Where to buy a Render farm

[Lannabulls]

Hi,

my name is Luca, I'm an italian farang living in Chiangmai.

I would like to buy a render farm to render my Poser "Reality 3", Cinema 4d and 3ds Max stills and animations, I will use it as hobbist no for businness, my work has nothing to do with 3d Graphic generally.

What I'm looking for are shops, private companies as telephone, banks, hospitals, ect or better mainly a reseller that buy used stuff from office. I'm looking for anybody who sell old render farms blades or an entire farm. I dont need only blades, I need all the hardware involved in a render farm. I look for second hand as well new stuff.

The render farm that I need to build it will run in windows "no Linux" so I need thin 1U blade with dual processors (two CPU chips on the motherboard) with as many cores as I can get. Important, I look for HyperThreaded CPU as exp the Xeon L5520 processor or something older that meets the above characteristics.

Could you please point me to some reseller or wherever I can find the above mentioned stuff. It could be every where in Thailand, it doesnt have to be in Chiangmai only. By the way I think that will be easier find what I'm looking for in Bangkok.

Waiting for answer,

thanks a lot for your help!

[Crossy]

Let's try this in the Tech forum where people will at least know what you're on about

[Lancashirelad]

Incase anyone else wondered, as i did:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_farm

[Crossy]

You could make your own, from a link on the Wiki page http://helmer-air.com/

[Lannabulls]

Thanks a lot Crossy to move my post in the right section, I just subscribe, my first post

and thank to everybody for your help, really apreciated!

Build a render farm is not just simple as build your own desktop pc: buy CPU, some ram, a mother board, VGA, etc and assemble the pieces. Just read the wiky related render farm page and build it is not enough, at list for rookies, for people that do not know exactly what we are talking about.

I'm looking for mainly second hand stuff cause new one is really expensive, just a single blade (I need 4 to 6) cost a minimum of 500 $ and I'm talking first entry level hardware without mentioning all the other hardware involved.

I could buy piece by piece, from sctracth I can put all togheter and make the render farm work, I already have one, desktop system, however the subject doesnt change much, new one ready to use render farm or build it buying new piece by piece, in both cases the price will increase considerabbly, for a recrietional use as mine the best solution is second hand stuff, if I could find it here in Thailand.

I already found what I looking for in Ebay, they ship to Thailand to, unfortunately shipment fees is 600$ plus tax so this is a solution that doesnt work, the final price include all will be to expensive for my budget.

Offices sometime go trough hardware update and there are resellers that buy from these offices the unused hardware so I believe, in Bangkok expecially, there are used server hardware resellers, I'm sure about it! Unfortunately a Google reserch gave me nothing about reseller, I just found a couple of render farms, they do render, in Bangkok, I wrote an email already asking if they know resellers.

Thanks!

Edited August 18, 2014 by Lannabulls

[thedemon]

Unfortunately finding specialised hardware like that is not going to be easy in Thailand and even if you can, it's not likely to be cheap.

I think the best solution will be to have whatever you have found on ebay (which I'm guessing is in the US) shipped to a re-shipper like this one;

http://www.shipito.com/

If you are not in a hurry there are some pretty economical shipping options. Make sure that you invoice it correctly so that the description matches the correct customs tariff code and don't be tempted to under-invoice too much.In that case you should only pay 7% VAT on the declared value.

Don't, and I repeat don't, use DHL, Fedex etc. for a shipment like this. Use the postal system.

[DeaconJohn]

...and I thought it was a stud-farm for bulls that you were looking for.

[joncl]

Jinan http://www.jinan.co.th/ - they have second hand Dell blades and other kit you will need, if it is not on their web site email them ..

[fiberman]

Why on earth buy a render farm, there are multiple on line companies that you can just upload your files to and they will render it for you. However if you are only rendering stills you really only need a reasonably fast desktop

[Thaijack2014]

Ever thought of having a look in places like Pantip Plaza in Bangkok? There are plenty of shops and many speak reasonable english to understand what you want. If you go a little on the side alleys in Pantip, there are many shops who sell speciallized items, maybe even the kind of hardware you are looking for. I have to say, that I had to find out what you were asking for, as I never heard about rendering farms. Now I know about it.. I believe too, it is not easy to find.

There are shops in Pantip who sell outdated or replaced office computers... maybe there is enough hardware spread all over the place to assemble your own rendering farm???

Success with it!

[Lannabulls]

Thanks a lot to everybody!

You gave a lot of very usefull tips, really thanks!!!!!

Try to answer one by one:

Thedemon yours is a very interesting solution and

You guess correctly, the second hand render farm that I found and fits perfectly my need is in USA. The problem about Ebay is the seller, I mean, he chooses how to ship the item giving a few different options and the cheepest is 600 USA. May I try to conctact him, explain the problem, if he can ship using one the solution that you provide, by a re-shipper could be the right choice, really thanks!!!!!

Joncl thanks, I'm going to check the catalog and conctact them by email in case.

Thaijack2014, the problem is that I'm living in Chiangmai, in a couple of months I must go to Bangkok, my wife and doughter will go visit grandpa and grandma in Italy so my wife needs visa and for sure in that occasion I will go to Pantip.

Fiberman, I can manage stills with the render farm that I own alrady, "a desktop solution", animation is another matter! However why do not use an online render solution? Much cheep and quick, you are perfectly right however, as you know better than me, if I submit a project created with 3ds Max as exp, I must find a 3ds Max Farm, the render farm must have installed in its main pc obviously 3ds Max as well all the plugins that may I used while I created such project.

Sound easy while you do entire projects through Cinema 4d, 3ds Max and Maya, the most used modellers in the world so planty of online solutions for these softwares, sound very hard when you work as I do with Poser "Render trough Reality 3 and Lux Render". I already look for an online farm that provide services for Lux Render and in Google we can find only one in the entire world. Problem is not solved jet, the main application is Poser so, as for the Max exp, if I create an animation with Vicotoria 4 dressing that specific clothing, props, etc, the render farm must own and have installed Poser, as well these exactly items used. And now it is clear why there are not farm that provide render services for Poser.

These are the reasons why I could use online services that could render 20 % of my work, the project made entirely in "Cinema and Max". 80% of my creations are mainly done in Poser and rendered not trough firefly, the Poser render engine, I render trough Luxrender, a free unbiased render engine that gives incredible results in term of reality, I can show render that nobody could recognize as such mistaken them as photos.

So these are the reason why I would like to buy a render farm.

Thanks a lot to everybody, such nice peole with very usefull tips, really thanks!!!!!!

[animatic]

Most likely Pantip Plaza or Future Town would have the stuff, and people who know how to integrate it.

They unturned might know smoking wanting to upgrade if they can sell an older system.

Another tack is search the digital animation companies in Bangkok a

nd ask if they want to flog off an older system, or ask about their competitors.

I used to run Renderman for Maya and even go back to Mac Topas in the 90's.

But now what I used to run is ancient and trogloditish compared to today.

You might check overclock.com. They were pretty good for gamers and animators

needing to crunch lots of numbers

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Edited August 19, 2014 by animatic

[Lannabulls]

Thanks a lot Animatic!

I'm going to do a Google reserch for animation companies in Bangkok and ask about as you suggested.

Cuase I'm not familiar with Bangkok, I dont live there, what is Future Town?

I know Pantip and where is located, what about Future Town, is a kind of Pantip? Where is it located?

Thanks!!!!!

[innerspace]

You will be very lucky if you find what you want.

In the west second hand prices are very competitive, but here people often want 80% of the new price for 2 year old goods (or often 80% of the original sale price which is 120% of the current new price....)

If you import then shipping and taxes will approach new prices.

I have never seen a collection of gear as you are after going second hand, I imagine that most of it keeps running until it falls apart. But you may find a blue moon....

As far as other options, try the cloud. Dedicated rendering sites available or build a gpu cluster in amazon aws as and when needed.

Even if local animation companies dont want to sell old gear, they may have spare processing power to rent while quiet.

[Lannabulls]

Thanks a lot innerspace!

In the atthacment a photo of the render farm, second hand blades, that my friend Bruce from Ohio (USA) bought trough ebay.

I found a few solutions, all brand new blades, nothing about second hand as you correctly predicted. Here in Thailand wont be easy at it is in USA or Europe.

In the main time I'm sending email all over Bangkok to different companies kind, let see if I get luck and

I'm going to travel to Bangkok, pay a visit to Pantip, let see if I find the shop that I look for.

Thanks a lot to everybody for your help and kindness, really apreciated!!!

[howto]

I must be missing something...
I don't render but.
compute is compute...
why is everybody focused on rendering CPU compute,
rather than rendering GPU compute.
Using nVidia and PhysX.
I did a bit of research, seems everybody is/has moved to it.
A Dell blade from usa may not be supported by Dell Thailand.

Some research is required by the OP...

This says GPU compute is supported...
Well it's 3rd quarter 2014 and GPU compute is totally ok...
-- using nVidia cards and PhysX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX
This page was last modified on 20 July 2014
Here U will see most of your stuff is supported.

So is using *nix for the render nodes.
So is using *nix for the QM.

The OP Must aready have a console/render
--- *** also use it as a NAS, let the nodes write their files here

My suggestion for a new 'test node'...
- ASRock H97M-Pro mobo [around 3,000 Baht]
--- supports 32GB DDR3 RAM + has Intel NIC
- CPU Intel I5-4590 Haswell, 3.3Ghz, 4 core, 4 thread [6,690 baht]
or
- CPU Intel I5-4460 Haswell, 3.2Ghz, 2 core, 4 thread [6,490 baht]
- 16 GB DDR3 ram
- nVidia GTX-750-Ti, [around 6,000 Baht]
--- it has a low TDP, 180 watt full load, 640 cores
--- [now being used by Bitcoin miners]
--- there are are hacks to make it go faster
--- supports PhysX
- a decent quality PSU, a bronze or silver @ 500watt
- a decent HDD...
--- Main OS:: Samsung 840 Pro, [has a 5 year warranty]
----*128 or 256 GB
----[exceptional ssd, passed test where a Pentabyte was written to it.]
- case, whatever
- Display, none
- DVD, none


You can have this node now, today, in ChaingMai from
http://www.advice.co.th
within 3 days you can be testing.
and decide if you want another.

So why not build one of these, it's inexpensive.
Re-Run a render on your current hardware then
run the same render on this new box and see.

I fail to see how a low core CPU
can outperform a highly optimized 640 core GPU.

As I said, I must be missing something...
If CPU rendering is absolutly prefered
then why not get more cores,
why use xpensive Intel, why not the AMD Opterion.

Please enlighten me.
I've my own reasons for following this thread.

Here are some of the websites I read...
Crossy's link http://helmer-air.com/
dated 2012 is a decent start,
The article is at least 2 years old.
I don't like the Ikea rack concept.
True racks are easily available here in Thailand
They did not/can not use GPU compute, only CPU.

On the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_farm
(good info) is a link to
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/render-farm-node,2340.html
dated March 19, 2010
The comments are certainly worth reading!!
and
Build Your Own Render Farm
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/75190-build-your-own-render-farm
dated May 1, 2005
and
http://www.3drenderfarm.com/
very current
I should have saved the other links...

[Lannabulls]

Thanks a lot howto,

you have much more experience than me, and your help is really apreciated!

I think that CPU rendering is still preferred than GPU rendering for the speed that a powrfull work station (100-300 threads) can guarantee.

Every blades that makes a workstation is provided by CPU of curse, a basic mother board with a very basic graphic card enough to display stuff in a monitor, nothing fancy, obvioudsly planty of ram and, (I talking about windows os based system, NO Linux) a very small hard drive, enough GB to keep the os and the few sotwares involved in rendering, no sound card at all.

The workstation in the photo that I posted above run on 300 threads, belongs to Bruce, an american friend of mine who is teaching and helping me a lot about.

Anyway cause your answer is very interesting and I dont have the required knowladge to answer properly, I can learn a lot from it, I will show your answer to my frind Bruce, he has huge experience about render farm, hardware involved, etc and I will reply here his answer.

Really thanks!

[howto]

Lannabulls, thanks for the kind reply,

but I'm no expert, I know nothing of rendering,

except what few websites I visited,

as a result of your OP.

Please do let us know what Bruce says.

[Lannabulls]

Sorry for my late riply,

yeterday the web site forum Runtime DNA where I share my private message was down, so I could not retrive the info.

Below Bruce answer to your detailed point about GPU rendering. The main goals, why I'm looking for a render farm is be able to Render Poser scenes trough Lux Render engine, I add some between parentheses explaination to make everybody understand. I copied, paste Bruce answer and some sentences came out with that black line as background, sorry I dont have the time to rewrite everything.

Hello Luca,

If your goal is to render in Lux (Lux Render a free unbiased render engine), be aware that there are limitations. Quoting cwichura (a member of the above mentioned forum)"LuxRender supports all of the above. However, your milage WILL vary depending on what GPU you have. If your GPU is from Nvidia, don't even bother with GPU rendering in Lux as Nvidia deliberately cripples their OpenCL drivers to try and force developer lockin to their own CUDA API.

Lux supports three modes of rendering on a node: CPU only, Hybrid (CPU+GPU) and GPU-only. The mode used is user selected (it defaults to CPU-only mode and won't use GPU unless you explicitly tell it to -- Reality (Reality 3 for Poser, a Plugin that allows to translate Poser materials to Lux Render materials and allows render poser scenes trough Lux Render, the native Poser biased render engine is called Firefly) has options to enable GPU modes). CPU mode is the most complete (supports all Lux features), gives the best results, but is the slowest mode. Hybrid mode uses the GPU just to test ray intersections, but keeps all the texture and material decisions on the CPUs, so it supports pretty much all Lux features as well (things it doesn't support are essoteric anyway, like nested geometry instances). This reduces the GPU memory requirements, allowing it to work even on GPUs with relatively low amounts of graphics memory. Hybrid only works in Path mode, however. (You can enabled it for BiDir, but even the Lux devs will tell you that Hybrid BiDir is VERY broken and will give bad results.) Hybrid mode can be slower than CPU-only mode depending on your hardware, though tweaking some of the settings like ray bundle size can help improve this. Hybrid mode also uses an order of magnitude more CPU memory than CPU-only mode does, which may be an issue if your system has less than 8GB of CPU memory. GPU-only mode is missing many features of big Lux, but can be quite speedy if your scene suits its limitations (e.g., more architectural than organic) and you have suitable GPU hardware. All assets, including textures, must fit in GPU memory, however, which can be very constaining on scene construction/complexity vs. CPU-only Lux. GPU-only mode also highly favors Path, though it's BiDir isn't completely broken like Hybrid mode BiDir.

Network rendering is independent of CPU/GPU mode; you can use network rendering in Lux in all compute modes (assumes Lux 1.3 using SLGRenderer for the GPU-only mode instead of stand-alone SLG -- stand-along SLG is depricated and does not support network rendering). I use network rendering for all my renders, and it helps out a lot. (I only use CPU-mode, as I find the limitations of the various GPU modes too restrictive.)" .

Quoting Paolo (Pret-a-3D, the creator of Reality 3): "LuxRender [CPU-only mode] is more accurate in calculating its physics simulation [than Octane (another plugin that allows render Poser scene in Lux render)_]. It can also render a scene that would not fit in the GPU. making simple scenes with a figure or so it's one thing. Adding a full environment, dozens of props, multiple lights, several figures with clothing and hair doesn't make Lux break a sweat. Any GPU-based renderer is going to run out of space quickly.
"

So, if you choose to GPU render in Lux, buy only ATI/Radeon/AMD graphic cards.

If you want to render in Octane, then only nVidia graphic cards will work well.

Neither of these GPU renderers will handle my complex scenes (lots of geometry, complicated materials). They do suit many people, though.
I also network render in Vue; the GPU setup would do me no good for that. Nor for animation rendering in Poser's Firefly.

Quoting howto "I must be missing something...
I don't render but.
compute is compute...
why is everybody focused on rendering CPU compute,
rather than rendering GPU compute."

There is floating point, there is integer only, and there is analog (computational operations). The Intel core i7 series and Xeons run all cores (including HyperThread virtual cores) as floating point. The AMD eight-core processor has four floating point cores and four integer-only cores with no HyperThreading. Only the four floating point cores are fully useable for rendering. See above for distinction between what a CPU farm will do as compared to a GPU farm. An array of three or four GPU may be a great solution for your rendering habits, or it may not do what you need at all. Consider your target render engine and your scene building habits. If you go with the GPU array, get matched cards with at least 4GB each, and be sure to have adequate fans in the case; graphic cards eat power and make heat when used for rendering.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Lannabulls

[howto]

A most excellent, enlightening, detailed reply.

Thank you very much!!

[rhodie]

Wow, a very interesting how to thread. Thanks for some great information and updates.

[Lannabulls]

As you correctly predicted find the hardware that I'm looking for,

expecialy second hand, wont be easy at all, at the moment here in Thailand it looks like impossible.

Last Friday I sent so many email to shops, offices, etc, etc asking info about, I got only one answer from a shop that sells new stuff.

However by Google serch I found a couple of companies that in Bangkok, provide Render services, they work with the hardware that I'm looking for for obvious reason, where did they buy it? Unfortunately nobody answer me back including these 2 render farm businness.

I'm running out of option, one of these days I wil go visit my friend that owns a shop in Pantip here in Chiangmai, it is a very small mall, 1/4, may less than Pantip in Bangkok, let see if he can provide some usefull suggestions. Then I will travel to Bankok soon looking for in Pantip over there.

Thanks alot to everybody for your help, really apreciated!

[AyG]

If you're unable to find the hardware, there may be an alternative coming soon:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2599080/google-buys-zync-for-large-scale-cloud-rendering.html

[Sayonarax]

I must be missing something...

I don't render but.

compute is compute...

why is everybody focused on rendering CPU compute,

rather than rendering GPU compute.

Using nVidia and PhysX.

I did a bit of research, seems everybody is/has moved to it.

A Dell blade from usa may not be supported by Dell Thailand.

Some research is required by the OP...

This says GPU compute is supported...

Well it's 3rd quarter 2014 and GPU compute is totally ok...

-- using nVidia cards and PhysX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX

This page was last modified on 20 July 2014

Here U will see most of your stuff is supported.

So is using *nix for the render nodes.

So is using *nix for the QM.

The OP Must aready have a console/render

--- *** also use it as a NAS, let the nodes write their files here

My suggestion for a new 'test node'...

- ASRock H97M-Pro mobo [around 3,000 Baht]

--- supports 32GB DDR3 RAM + has Intel NIC

- CPU Intel I5-4590 Haswell, 3.3Ghz, 4 core, 4 thread [6,690 baht]

or

- CPU Intel I5-4460 Haswell, 3.2Ghz, 2 core, 4 thread [6,490 baht]

- 16 GB DDR3 ram

- nVidia GTX-750-Ti, [around 6,000 Baht]

--- it has a low TDP, 180 watt full load, 640 cores

--- [now being used by Bitcoin miners]

--- there are are hacks to make it go faster

--- supports PhysX

- a decent quality PSU, a bronze or silver @ 500watt

- a decent HDD...

--- Main OS:: Samsung 840 Pro, [has a 5 year warranty]

----*128 or 256 GB

----[exceptional ssd, passed test where a Pentabyte was written to it.]

- case, whatever

- Display, none

- DVD, none

You can have this node now, today, in ChaingMai from

http://www.advice.co.th

within 3 days you can be testing.

and decide if you want another.

So why not build one of these, it's inexpensive.

Re-Run a render on your current hardware then

run the same render on this new box and see.

I fail to see how a low core CPU

can outperform a highly optimized 640 core GPU.

As I said, I must be missing something...

If CPU rendering is absolutly prefered

then why not get more cores,

why use xpensive Intel, why not the AMD Opterion.

Please enlighten me.

I've my own reasons for following this thread.

Here are some of the websites I read...

Crossy's link http://helmer-air.com/

dated 2012 is a decent start,

The article is at least 2 years old.

I don't like the Ikea rack concept.

True racks are easily available here in Thailand

They did not/can not use GPU compute, only CPU.

On the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_farm

(good info) is a link to

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/render-farm-node,2340.html

dated March 19, 2010

The comments are certainly worth reading!!

and

Build Your Own Render Farm

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/75190-build-your-own-render-farm

dated May 1, 2005

and

http://www.3drenderfarm.com/

very current

I should have saved the other links...

Why would you use gaming cards for 3D rendering ?

NVIDIA Quadro

[howto]

Sayonarax,

My question as to why was answered

in post #19 Lannabulls (from Bruce).

It's simply b'cause their app does not support nVidia Cuda.

Maybe that company has an issue with doing Cuda.

I don't know, and I don't care.

That will possibly change.

I also now know know why they don't use Opterions.

Note: the GTX-750-Ti is a mid-range gaming card.

It has a lot of pluses going for it.

So consider Lannabulls problem...

he needs/wants a 'Dell Blade'...

he can D.I.Y. a Blade type system now,

(yep, can buy a mobo, ram, xeon cpu, even from Invaidit).

As I previously mentioned,

why only CPU compute vs. GPU compute...

this is what lead me to even pose the question...

That system is...

a 6-gpu-rig

1 - cheap rack

1 - cheap cpu, G3220 cpu [ around 2000 baht]

1 - cheap mobo, AsRock H97 Pro [ around 3000 baht]

2 - cheap ram, 2Gb DDR3 [ G.Skill Aegis around 1300 baht]

1 cheap psu, 550W psu [ around 2000 baht]

6 -inexpensive, GTX-750Ti 2Gb [ around 5000 ea.]

Total [ approx 38000 baht]

[note-one does not need to use 6 GPU cards]

This represents 3720 highly optimized gpu cores

TDP...

per GPU card = 40 watt [full load]

per GPU card x 6 = 240 watt.

cpu = 53 watt

Total system is < 600 watt

Don't need a case.

Don't need a LCD display.

Can run off a USB thumb.

Can run off *nix or windoze

IF doing cryptomining with this system,

expect 4000~6000 kilo hashes per second.

AMD is a WATT HOG.

While I have always liked ATI over nVidia,

Simply this for mid-range GPU...

amd = 300~400+watt

nVidia = 40~100 watt [maxwell]

This is serious if one is doing 24x7x365.

I do expect AMD/ATI to meet this nVidia threat.

Now nVidia did screw up,

'cause the GTX-750-ti does not SLI.

Oops.

Perhaps gen. 2 will.

Now add a D.I.Y 2000w inverter/UPS

(cause the electricty in LOS is crap)

Crossy...

or from Naam...

I did NOT mention any of this to Lannabulls.

It would be 'out of line'.

He (and Bruce) have their requirements.

I will not suggest they 'change their app'

to accomidate hardware.

BUT I should have mentioned he could

'D.I.Y. a Blade type system now'.

I have to stop now...

I'm drinking beer,

I don't post when doing that.

Thank you Sayonarax.

[howto]

Sayonarax,

My question as to why was answered

in post #19 Lannabulls (from Bruce).

It's simply b'cause their app does not support nVidia Cuda.

Maybe that company has an issue with doing Cuda.

I don't know, and I don't care.

That will possibly change.

I also now know know why they don't use Opterions.

Note: the GTX-750-Ti is a mid-range gaming card.

It has a lot of pluses going for it.

So consider Lannabulls problem...

he needs/wants a 'Dell Blade'...

he can D.I.Y. a Blade type system now,

(yep, can buy a mobo, ram, xeon cpu, even from Invaidit).

As I previously mentioned,

why only CPU compute vs. GPU compute...

this is what lead me to even pose the question...

That system is...

a 6-gpu-rig

1 - cheap rack

1 - cheap cpu, G3220 cpu [ around 2000 baht]

1 - cheap mobo, AsRock H97 Pro [ around 3000 baht]

2 - cheap ram, 2Gb DDR3 [ G.Skill Aegis around 1300 baht]

1 cheap psu, 550W psu [ around 2000 baht]

6 -inexpensive, GTX-750Ti 2Gb [ around 5000 ea.]

Total [ approx 38000 baht]

[note-one does not need to use 6 GPU cards]

This represents 3720 highly optimized gpu cores

TDP...

per GPU card = 40 watt [full load]

per GPU card x 6 = 240 watt.

cpu = 53 watt

Total system is < 600 watt

Don't need a case.

Don't need a LCD display.

Can run off a USB thumb.

Can run off *nix or windoze

IF doing cryptomining with this system,

expect 4000~6000 kilo hashes per second.

AMD is a WATT HOG.

While I have always liked ATI over nVidia,

Simply this for mid-range GPU...

amd = 300~400+watt

nVidia = 40~100 watt [maxwell]

This is serious if one is doing 24x7x365.

I do expect AMD/ATI to meet this nVidia threat.

Now nVidia did screw up,

'cause the GTX-750-ti does not SLI.

Oops.

Perhaps gen. 2 will.

Now add a D.I.Y 2000w inverter/UPS

(cause the electricty in LOS is crap)

Crossy...

or from Naam...

I did NOT mention any of this to Lannabulls.

It would be 'out of line'.

He (and Bruce) have their requirements.

I will not suggest they 'change their app'

to accomidate hardware.

BUT I should have mentioned he could

'D.I.Y. a Blade type system now'.

I have to stop now...

I'm drinking beer,

I don't post when doing that.

Thank you Sayonarax.

-reason for edit, pics did not show up

Edited August 28, 2014 by howto

[animatic]

Great to read where the tech behind the art has moved since I last was current. Thanks.

[howto]

Sayonarax,

My question as to why was answered

in post #19 Lannabulls (from Bruce).

It's simply b'cause their app does not support nVidia Cuda.

Maybe that company has an issue with doing Cuda.

I don't know, and I don't care.

That will possibly change.

I also now know know why they don't use Opterions.

Note: the GTX-750-Ti is a mid-range gaming card.

It has a lot of pluses going for it.

So consider Lannabulls problem...

he needs/wants a 'Dell Blade'...

he can D.I.Y. a Blade type system now,

(yep, can buy a mobo, ram, xeon cpu, even from Invaidit).

As I previously mentioned,

why only CPU compute vs. GPU compute...

this is what lead me to even pose the question...

GES_rig_01.jpg

That system is...

a 6-gpu-rig

1 - cheap rack

1 - cheap cpu, G3220 cpu [ around 2000 baht]

1 - cheap mobo, AsRock H97 Pro [ around 3000 baht]

2 - cheap ram, 2Gb DDR3 [ G.Skill Aegis around 1300 baht]

1 cheap psu, 550W psu [ around 2000 baht]

6 -inexpensive, GTX-750Ti 2Gb [ around 5000 ea.]

Total [ approx 38000 baht]

[note-one does not need to use 6 GPU cards]

This represents 3720 highly optimized gpu cores

TDP...

per GPU card = 40 watt [full load]

per GPU card x 6 = 240 watt.

cpu = 53 watt

Total system is < 600 watt

Don't need a case.

Don't need a LCD display.

Can run off a USB thumb.

Can run off *nix or windoze

IF doing cryptomining with this system,

expect 4000~6000 kilo hashes per second.

AMD is a WATT HOG.

While I have always liked ATI over nVidia,

Simply this for mid-range GPU...

amd = 300~400+watt

nVidia = 40~100 watt [maxwell]

This is serious if one is doing 24x7x365.

I do expect AMD/ATI to meet this nVidia threat.

Now nVidia did screw up,

'cause the GTX-750-ti does not SLI.

Oops.

Perhaps gen. 2 will.

Now add a D.I.Y 2000w inverter/UPS

(cause the electricty in LOS is crap)

Crossy...

03-crossey-ups-inverter-setup.jpg

or from Naam...

05-naam-ups-inverter-setup.jpg

I did NOT mention any of this to Lannabulls.

It would be 'out of line'.

He (and Bruce) have their requirements.

I will not suggest they 'change their app'

to accomidate hardware.

BUT I should have mentioned he could

'D.I.Y. a Blade type system now'.

I have to stop now...

I'm drinking beer,

I don't post when doing that.

Thank you Sayonarax.

-reason for edit, pics did not show up

-Redact and Extend-

''So consider Lannabulls problem...

he needs/wants a 'Dell Blade'...

he can D.I.Y. a Blade type system now,

(yep, can buy a mobo, ram, xeon cpu, even from Invaidit).''

No, i WAS WRONG THERE.

Back in 2012, Invaidit and JIB sold Xeons.

Nobody does now.

However... reading this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon

and this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#Xeon_E5-4xxx_v2_.28quad-processor.29

one will see that I3, I5, & I7

Sandy Bridge [1155], Ivy Bridge [1155], Haswell [1150]

are all 'derivied' from 'Xeon'.

So use a inexpensive I7 Haswell on a 1150 board.

Both JIB and InvadeIT sell both.

Regardless, it has 4 cores, hyperthreads, low TDP.

I researched those 'Dell Blades'...

no way in heil one can get one for $600 usd.

They are around $2000 usd.

I found no 'used' stuff. USA, Europe, Asia.

So perhaps Lannabulls best, fastest, cheapest option

is to DIY I7 haswell.

Maybe 2 rigs and 'network them' together.

Only Bruce can answer that for him.

Yes, 2-cpu mo-boards are available (Supermicro).

Hard 2 find, expensive and just not worth the trouble.

Lannabulls, what does Bruce say about this option...

as you are a 'hobbist', non-pro, non-commercial.