render farm for the lols

[Pesky Ngon]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well they have special connectors, and there normally not normal sizes(1u servers often have fans that are 40x40x56mm counter rotating.

 

Its much easier to just put reistors on the current fans to slow them down.

 

And most normal fans that you get for a gaming pc won't move enough air.

ok...so a couple of things im thinking of. this server would not be in a rack. so could I take the top off, unplug the fans. then run fans off of molex form my main rig to aid cool the CPUs instead? they may be weaker, but theyd have the advantage that the case was open and therefore the heat could escape more easily. my main concern with this is that ive heard some servers will refuse to boot if things are unplugged/damaged. a more extreme option would be to replace the stock heatsinks with a beefier cooler. that way even a regular fan could do the job.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Pesky Ngon said:

ok...so a couple of things im thinking of. this server would not be in a rack. so could I take the top off, unplug the fans. then run fans off of molex form my main rig to aid cool the CPUs instead? they may be weaker, but theyd have the advantage that the case was open and therefore the heat could escape more easily. my main concern with this is that ive heard some servers will refuse to boot if things are unplugged/damaged. a more extreme option would be to replace the stock heatsinks with a beefier cooler. that way even a regular fan could do the job.

If your not gonna run it in a rack, why get a rack server, just get a used workstation or tower server.

[Pesky Ngon]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

If your not gonna run it in a rack, why get a rack server, just get a used workstation or tower server.

mainly cos it seems easier to get: 1. ones you can customise to what you need. 2. because there seem to be more that have 2x CPUs

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Pesky Ngon said:

mainly cos it seems easier to get: 1. ones you can customise to what you need. 2. because there seem to be more that have 2x CPUs

how about this? 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-T610-2x-6-Core-Xeon-E5645-2-4GHz-Perc-6-i/372500004841?epid=1301836297&hash=item56babaffe9:g:X0sAAOSwZ4Rb6bLI:rk:2:pf:0

 

SImmilar price, and the same dual 1366. 

[Pesky Ngon]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

how about this? 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-T610-2x-6-Core-Xeon-E5645-2-4GHz-Perc-6-i/372500004841?epid=1301836297&hash=item56babaffe9:g:X0sAAOSwZ4Rb6bLI:rk:2:pf:0

 

SImmilar price, and the same dual 1366. 

dosnt look too bad, but no ram or HDD/SSD included so that's gonna add even more to the cost. I think overall I have more options and better prices from buying a server.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Pesky Ngon said:

dosnt look too bad, but no ram or HDD/SSD included so that's gonna add even more to the cost. I think overall I have more options and better prices from buying a server.

can you put the server in another room? Your not gonna easily make these quiet enough to be in the same room.

 

And removing the top and doing lots of modding doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time. If you want a custom formfactor, just get a used board and built a case.

 

What programs are you using for rendering? Can you use gpu?

[Pesky Ngon]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

can you put the server in another room? Your not gonna easily make these quiet enough to be in the same room.

 

And removing the top and doing lots of modding doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time. If you want a custom formfactor, just get a used board and built a case.

 

What programs are you using for rendering? Can you use gpu?

I might be able to use another room...im not sure.

 

as for program: blender can use GPU and CPU. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, Pesky Ngon said:

I might be able to use another room...im not sure.

 

as for program: blender can use GPU and CPU. 

How much memory do you projects need?

 

A single midrange gpu will be raster at rendering than lots of cpus. Getting somehting like a gtx 1070 or titan x would be much better than a used server here.

[Pesky Ngon]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much memory do you projects need?

 

A single midrange gpu will be raster at rendering than lots of cpus. Getting somehting like a gtx 1070 or titan x would be much better than a used server here.

problem is my main rig is now full of GPUs. I even modded cards so that I could fit more in. so to use GPUs id have to build a new PC anyway. so id be looking at: mobo £70, psu, £50, cpu £100, ram £120, HDD £30. case £40 and now im already at £290 before even buying a mid range GPU. so CPUs are the way to go. + they can be used for more things. like I can off load physics sims onto it and stuff. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Pesky Ngon said:

problem is my main rig is now full of GPUs. I even modded cards so that I could fit more in. so to use GPUs id have to build a new PC anyway. so id be looking at: mobo £70, psu, £50, cpu £100, ram £120, HDD £30. case £40 and now im already at £290 before even buying a mid range GPU. so CPUs are the way to go. + they can be used for more things. like I can off load physics sims onto it and stuff. 

Do you care about power consumption? Cause these used servers suck power

THe 2u servers can be a good amount quieter, so something like a r710 will be fine noise wise in a normal room, still not silent though. Put reistors on the fan if you want it even quieter.

 

Also look at the same servers like the dell r715, they can be cheaper at times, and can be similar performance.

[Pesky Ngon]

25 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you care about power consumption? Cause these used servers suck power

THe 2u servers can be a good amount quieter, so something like a r710 will be fine noise wise in a normal room, still not silent though. Put reistors on the fan if you want it even quieter.

 

Also look at the same servers like the dell r715, they can be cheaper at times, and can be similar performance.

I think overall power shouldn't be too much of an issue because they wont be on a lot of the time. and noise isn't too bad either. main priority is high performance at low cost. I would happily pay a little extra though for lower power consumption 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Pesky Ngon said:

I think overall power shouldn't be too much of an issue because they wont be on a lot of the time. and noise isn't too bad either. main priority is high performance at low cost. I would happily pay a little extra though for lower power consumption 

Id get al r710 then, pretty quiet for a rack server, lots of performance. get something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R710-Virtualization-Server-2-66ghz-12-Cores-64gb-500gb-2xPSU/292794022894?hash=item442be23bee:g:bHEAAOSwLztbUfi5:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!95131!US!-1:rk:7:pf:0

 

Also hunt for local surplus places for cheap servers.

[Pesky Ngon]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id get al r710 then, pretty quiet for a rack server, lots of performance. get something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R710-Virtualization-Server-2-66ghz-12-Cores-64gb-500gb-2xPSU/292794022894?hash=item442be23bee:g:bHEAAOSwLztbUfi5:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!95131!US!-1:rk:7:pf:0

 

Also hunt for local surplus places for cheap servers.

ooof. considering I could get something half the cost that would have the same power for what I need that seems kind steep.

if it was just £20 more for some slightly better power efficiency then id do that. but for 2x the cost I cant really justify it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Pesky Ngon said:

ooof. considering I could get something half the cost that would have the same power for what I need that seems kind steep. 

if it was just £20 more for some slightly better power efficiency then id do that. but for 2x the cost I cant really justify it.

what was the other server? This is one of the best dual 1366 servers, so you get the max ram and pcie slots. And you don't have to mod it to be quiet.

[Pesky Ngon]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

what was the other server? This is one of the best dual 1366 servers, so you get the max ram and pcie slots. And you don't have to mod it to be quiet.

this is what I looked at before, it was on sale and just went up a bit in price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProLiant-DL380-G7-CTO-2x-Xeon-Quad-Hex-Core-Rack-Server-2U-583914-B21/172659529482?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=471462081912&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

bare in mind that for my purposes, even 16gb of ram is overkill for most tasks. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Pesky Ngon said:

this is what I looked at before, it was on sale and just went up a bit in price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProLiant-DL380-G7-CTO-2x-Xeon-Quad-Hex-Core-Rack-Server-2U-583914-B21/172659529482?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=471462081912&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

bare in mind that for my purposes, even 16gb of ram is overkill for most tasks. 

Then thats basically the same as the r710 i had above, just the hp version. There pretty quiet and should work well here. Id just get a ssd to make it have much faster io.

 

 

[Pesky Ngon]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Then thats basically the same as the r710 i had above, just the hp version. There pretty quiet and should work well here. Id just get a ssd to make it have much faster io.

 

 

that's great. thanks a lot for all the tips and suggestions