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I know this comes up all the time, but it's always changing too, so I thought I'd bring it up again.

Now that network rendering seems to be working well in V1.1, I'm ready to use my 8 core license to full effect. What I'm looking for is the highest ratio of GHZ / $. I have no problem building myself, although I haven't kept up with hardware specs lately so I don't know what the hot setup is anymore. What I am picturing is something like 4 Mac Mini motherboards stacked in a single small case, although I'm sure I could do this cheaper than buying Mac Minis. Space, heat, and power consumption are all considerations as well. Windows is probably the easiest OS to use, sadly.

try this:

- cooler master midi tower cavalier 3 box
- enermax eg-375ax-ve fma
- sata hd
- 2 gigs-a-ram
- asus a8n-vm csm (graphics onboard)
- amd 4400
- cheapo cd rom

costs ~ 800 euro, 950$

don't know if these exact things are available in the us.

pay attention to the secondary power wire needed (4 pin) for amd processors (plugged to the motherboard)

* * *

deadalvs

deadalvs wrote:try this:

- cooler master midi tower cavalier 3 box
- enermax eg-375ax-ve fma
- sata hd
- 2 gigs-a-ram
- asus a8n-vm csm (graphics onboard)
- amd 4400
- cheapo cd rom

costs ~ 800 euro, 950$

don't know if these exact things are available in the us.

pay attention to the secondary power wire needed (4 pin) for amd processors (plugged to the motherboard)

* * *

deadalvs

i have 3 of those, pretty good configuration, excelent ratio $/power

RAM Corsair CAS2, no CDROM, no pc case

Using 3800 X² here, more overcloakable, cost less

thxraph

Thanks for the help so far. One other little thing I forgot to mention- I'd like the whole rig to be semi-portable. Meaning small enough to fit in a carryon bag and take on an airplane. I'm not opposed to fabricating my own case to make that easier. Also, these machines don't need any video or removable media.

I have a question:

I have not seen differences on HD benchmarks (I did on my system) between SATA & same spec IDE drives when proper dirvers are in place. The only difference I see is the ability to stripe them on raid, is this right? Someone have other results?

Regarding the thread, AMD X2 looks good to me and it's worth trying some over clocking (if you go with asus is easy to get some +10% from thier windows app and still run cool & stable)

Ricardo