[feynman]

Is http://www.cadnetwork.de/de/rendercube/konfiguration any good?

For non-GPU renderers like Maxwell Render; what would you currently buy if you need 2-3 more render node PCs? Or would you rather still advocate building your own? If the latter, which processor currently hits the sweet spot of price/performance?

Tack!

[numerobis]

Good time for an upgrade... Haswell-E will be announced today

5820K Hexacore for ~300€ (excl. VAT) http://geizhals.eu/intel-core-i7-5820k- ... 21100.html
5960X Octocore for ~790€ (excl. VAT) http://geizhals.eu/intel-core-i7-5960x- ... 21089.html

The problem at the moment is the DDR4 price, but maybe when all producers have released their products it will come down a bit in a few weeks.
I think i will build my 5960X in October (i don't have the time now ) and maybe replace my last three Sandy Bridge quadcore nodes with 5820K nodes by the end of the year.

edit:
And concerning you Rendercube config... this is very similar configuration to the 32GB variant for 1270€ excl. VAT:
http://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-457098

And they don't list the components, so maybe the quality is lower compared to the parts i have selected (silent PSU, better cooler, Corsair RAM,...)
btw. with this cube design you're very limited with the size of the CPU cooler.

[feynman]

Haswell for Maxwell. Sounds about right.

How do you think a 5820K or 5960X compares with what most self-builders use, the 3930K? Do you think these new processors will noticeably speed things up, considering also that new motherboards and memory must be purchased?

[numerobis]

Core improvements should be in the same range like for Sandy Bridge > Ivy Bridge > Haswell = ~+4-5% for each step, so maybe Haswell-E should be ~10% faster compared to Sandy-E at the same clockspeed and core count.

5820K: 6 cores - 28 PCIe lanes
5930K: 6 cores - 40 PCIe lanes
5960X: 8 cores - 40 PCIe lanes
all unlocked

http://geizhals.de/?cat=cpu20113&xf=590 ... ler#xf_top

There are some early overclocking results for the 5960X... Hot!
http://www.overclock.net/t/1506847/inte ... ations/130
http://www.coolaler.com/showthread.php/ ... Wifi-5960X

reviews:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/int ... ,3918.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the- ... 0k-tested/