way- better than the amd chips. if you take into account overclocking, things tip even -more- in favour of intel.
Rack case is expensive. Its like 200$ per 4U rack, u might get away with 2/3U… Can u maybe write specs/price here please?
i think he was planning to build his own rack…
! Can I has 10 too plox ? 
I actually picked up a brand new 42u dell rack for $100 off of craigslist. In fact, I’m going to pick it up today! I also bought 7 poweredge servers for $40 each! They’ve got 2x 3.0 ghz xeons, 4gb ram and 73gb hds. Not sure how they’ll render.
ha.. i wonder what generation of xeons they are.
reminds me of a time way back when.. i had a friend at Framestore, and was given the opportunity to buy 200 dual xeon 1u renderboxes for about 20 quid each. they were dual 2.6 ghz xeons, 32 bit machines with 2 gb ram, just as everythng was going 64 bit. (why they were ditching them)
now 400 2.6 xeon chips is still a hell of a lot of rendering grunt, but just imagine the leccy bills, and the space and cooling requirements. and, iirc they had just been used to do one of the harry potter films (iirc) so had most definitely been thrashed to within an inch of their lives.
Well, yes, the power consumption and cooling is a concern I have. The lot was so cheap I couldn’t pass it up. Even if I end up re-selling or donating the setup. I think I have the cooling sorted out and I have the power to run it, just depends on the cost. I’ll setup the nodes with WOL so they’re only spinning when I need them. The xeons are single core irwindale. So I’ll only get 4 cores per node (2 physical hyperthreaded cores) but what the hey. Even if they can handle a couple hundred frames it takes a little load off my good machines.
That 200 server lot would have required one hell of a “box” to put them in! The guy I got all these servers off of said he paid $6,000 USD each for these new. Can you imagine what framestore paid for that setup? What’s unfortunate about headless servers is there is virtually NO aftermarket for most of them. That’s why you can pick them up so cheap.
I’m still interested in building a little cluster unit out of micro atx boards. Seems more efficient and more bang for your buck than retired servers. I just have to get through some of this work before I embark on a big hardware build.
likewise.. i have big plans for a little diy rendercluster myself.. but currently saving to buy a house so its rather on the backburner.. plus, im waiting for the ivy bridge chips to come out. similar performance to the sandy bridge, but apparently much more energy efficient = better overclocking=cooler running=lower power bills
Dont buy the E5 xeons.They dont overclock…
yes i know.. those are sandy bridge.. by all accounts the ivy bridge xeons will fix this issue.. although im likely to use the mainstream parts rather than the xeons.. better bang for the buck.