[cyberjuls]

I'm looking to build a render farm for maxwell too.

ended up that building a 2x quad core xeon is not that expensive as i thought. I end up at 1500€/rendernode by Dell.

here is what i get: 2 x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5420, 2X6MB Cache, 2.5GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 8Gb ram, 2x 80Go DD in RAID 0 all in a 1U case.

No graphics card (render node only).

Thought a time that i would go for the ikea elmer option, but by taking the dell option, i get a waranty and a better integrated system.

Anyway, I have a question concerning the cores. The system i plan for is 8 core and 8gb ram. Does the ratio Ram/core is essential or is it the ratio Ram/system that care? In elmer solution, you get 2Gb ram / core. Here i get 1Gb / core. Does that matter anyhow?

[Bubbaloo]

That doesn't matter... The general rule is, more is better for both.

[cyberjuls]

I know, that's usually like that.

But my question is would an 8 core machine with 8Gb ram will behave like a unique machine (8Gb) with a lot of power due to the 8 cores.

Or will it behave like 8 machines having each 1Gb of ram?

This important to know how maxwell work here with the core. If the second option is what happen, then it's maybe better to go for two quad on two machine rather than on just one (because you get more ram then).

[numerobis]

the ram is not assigned to a specific core, it's used dynamicly. So the only limit is the 4gb.
I don't know about the ram prices at dell but today i wouldn't buy less than 8gb per node.

[tazzer]

Well I scrapped the Xeon route as I couldn't decide on a decent motherboard as all that I looked at needed a crazy PSU.

So I am looking at using net render as suggestion but with Q9450


Case: XCLIO Coolbox Fully Black Finish 0.5 mm SECC Chassis/ ABS Frontpanel ATX Mid Tower $44.99
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3250410AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s $89.99
GPU: EVGA 512-P2-N757-TR GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 $99.99
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply $109.99
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $84.99
MB: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX $89.99
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 $344.99
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler $26.99

Multiply x2
Total = $1,852.22 (including keyboards, mice, fans, paste, OS)


So anything I overlooked or doesn't match up

[polynurb]

to make sure i would see if gigabyte has a compatability chart for ram modules.
if you want to overclock check in some of the OC forums if anybody has that MB and what ram they run / at what timings.
800mhz ram could be a bit too slow if you push the CPU via FSB.
afaik the q9450 has a lower multiplier than the q6600 so you will need to run the fsb at higher speeds. (runs at 333 natively)
-it also depends a lot on the MB's bios OC options...so it is good when the ram allows more that 2.0V without voiding it's warranty,..

[cyberjuls]

I'll go for thoses

NSK4480B Antec NSK4480B 1 54,34 €

P5KVM Asus P5K-VM 1 66,46 €

F2-6400CL5D4GBPQ G.Skill Kit Extreme2 2 x 2 Go PC6400 PQ 2 66,88 €

BX80562Q6600 Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 1 150,49 €

STM3160215AS Maxtor DiamondMax 21 S-ATA/II - 160 Go - 2 Mo 1 29,17 €

CNPS7500-CuLED Zalman CNPS7500-Cu Led 1 33,36 €

Total HT : 467,58 €
TVA (19,6%) : 91,65 €
Total TTC :
(hors frais de port)
559,23 €

Ubuntu 64 and a bit of OC on the quad core. Think i'll get two to see how it rules.

[Micha]

I use a P5K - I have the feeling, I read somewhere, that not all P5K-** are equal good for OC.

[polynurb]

just for statistics: i use P5E-VM and it is rock solid at 380 fsb.

[Brett Morgan]

Hey guys got my system the yesterday, got dual xeon 4530's (OK 5430's thanks Adrian, I'm Dyslexic!) an ASUS Z7S WS board and 4x2Gd ECC DDR 2 RAM and a quadro fx3500, i got about 37 minutes on the benchwell scene, didnt let it finish though too imaptient, i thought it would be faster!

Cheers

Brett

PS: Oh and Win Vista Ultimate 64(not as bad as i thought, downloading Ubuntu 8.04 now.

[-Adrian]

You mean 5430? Never heard of 4xxx Xeons, tricked by chinese maybe

The Score doesn't seem too good indeed. I would check for errors and ask some Xeon owners here.

[numerobis]

Hey guys got my system the yesterday, got dual xeon 4530's an ASUS Z7S WS board and 4x2Gd ECC DDR 2 RAM and a quadro fx3500, i got about 37 minutes on the benchwell scene, didnt let it finish though too imaptient, i thought it would be faster!
.

Hey cool board! This will be my new rig too! in a few weeks

This poor performance is related to the "Snoop filter" of the board. You need to update to bios 0302 and set "SF Bypass" to "enabled" in bios!

ftp://dlsvr02.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock ... A00302.zip

[Brett Morgan]

Good pickup Adrian, see what happens when you sit in front of a PC too much lol,numerobosis thanks for the link, good research, just anothe squizzy at benchwell, it does seem awfully slow, i'll update the bios and post back the result.

Cheers

Brett

[Brett Morgan]

OK hold that thought, my new machine doesnt have a floppy drive Aaaahhhh

[numerobis]

an usb stick with ezflash should work fine...