3D Rendering Node/s

[JJtheGerman]

Hi,

 

this is my first post here so I might aswell say hi while I'm at it.

The name is JJ and I like computers (am I doing this right?)

 

I am doing a lot of 3D rendering, (3dsMax + corona) and lately I had some side projects and one of the main problems I have is rendertimes.

I did a short calculation of rendertime required for my latest project and it was somewhere around 70 days of continues rendering.

 

First problem is that it simply takes waaaaaaay too long, and I will never get done.

Second problem is, that while my machine is rendering it's unuseable so this isn't really an option.

 

I figured I might use cloud services to do the rendering for me, but the prices were, exorbidant.

 

I have a tight budget of 500€ I want to spend.

All I need is cpu power nothing else, ram is barely required, neither is storage or gpu.

I am planing to run this/these second machines continously while I can still work on my main pc.

 

Linus uploaded a video of the rendering machine they built but that is completely overkill. I really only need pure CPU power as far as I know.

 

So I was wondering if anyone here has experience building those kind of machines or could give me advice on this.

Perhabs you look at it and just go "Nooooooope" but maybe it would work.

 

Not sure if this is important but here is my current machine:

 

Intel Core i7 2600k @ 3.9ghz

Nvidia Geforce GTX 970

Asustek P8H67-V

16gb DDR3 Ram

 

Br, JJ any advice greatly appreciated

[Djole123]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (€367.72 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€45.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Total: €413.61

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-30 22:48 CET+0100

[brob]

You will have to verify with the merchant that the motherboard has a BIOS version compatible with the Haswell Refresh cpu. It should, but it is worth checking out before purchase. This system will likely have performance close to your existing system. Unfortunately the budget does not allow for anything beefier.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1246 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€298.95 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€45.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (€29.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€44.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Antec NSK3180 MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/380W Power Supply  (€75.90 @ Caseking)
Total: €494.73
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-01 00:47 CET+0100

[JJtheGerman]

You will have to verify with the merchant that the motherboard has a BIOS version compatible with the Haswell Refresh cpu. It should, but it is worth checking out before purchase. This system will likely have performance close to your existing system. Unfortunately the budget does not allow for anything beefier.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1246 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€298.95 @ Mindfactory)

Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (€45.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Memory: G.Skill NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (€29.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€44.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Case: Antec NSK3180 MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/380W Power Supply  (€75.90 @ Caseking)

Total: €494.73

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-01 00:47 CET+0100

 

This seems awfully expensive for the CPU power I would get. 

Wouldn't two used X5650's be a lot better and cost less?

 

I also kinda brain farted and forgot that I still have an old case which looks to be a Cooltek K3 Evolution and a 230v power supply.

I also have an old HDD lying around that I exchanged for another SSD, but I could use it since I only need to put the OS on it.

And after searching around a bit more it has become apparent that I will need 16gb ram, because the render server loads all data

it recieves directly into ram and the scenes I am rendering are quite big.

[brob]

This seems awfully expensive for the CPU power I would get. 

Wouldn't two used X5650's be a lot better and cost less?

 

I also kinda brain farted and forgot that I still have an old case which looks to be a Cooltek K3 Evolution and a 230v power supply.

I also have an old HDD lying around that I exchanged for another SSD, but I could use it since I only need to put the OS on it.

And after searching around a bit more it has become apparent that I will need 16gb ram, because the render server loads all data

it recieves directly into ram and the scenes I am rendering are quite big.

 

If you can find the parts and meet the budget, yes two X5650 would be better than a single E3-1246. A single X5650 probably would not provide better performance. Tough to gauge as it has 4 more execution threads, larger cache, and higher memory bandwidth, but has a lower base clock and lacks several generations of improvements.

 

Having a case, psu, and hdd certainly helps with the budget.

 

If everything is stored in main memory, you may want to think about having more than 16GB.

[Streetguru]

Hi,

an FX 8 core probably ain't too bad a choice given it's price

 

do you need high single core performance?

PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZLYFvK

Price breakdown by merchant: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/ZLYFvK/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor  (€139.90 @ Caseking)

Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (€119.42 @ Mindfactory)

Memory: Patriot 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (€19.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5450 1GB Video Card  (€30.14 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€49.90 @ Caseking)

Total: €359.35

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-03 00:30 CET+0100

[kkpatel87]

-snip-

 

In order to get more performance, you are going to need more than 500 euros for anything new.

 

You could however build a second hand, dual LGA1366 cpu server for less than 250-300 USD. 

 

There is lots of poor advice in this thread. This is not a gaming machine, this is a rendering node. You are going to need 16GB of RAM minimum for offloading, no video card, and definitely not a low IPC AMD FX CPU (Opterons though are not a bad choice).

 

Another option is to add a coprocessor unit to your machine, such a nvidia tesla or intel xeon phi to your primary machine, if you have the available PCIE bandwidth.

[Streetguru]

In order to get more performance, you are going to need more than 500 euros for anything new.

An entry level opteron is pretty much on par with the FX 8 cores, and they're fine chips to turn into render bitches on the cheap, though pricing is a bit better in the US

[JJtheGerman]

Well I ended up choosing this machine right here.

Sorry for not posting back before I bought it and therefore nullifying your advice  :unsure:

On the other hand this seemed like a really good deal considering that it costs 500€ and all I need to add is some more memory. I didn't want to let that pass.

(I won't need 32gb ram, from some quick tests I could pull from our work server farm 16gb seems to be enough for 95% of all my use cases)

 

Thank you regardless, I hope I am not shunt from here because of this.

(But hey I might get a second node at some point in the future and I doubt I will get this deal again!)

[kkpatel87]

-snip-

 

For europe, that's not bad. That is probably going to be a solid performer.