Masman8675

the CPU doesn't limit the ram capacity just the memory controller speed.
 
*(long answer is modern 64bit CPUs, based on addressing, can have a theoretical limit of over 240ish TB of ram, since modules currently only go up to 32GB sticks with some ECC going higher the motherboard vendor can only test their boards up to 4x32GB to get the "maximum" 128GB of RAM)
 
2x32GB will be no trouble with the board, even 4x32GB should have no issues at the default clocks, it's when you start pushing the memory speed with all dimms populated that stability starts to become effected by manufacturing processes, power delivery, CPU quality, silicon lottery etc. 

Carved wood - scratch build.

Ouch.  I would seriously look into a beefier CPU and more RAM before adding a GPU.  I'm 99.9% sure that the reason it keeps crashing is because of the extremely low RAM available.  What motherboard do you have?

So I shall.  Stay tuned.

Awesome! next, post the obligatory pics of the setup? (can do it in another thread - I think there's a show off your setup thread somewhere.)

Went with the Enthoo Pro.  I had ordered the RISE first, as it was on sale, but then found out there’s only 3 HDD bays so returned it.  The Enthoo is so much nicer, cable management is a dream, there’s tons of HDD bays, more 5.25’s, build quality is quite a bit better, and much better fan/rad mounting options.

Went with the Enthoo Pro.  I had ordered the RISE first, as it was on sale, but then found out there’s only 3 HDD bays so returned it.  The Enthoo is so much nicer, cable management is a dream, there’s tons of HDD bays, more 5.25’s, build quality is quite a bit better, and much better fan/rad mounting options.

I think cars from the late 90's/early 00's had the perfect amount of computer, mechanical, (and low weight) mix that just made them so much more enjoyable as cars.

Now cars are just driving iPads. And I don't get it.. I work in tech and just feel like I want to get away from the tech sometimes and get a breath of fresh air you know? Why are we so obsessed? Hopping in my "old" miata on the ride home and taking backroads is enjoyable to me. I get to get away from all the technology and just enjoy the drive home.
 
not saying modern cars don't have their benefits. Just.. why can't we keep things simple?

That is definitely unnerving, this needs to get more publicity from the public. One problem is most of them probably wouldn't even care about it. The amount of people I know that don't care about their own privacy is shocking to say the least. Trading privacy for convenience is not a fair trade.

USB flash option will download Windows installation media and make a bootable usb flash drive.
The ISO option will just download the Windows 10 ISO to your HDD. You will need to use third party software to burn the ISO to a USB Flash drive

Quality, but not too pricey.
Dual Xeon X5650, Supermicro X8DTH-6F.  At least 8 sticks of RAM to start, likely going to expand.
 
Thanks!

People asking for tech advice but are not actually interested in your answer because they only seek conformation of their choice.

Smart tech is dangerous and trash. Like smart home stuff and any other IOT. They're unsecured and over priced. They're for lazy people (though I guess disabled people can benefit from some stuff).

Laptops have become too "thin and light" at the expense of everything else

Apparently the next version will not be available for download anymore.  A Microsoft employee will come over with a USB stick and guide you through the install.
 
I managed to get a photo of that, courtesy of a friend who's in the Windows Insider program.
 

The slots on the bottom right can be lifted right out without any issue, just by moving away that blue plasticy bit.
 
EDIT: and so it should be a dual socket board, but it only has one CPU. Do make sure that, if you're looking to get a second CPU, the required traces are in place, as Dell often leaves out some parts of a motherboard to differentiate between different price points.

Looks like I may have found a good one:
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTH-6F.cfm
 
Lots cheaper than the SR-2 and will fit easier in cases too!

Ah good to know.  Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it.
 
I shall keep doing my research, hopefully I’ll find a good non-server board to use.  Either the SR-2 or another.  Thanks again!

48GB is really probably okay, I just don't want to be limited.  I use Blender a lot and am constantly running out with 16, and my friend has 32 which he overrruns as well...
 
Just wanting to know if there's a good cheaper alternative to the EVGA SR-2.  Ideally not a server board, since those generally only have one PCI-E lane.

This is known as MPP in the HPC industry, of the top 500 super computers 11.6% are of this type. They are very special systems and as mentioned are the IBM Blue Gene and Cray XC etc systems and have specialized interconnects that have custom communication protocols and many many connections per node to get the required bandwidth. These are 'one system' though you can create hardware resource pools to split up the resources to run multiple tasks etc which are not unlike creating VMs or containers but instead of being isolated to a single node you are able to span all nodes. Clustering on the other hand is just workload assigning to many nodes but a task can never exceed the capability of a single node even though the total combined resources would technically be capable.

You can easily cluster blender, just use the built in network render manager and make a little render farm.

Here is a pretty through guide https://cgcookie.com/tutorial/setting-up-a-renderfarm/
 
But basically, enable the add on, then set to network render, and go.