Render Machine/Farm 3 or more GPUs OR Upgrade Current System

[myrcene]

Hey everyone,

I am helping my fiancee build a machine for 3D rendering. She uses cinema 4d and octane.

 

The current machine is as follows:
Motherboard: ASUS X99 A II

CPU: Intel i7 6800k
RAM: Ripjaws 32GB DDR4 2133

GPU: EVGA 980 ti

 

So I would like to build a second machine and network the two together so that the second system renders. I would like the second system so that it can be expandable, so that GPUs could be added at any time.
Do you all have suggestions for motherboards that would be able to handle 3+ GPUs and up to 8 GPUs?

I know I am leaving a lot out, I am an audio engineer so this realm is a bit cloudy for me. Please ask for more information if needed. 
Any help or insight is much appreciated.
 

Thank you!

[AdamH96]

Most x99, x299 motherboards have multiple x8 and x16 slots on their boards and buying from a known brands (Evga, Asus, Gigabyte, etc.) they will do fine, just look for the features you need. The max is usually 4 slots, so if your going for more they are xeon/server boards and can cost a lot more. I don't use Octane but I do a bit of 3D rendering on my set up with both my GPUs (Using Blender's Cycles Renderer) so I am not sure if Octane allows to export render info to other machines.

 

The MAIN thing you have to worry about is "Slot Spacing" make sure there is a space between GPU slots because most GPUs are 2 slots thick, and you will run into spacing issues. Most of the time the top of the line motherboards have proper slot spacing for 4 GPUs.

Just as an example (red slots): https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132505CVF&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwordsCA-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwordsCA-PC-_-pla-_-Motherboards+-+Intel-_-N82E16813132505CVF&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqM3VBRCwARIsAKcekb3Nz5FI7QGlssJToCIn5b-78w8ItORWoeQBllJJKCbxNrEDxLFfzigaAuZ9EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds 

 

---------------- GPU slot

X

----------------GPU slot

X

----------------GPU slot

X

----------------GPU slot

 

Edit: I just looked at your current board and it supports 4 dual slot GPUs, I'd probably buy another one and stick a i7-6850K in there.

[brob]

The Asus WS X299 Sage and Asus X99-E WS/USB 3.1 have seven x16 slots. Either will support up to four dual slot or seven single slot gpu. Theoretically one could have up to seven single slot GTX 1080 Ti.  Evga announced such a gpu late last year.