Render nodes opinions

[Nejc Kilar]

Hello everyone,

We are trying to build up a bit of a render farm for ourselves and I'd really appreciate your opinion on our hardware choice. I've been following the hardware trends a lot but lately I got a little lazy so I am unsure whether we are going in the right direction with this. Let me say this again, your opinion is really welcome.

The general idea is to prep a render node that will help with rendering out the final frames (mostly Corona, no GPU rendering yet) . Our workstations spec from 4770s, 4790k and a 12 Core Xeon so we are looking something to complement that existing hardware.

These are the three builds that we came up with:

A)
CPU: Intel Core i7 5960X Octa-Core 3.0GHz (3.5GHz TurboBoost)
Motherboard: Asus
Memory: 32GB Kingston DDR4
Cooling: ORIGIN FROSTBYTE 120 Sealed Liquid Cooling System for 2011 Socket
Video Card: None yet
Storage: 1TB 7200RPM HDD
Power Supply: 650W Corsair RM650

B)
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2960 v3, 12-core @2.6ghz (3.5ghz turbo) with HT
Motherboard: Asus X99-A
Memory: 64GB Crucial DDR4
Cooling: Phanteks PH-TC12LS + 2x Side Fans 120mm
Video Card: nVidia 960 GTX
Storage: 2TB 7200RPM HDD
Power Supply: 750W EVGA Supernova

C)
CPU: Dual (2x) Intel XEON E5-2687 v3, 10-core @3.1 GHz (3.5ghz turbo) with HT
Motherboard: ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS
Memory: 64GB
Cooling: Dual ORIGIN FROSTBYTE 120 Sealed Liquid Cooling Systems
Video Card: None yet
Storage: 1TB Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSD / HDD)
Power Supply: 850 Watt Corsair RM850

As you might have noticed these are kind of segmented into price tiers, depending on how much money we will be able to spend. What would be really cool is if someone could tell me if these are efficient, good quality builds by themselves. I'd hate to see us overpay for a CPU that is not considered to be too helpful or if for example the 2960v3 is less bang for the buck compared to say a 2967v3 since those two are in a similar price range.

Thanks! :)

[Nekrobul]

On my opinion 12-core Xeons are the best choice in price\power balance. We are using X5650 they are chap and easy to find.

For example here in LV you can by one used for aprox 600 EUR un Z800 tower and with somwhere around 24 gb of RAM and with some quadro 2k gpu.

[Nejc Kilar]

On my opinion 12-core Xeons are the best choice in price\power balance. We are using X5650 they are chap and easy to find.

For example here in LV you can by one used for aprox 600 EUR un Z800 tower and with somwhere around 24 gb of RAM and with some quadro 2k gpu.

Forgive me for being uneducated but aren't X5650 6 core, 12 thread CPUs?

[FrostKiwi]

If it really is a node only, there is no need for such a big HDD, just get a random 256 gb one, the cheaper the better, then image one node setup and image it back on whatever you have, cheapo HDD, even USB stick, there is no real performance hit during render time, since textures are being network laoded into RAM.

Next thing is cooling. Again, if it really is a node and nothing more, don't buy cooling, just use stock cooler with 100% fan speed.

If you are not interested in GPU, get the cheapest Mobo with on board graphics. A gpu farm usually relies on Quad SLI on one mobo to reduce price overhead for all the other stuff needed to run a GPU for compute.
If you want GPU in the future, DECIDE NOW and get a quad SLI mobo now, costly but future proof. If there is no plan, then get the cheapest onboard solution.

Don't use DDR4 if you dont have to. For a render node multi processor mobos are not very cost effective from my experience.
Also PSU, get an 80+ gold with the lowest price you find, wattage is mostly irrelevant as long as not too low.

CPU side is Core vs Xeon, the only thing on core side, that makes sence, is the i7-5960X. If it does not fit your idea, like being overclockable, even on stock 100% fan speed, the get a xeon with the higher price and lower wattage, whilst having big core count options.

[Juraj]

If it really is a node only, there is no need for such a big HDD, just get a random 256 gb one, the cheaper the better, then image one node setup and image it back on whatever you have, cheapo HDD, even USB stick, there is no real performance hit during render time, since textures are being network laoded into RAM.

Next thing is cooling. Again, if it really is a node and nothing more, don't buy cooling, just use stock cooler with 100% fan speed.

If you are not interested in GPU, get the cheapest Mobo with on board graphics. A gpu farm usually relies on Quad SLI on one mobo to reduce price overhead for all the other stuff needed to run a GPU for compute.
If you want GPU in the future, DECIDE NOW and get a quad SLI mobo now, costly but future proof. If there is no plan, then get the cheapest onboard solution.

Don't use DDR4 if you dont have to. For a render node multi processor mobos are not very cost effective from my experience.
Also PSU, get an 80+ gold with the lowest price you find, wattage is mostly irrelevant as long as not too low.

CPU side is Core vs Xeon, the only thing on core side, that makes sence, is the i7-5960X. If it does not fit your idea, like being overclockable, even on stock 100% fan speed, the get a xeon with the higher price and lower wattage, whilst having big core count options.

You give some very misleading advice here:

=None of these CPUs come with stock cooler. They are all 130W+ without turbo or overclock and can draw up to 300W, they need extremely good cooling.
=None of these platforms give you choice of memory. LGA 2011-3 runs with DDR4, it is Skylake LGA 1151 which offers choice between DDR3 and DDR4. While that isn't the case here, it's good to go for the DDR4 there, price difference is very little already. But here, it's only DDR4.
=None of these platforms have integrated GPU in motheboard. These are workstation grade-motherboard.

[Juraj]

OP:

Are you building just ONE node ? The ultimate machine that will render everything in queue ? If so:

Get dual-xeon build. They're still at least 50perc. more powerful than 'massively' overclock 5960X.
Never get single-xeon E5 2xxx build. It's heavy price inneficient, they can't be overlocked and their only benefit is pairing them together.

It's node, it requires only 128-256GB SSD for smooth, silent, fast functioning, it won't store almost any data and only require few software installations.

It won't use GPU in proper way so just buy passive cooled, low-end GPU for 30 bucks. Something like GTX 720 for example.

Get good, silent cooling. Even the most powerful dual Xeon build can be built under <20DB, literally impossible to hear. I can sleep next to my dual-xeons :- )
So, that is, proper brands like Noctua, Fractal, BeSilent!, etc..  But just get Noctua ;- )

Buy proper big tower like Fractal XL R2. Great cooling, silent, good looks and relatively cheap.

This PC should be able to run silently and stable 24/7 for many years and you should always feel safe, even if you leave for 2 weeks vacation and keep the PC running :- )
So, invest in good, Gold/Platinum grade PSU from reputable brand (Seasonic, Super Flower, Corsair ) but also check the model range. The build will only require 450W PSU, but if you buy 700+ W, most Gold+ level PSUs will run in passive mode.

[Nejc Kilar]

First of all, thank you all for your responses. I gathered useful information from each and every post :)

The storage tip is totally on place although we are still undecided on that since we are thinking of possibly having a dropbox synced on a render node - we have some internal reasons for doing that actually and it is a long(er) story.

@SairesArt
Thank you for your feedback and I really like your point about the GPU route. The way we are thinking now is that we won't be relying on GPU rendering for quite a while so we are putting that on the side, for now.

@Juraj_Talcik
Yes, we are building just one node but we are still unsure of the funds we will have so I kind of wanted to present the team with three hopefully very solid options for each price range.

I take it that for single CPU solutions (with a bit of an OC) the 5960x is the prefer solution while the Xeons are more cost / performance efficient when paired together? Definitely something to keep in mind :)

With regards to  cooling, I actually had a chance to use a few different manufacturers in my time but to keep it under <20DB under full load is something I never really invested much thought into - the render node will be in office so that is quite an important factor to consider. Would you care to tell me which models do you prefer in this case?

And the PSU tip, that one I already knew, thanks ;)

[FrostKiwi]

=None of these CPUs come with stock cooler. They are all 130W+ without turbo or overclock and can draw up to 300W, they need extremely good cooling.
=None of these platforms give you choice of memory. LGA 2011-3 runs with DDR4, it is Skylake LGA 1151 which offers choice between DDR3 and DDR4. While that isn't the case here, it's good to go for the DDR4 there, price difference is very little already. But here, it's only DDR4.
=None of these platforms have integrated GPU in motheboard. These are workstation grade-motherboard.

Holy moly indeed, I mixed it up Skylake, where you had the choice!
As for cooling and IGP I was refering to Core, not xeon but didn't clear it up as I jumped to the next point in my head, when I was on mobile in a tram XD

The stock cooler thing though, I understand a node as a thing next room behind a door, networked and stock coolers @100% have some surprising cooling capabilities, since they go to very high RPM.

(Unrelated, but in terms of AMD FX they had a thermal diode on the cooler, which ment shit fan control, but it would go up to 9000RPM, I kid you not and was loud as two full reved up jumbo jets strapped to a rocket)

[Juraj]

Noctua U14S is the preferred choice for dual setup. I think it's possible to actually fit two bigger towers, but kind of pointless.

I think Fractal is now using improved versions of their fans in Case, so those are pretty good, but Noctua A14 and Noiseblockers from BlackNoise (the very best fans on earth) are better and more quiet.

As for cooling and IGP I was refering to Core,

Not even Core CPUs from LGA 2011 platform have stock cooling.

[FrostKiwi]

Not even Core CPUs from LGA 2011 platform have stock cooling.

Wat?
Are we talking about the same thing?
The stock cooler got even an upgrade for the high end models!
Random Google below:
http://www.eteknix.com/lga-2011-stock-cooler-gets-an-upgrade-is-the-core-i7-5960x-going-to-run-hotter/

[Juraj]

You are correct :- ) Never seen it, after further search it look like it's not available to all markets, and comes mostly as OEM. Weird thing, but it can go directly to trash imho.

[Nejc Kilar]

Noctua U14S is the preferred choice for dual setup. I think it's possible to actually fit two bigger towers, but kind of pointless.

I think Fractal is now using improved versions of their fans in Case, so those are pretty good, but Noctua A14 and Noiseblockers from BlackNoise (the very best fans on earth) are better and more quiet.

Thanks again! I've been keeping tabs on some of these models but when it comes to my personal workstation I don't go into those high end super quiet setups :)

With regards to the LGA 2011 Core CPUs, it is kind of odd. I just checked the BOX versions for a few of the Core CPUs that fit LGA 2011 and it does appear they come without a stock cooler. Surprised I am! On the other hand though the rest of the "consumer" grade CPUs do appear to still receive them. Also, AMD has just pushed a great stock cooler on one of their FX packages...

[Juraj]

Being quit, is only added value. Primarily, they are far superior and let you keep lower temperatures, which lets you keep higher clocks, or longer lifespan.

[fkoehler]

Hi've bought Core i7-3930k, core i7-4930k and core i7-5960X (not at once but along the past few years for my builds!) in box versions and none of them brought stock cooler.
About PSU's and altough I'm a fan of Corsair (never bought any from other brand) RM750 and RM850 had thermal issues that might have been corrected by now but check Corsair Forums to be sure first! I own a RM650 with a i7-4930K and a GTX760 and never saw the fan spinning neither in rendering or gaming wich means the PSU never reach the load necessary to heat enough to trigger the fan cooling. Also never had issues with this PSU but it's only 2 years old.

[Juraj]

That's correct.

Corsair doesn't create their own PSUs, they are respectively made by CWT, Seasonic, Chicony(HiPro).

RM (particularly 750/850) had many issues, mostly poor capacitators, while costing same as much better identically prices Seasonic G, Superflower Leadex seriers (and similar).

When going for Corsair, it's good to buy those made by Seasonic, but the only benefit of this is Corsair warranty in US. Everywhere else in the world, just get Seasonic directly as save the hassle.