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Thread: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    A Coolermaster Elite 335 costs less than that and looks much less hidious.
    I don't see much difference between them to be honest. One is rectangular and black, and one is rectangular and silver. But since the the Elite 335 does the job nicely and is £10 less, it's a good suggestion

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Quote Originally Posted by Funkstar View Post
    I guess if you wer buying 100 machiens instead of 3, you could build sample systems to work out a performance vs. cost vs. power usage model and figure out what was the best over all, but with anything less than 10 systems, the benefits of one build over the other are probably too small to make a real world difference.
    Yeah, agreed. But it still might still be worth buying and building one before spending a further £1300 quid though. I'd rather RMA one component rather than 3 if things didn't work together for some reason. Plus, maybe my brother won't have £2000 to spend all at once. And for 3 systems it's not like I'm going to be getting a bulk-buying discount.

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Another suggestion I might make is, get a retail i7 box and drop the Akasa heatsink. You'll save a few bob and get a 3 year warranty on the CPUs instead of 1. Even though the stock coolers wont let you pull off zomghurtz overclocks. I'm assuming you're after a stable and reasonably well supported hardware platform. Another assumption I'm making is that noise isn't a *major* issue since you're getting a GPU card with a tiny annoying fan.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    ...every time Creative bring out a new card range their advertising makes it sound like they have discovered a way to insert a thousand Chuck Norris super dwarfs in your ears...

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  5. #52
    Get in the van. Fraz's Avatar
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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    Another suggestion I might make is, get a retail i7 box and drop the Akasa heatsink. You'll save a few bob and get a 3 year warranty on the CPUs instead of 1. Even though the stock coolers wont let you pull off zomghurtz overclocks. I'm assuming you're after a stable and reasonably well supported hardware platform. Another assumption I'm making is that noise isn't a *major* issue since you're getting a GPU card with a tiny annoying fan.
    Hmm, I'll give that some thought, but I've never ever heard of a CPU failure in my entire life. If it works for one year, it'll work for three (assuming not over-volted, over-heated). And even if one fails, replacing it isn't going to be very costly a year down the road. Basically, maximum processing power (within reason) really is one of the most important factors here. If I can do some moderate overclocking (i.e. ~25% performance boost), then that's a good thing.

    And no, noise isn't important in any way

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    So to keep track of things, system is now:



    Which is ~£620.

    What's the general consensus on Gigabyte mobos? I've never used one before...

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    I would go for one of the higher efficiency PSUs from Enermax:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/425W-...uard-SafeGuard

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

    They are around 10% more efficient than the Corsair PSU. Also they have dedicated support based in the UK unlike Corsair which will mean quicker RMAs(if it is needed).

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Nothing wrong with Gigabyte mobo's, very stable.

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    I'm not too fond of Gigabytes motherboard designs, sometimes their BIOSes aren't the most polished off, but generally they're adiquate.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    ...every time Creative bring out a new card range their advertising makes it sound like they have discovered a way to insert a thousand Chuck Norris super dwarfs in your ears...

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    One thing I would say esp for 24/7 is Fans, You may want to consider replaceing any sleeve bearing fans with Ball bearing fans.
    BallBearings 1- have a longer life, but more importantly 2- don't die sudenly.
    When a Sleeve Bearing goes it will just lock up, when a ball bareing goes it goes over time with accompanying loud grindy noises.

    Hard drives, a lot would depend here on how these are used but 3 or more disks in a raid 5 array is a idea to look at so if one dies you don't lose the system and it can keep going while you sort out a replacement.
    If there's not much in the way of storage (ie it's just OS and software, all the actual data being rendered and the final rendereds are saved elsewhere) then one disk is fine, but I'd get a couple of back ups and ghost them up ready for simple fast swap out. (This is handy not just if the disk fails but also if some import file becomes corrupted, nothing worse than a driver or system file getting messed up)

    Not sure what the cm 335 is like inside, but make sure you can eaisly get the hard drives in and out somehow with out haveing to take other bits out.
    You don't need a big case just one with air flow.
    Actually looking at it the cm335 doesn't look too bad

    Slightly more expensive
    Sharkoon Rebel 9 £29.99 Ex VAT
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Shark...n-ATX-(No-PSU)
    The reason is 9 mesh front bays in comination with
    3 fan adaptors, £2.49 Ex VAT each
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Shark...d-a-120mm-fan)
    The 3 of thes fans, Sunon Denki bigboy £7.95 Ex VAT each
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm...M-34dB-OEM-Fan
    Ok not the cheapest of fans but they are going to shift a heck of a lot of air esp with 3 of them and it will be ****ing noisey these are basically server fans.
    Total ex vat £61.31 (not that cheap, but you've got 3 high power long life fans per case)

    Even if you stick with the CM335 I'd look at replaceing the rear fan with one of these Sunon Denki fans, but at the same time look for a 80mm front to back style PSU, haveing a high powered fan sucking the air out of a case just below a psu's 120mm intake fan can cause problems as it will not be able draw in enough air against the pull of the rear fan.
    Last edited by Pob255; 15-02-2009 at 05:56 AM.

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  15. #58
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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    I would go for one of the higher efficiency PSUs from Enermax:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/425W-...uard-SafeGuard

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

    They are around 10% more efficient than the Corsair PSU. Also they have dedicated support based in the UK unlike Corsair which will mean quicker RMAs(if it is needed).
    I'll have a think about that. I really would be surprised if they were 10% more efficient though, bearing in mind this is the plot for the VX450:



    Which silent PC review confirmed. I think they found the Modu 82+ only a couple of percent more efficient and only for certain loads. I'm yet to find a review of the Pro82+ 425W, but I doubt your claim until I see evidence, I'm afraid

    The UK support is def interesting, but with Corsair I really wasn't that worried anyway

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Well the Enermax units have 80 plus Bronze certifcation whereas the Corsair units are just 80 plus certified. I would consider UK based support important as it should be quicker and any downtime will cost money.
    I am not knocking Corsair in any way as I have a HX520W myself but Enermax seem to make quite decent(and more efficient) PSUs too.

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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Quote Originally Posted by Pob255 View Post
    If there's not much in the way of storage (ie it's just OS and software, all the actual data being rendered and the final rendereds are saved elsewhere) then one disk is fine, but I'd get a couple of back ups and ghost them up ready for simple fast swap out.
    A good idea for sure - although I swore I wasn't going to get involved with the maintenance or S/W side of these machines.

    I'm pretty sure no essential data will be stored long term, but with my brother you never know... I would have thought though that as soon as the video is rendered, then they'll be moving it elsewhere. What he really needs is a nice NAS box that's raided. His backup scheme is not great currently (i.e. me badgering him at erratic intervals).

  19. #61
    Get in the van. Fraz's Avatar
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    Re: Project: Building a Render Farm *ADVICE NEEDED*

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    Well the Enermax units have 80 plus Bronze certifcation whereas the Corsair units are just 80 plus certified. I would consider UK based support important as it should be quicker and any downtime will cost money.
    I am not knocking Corsair in any way as I have a HX520W myself but Enermax seem to make quite decent(and more efficient) PSUs too.
    Fair enough, if it's better then I can be persuaded, and it's only a few quid different in price. I shall look for some reviews after lunch.

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