X2 Shuttle or Mac Mini for render farm?

[monovich]

I guess I'd also have to get Windows for the Mac Mini, which is another $130 each... what versions of windows would it even run? Probably just XP?

[motoxpress]

I want to keep it small and fairly quiet... and fairly cheap.

Well, as the old philosophy goes you have selected three things that can't co-exist. You need to pick two of the three.

With the AMD price slashes. It seems a no-brainer for bang/$. Even a 3800X2 will be a great option for a rendering farm and it can be had for less than $150. The greatest expense will be keeping the noise and footprint down - small and quiet cost money. The Mac mini seems like it would be small, and quiet but I doubt your rendering/$ will be as good as the X2 PC options especially since you will be installing WinXP on them anyway.

Having said all of that, I would LOVE to see someone attempt this with the mini so please do and report back :thumbsup:

-gl

[lots]

If the mac mini is running on a Core Duo, I would expect its performance to be very similar to that of the X2 system. Especially if the amount of RAM was the same..

Of course, buying all Apple stuff.. it will cost an arm and a leg (RAM is expencive from apple :P, its common practice to get it elsewhere).

[JDex]

The mac mini has no bios, so you'd need to boot through Bootcamp or run Parallels... this makes it less desirable only because booting several of them will be more aggravating (but not a big deal).

Are you confident that the Mini can be upgraded to the merom? That's pretty cool.

The mini will have a smaller energy footprint, which over a few years would recoup the WinXP license costs.

The shuttle is larger, and the case is absurdly overpriced... but will mop the floor speed wise with the Core Duo in the mini. With a Merom you'd get close to if not better speed than the X2 and still have a much better energy footprint.

[tecton3d]

assuming AM2 will lead to quadcore sometime down the road, I'd go with lower-end AM2/X2 systems and forget about the shuttle case... not worth it IMO as there are plenty of AM2 mobos that support 8gb or more and a few that have onboard video:lightbulb (http://misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=0#)

...since you're concerned about footprint, pick up some 2/3U server chassis + a rack and a host of quiet 80mm fans = uber Density and expandability : )

cheers

[rawshark]

Not trying to hijack the thread but I'm thinking of doing pretty much the same thing and I put this spec together (I included a pic of the case):

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3386/renderbox1tm6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I'll let the experts tell you whether it's any good or not, but maybe it'll help as a starting point.

NB It has a 500GB HDD as I figured on using it as extra storage as well. You probably wouldn't need that.
Also, I can't seem to find out how much RAM this m/b supports...

EDIT: £563 = around $1000 but I'm sure it would work out cheaper in the states.

[monovich]

thanks for the help people.

The AM2 / integrated graphics option looks really good. Don't need GPU power on the nodes. Those Silverstone cases are pretty nice also. I'm thinking this may be better than the Shuttle idea. I'm thinking with these tweeks will tip the AMD system as a winner. Plus, the 2gb ram limitation on the Mac Mini is a real bottleneck now that scenes are getting well into the multiples of millions of polys.

I'm reading how well those 3800s overclock, which is tempting also. I'm not a big oc'er, but when you can hit a setting in the bios and grab 20% more speed, it adds up over thousands of frames (provided you aren't crashing).

I'll post my specs and final price when I get it all narrowed down.

One thing I noticed on that ASUS board listed is that it gets either very happy customers or totally pissed of DOA customers. Not much in-between. Check it out on newegg.com, which is an amazing vendor over here. It supports 8GB but is VERY VERY picky on the ram. Make sure you D/L the manual for it from ASUS and get approved ram. I'm tempted to go for something rated a bit higher on overall satisfaction because I dont want to deal with RMA issues. Some of the other mobos support 16 or even 32gb of ram, which is sort of amazing, not that I could afford that at this point...

Also, are you sure the 330w power supply you have listed is sufficient? I'd love to get the bare minimum that I need, but I was thinking of going a bit higher. One of my boxes is going to have a dual drive RAID 0 as a nightly backup drive for all my computers, so it would have three drives in it.

[rawshark]

Cool I look forward to seeing what you put together.

As far as the specs I posted - I haven't really researched them much - I'll check out those reports on newegg thanks - it's probably worth spending a little extra for peace of mind.

Re: psu - my current pc is solid as a rock with 480W (X2 4800+, overclocked 7800GTX, 5 HDDs and 2 DVD drives, 5 case fans) so I figured 330W would be OK...but I could be VERY wrong!

btw - wouldn't RAID-1 be the way to go for backups?

[tecton3d]

why are you spending so much on the SS htpc case? It's definitely a nice case, but it's overkill for a rendernode, which once you have setup will go under a desk be shuffled to the corner of a room. I just built 4 nodes (and am building 3 more) and used the cheapest, but decent E-atx server case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811125480) I could find though they were a bit larger than what you're wanting, i just wanted good airflow and E-atx expandability with the hopes of going with dual socket server boards in the future.

I think this case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129152) is a good contender for a farm buildup (i almost went with)... ATX + good reviews (cool and quiet) + 120mm intake and exhaust fans...

good luck

[monovich]

I don't have a back closet for my nodes, so they will be within view. I don't mind spending a little bit of extra cash to make sure my work area is pretty to look at. I'm also going for a whisper quiet PSU so the noise doesn't make me jump out a window.

[tecton3d]

I don't have a back closet for my nodes, so they will be within view. I don't mind spending a little bit of extra cash to make sure my work area is pretty to look at. I'm also going for a whisper quiet PSU so the noise doesn't make me jump out a window.

you'll have to dust that "pretty" and reflective surface too often for my liking but to each their own:shrug:

just make sure that whatever htpc case you get has adequate cooling. I don't think the 60mm x 3600rpm exhaust fan + psu is enough but it depends in all what components you end up choosing and what heat you're willing to deal with inside that case. If you do go with the SS Lascala ~ a slot cooler should definitely be added to your parts list. I've got one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835150006) in each of my rendernodes and they move a surprising amount of air out of the lower/rear dead spot (between the vid card and bottom) of the case.

cheers!

[rawshark]

I think that's a good point about the airflow issue. I'll probably look into a bigger case personally (even though the SS one would look so pretty next to my existing SS tower!)

What do you think about the power supply - would 330W be sufficient?

(And now I really am hijacking your thread monovich, so I'll try to keep quiet ;) )

[newman]

..One of my boxes is going to have a dual drive RAID 0 as a nightly backup drive for all my computers, so it would have three drives in it.

I hope that was a typo... RAID 0 was never intended for backup - there is no redundancy in this type of RAID setup. It is faster, but speed is not a big factor with backup - reliability is. On a RAID 0 setup, data lost on either drive remains lost.. what you want for backup is a RAID 1 setup, using RAID 0 for this would make no sense whatsoever.

[rawshark]

btw - wouldn't RAID-1 be the way to go for backups?


;)


..........

[tecton3d]

I think that's a good point about the airflow issue. I'll probably look into a bigger case personally (even though the SS one would look so pretty next to my existing SS tower!)

What do you think about the power supply - would 330W be sufficient?

(And now I really am hijacking your thread monovich, so I'll try to keep quiet ;) )

I can't say say with certainty that that psu won't work but 330w is less than what I'd go for if I was building an X2 system.

I have the 24 pin brother of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101111)(AMS EPS 460) in my OC'd dual xeon nodes and they are great (were recommended by some serious lads over at 2cpu)... and are much quieter than I could have expected though noise generally doesn't bother me : ) hope this helps!

[lots]

I hear good things about seasonic's S12-380.. its a 380W PSU, but should be fairly silent and deliver good quality power (its got 85% efficiency..)

Granted its like $75 :)

[monovich]

with the new AMD price cuts (which aren't quite as deep as some thought), what do you guys think the best price/perf is? A lot of people mention the 3800. I was looking at the 4600 also, but it's a lot steeper in price.

thx.

[tecton3d]

with the new AMD price cuts (which aren't quite as deep as some thought), what do you guys think the best price/perf is? A lot of people mention the 3800. I was looking at the 4600 also, but it's a lot steeper in price.
thx.
IMO the best choice would still be the 3800 for just over $150... it just depends on if the 2x400mhz offered by the 4600 is worth the price difference to you? If you have the budget, then I'd say go with the 4600's : ) If not, you're already thinking along my lines:
I'm reading how well those 3800s overclock, which is tempting also. I'm not a big oc'er, but when you can hit a setting in the bios and grab 20% more speed, it adds up over thousands of frames

FWIW: how many of these will you be building?

[monovich]

thanks for the reply. I'm building two for sure, and may attempt to squeeze three out of the deal if I can skimp in the right places (cheap box, etc.).

I've got about $2500+/-

[tecton3d]

thanks for the reply. I'm building two for sure, and may attempt to squeeze three out of the deal if I can skimp in the right places (cheap box, etc.).

I've got about $2500+/-

with $2500 you are on the way to having a nice little cluster ~ you should be able to build each X2 3800 node for less than or around $500, even with 2gb of ram/node which (IMO) should be a minimum

also, I learned you don't have to budget for an optical drive for each node. If you need to really pinch pennies, you can just buy one and recycle that drive for all initial OS and software installs and then for any repairs/reinstalls that need to occur you can "share" either your workstations optical drive or the single optical drive that you used for the initial install for the nodes (which I presume is installed in one of those systems) via your network. Then again, a cd/dvd combo drive is only $30 but I'm just throwing it out there as an option.

horray beer

[monovich]

Cool. more good info!

I did think of just sharing the optical drive, and I have an extra one here that I took out of my workstation when I upgraded to a DVD writer, so that's $30 in the bank ;)

Yeah 2gb of ram is definitely the minimum. I'm running 4 in my desktop and I may be inclined to do that in the nodes also. If I run one render node per CPU, I'd like to have 2gb per node. I don't want to create a scene that I can render on my desktop but when I send it to the farm they choke because of the RAM limitation, which is what happened to me on my last project. Imagine the sound of crappy little render nodes hitting the scratch disks non-stop for two months. yuk.

I'm totally torn on the case part. I'd love to get something small and good looking for the office, but the price does go north quickly...

What might one of your $500 nodes look like in terms of specs?

I'm thinking 3800+ O/C is the way to go on the processor.

thanks so much for your help! This forum has helped so many times.

[monovich]

if I decide to just get an ugly but functional case, I still want to get onboard video to save money. The ASUS M2NPV looks very nice, but is Micro ATX, can I put Micro ATX in a full desktop enclosure?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131014

I could go cheaper with the mobo, but this one is a good OC board I think and it also has 10/100/1000 which is a must.

[monovich]

this is the desktop case I currently have, and it's on sale ($35 after rebate!). I have no complaints with it, so perhaps it's worth just getting again...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068

[tecton3d]

others may disagree but I too would go with the x2 3800 + a mild OC:deal:

I quickly newegg'd everything but it gives you an idea: i was a lil' off from $500 but the parts are of a better quality than what I originally assumed.
antec slk3000b case - 55
Hitachi 80 gb sata - 43
asus MATX M2NPV-VM - 84
SeaSonic ATX 430W - 100
Corsair value select 2x1gb ddr2 533 - 159
AM2 X2 3800 - 155

total $596 (a little off from my last post)
that's with an good $100 PSU and $84 dollar mobo.
2gb is a good idea esp with everything eventually going 64 bit:thumbsup:

case ~ FWIW: the only requirement I had when spec'ing my parts (not the above) was that they would keep the cpu cool and were e-atx cabable. The Antec I spec'd above has 1x120mm fan and you can add another for a whisper quiet but effective solution and it has gotten a lot of good reviews for being a "quiet" case.

also, I run UVNC (http://www.uvnc.com/) for controlling my nodes

hope this helps

[tecton3d]

this is the desktop case I currently have, and it's on sale ($35 after rebate!). I have no complaints with it, so perhaps it's worth just getting again...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068

that case looks ok to me esp. if you want consistency between what cases you already have and this 'round of building.

1373 voters can't be wrong but I'd still like dual 120mm (1 intake and 1 exhuast) fans for an OC'd node... I tend to be bit excessive at times though! example: I run these (http://sidewindercomputers.com/pa12ulhisp.html)as exhaust in my nodes, when the spool up it sounds like a hornet's nest : )

[monovich]

ok. here's my list. Originally I was thinking two nodes, but if I go over budget, I may be able to squeeze three out of this. :)

Everything is a quantity of three except the OS, which is a 3 pack.

Cooler Master Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811119068) - 45 (35 after rebate)
Hitachi 80 gb drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822145082) - 43
ASUS M2NPV board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131014) - 84
Seasonic S12-380 PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817151022) - 73 (perhaps skimping a bit here, but its such a bare build)
Arctic Silver 5 compound (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835100007) - 7 this is my o/c splurge
4gb Corsair Valuselect RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145527) - 318
AMD 3800+ cpu (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145527) - 155

XP 64 three pack (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16837102066) - 410 (what a ripoff)

That puts me @ 2886.67 /w tax (212) and shipping (94).

see any holes I can poke in it? I may pull the trigger today then go camp in the lobby.

[tecton3d]

ok. here's my list. Originally I was thinking two nodes, but if I go over budget, I may be able to squeeze three out of this. :)

Everything is a quantity of three except the OS, which is a 3 pack.

Cooler Master Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811119068) - 45 (35 after rebate)
Hitachi 80 gb drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822145082) - 43
ASUS M2NPV board (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131014) - 84
Seasonic S12-380 PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817151022) - 73 (perhaps skimping a bit here, but its such a bare build)
Arctic Silver 5 compound (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835100007) - 7 this is my o/c splurge
4gb Corsair Valuselect RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145527) - 318
AMD 3800+ cpu (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145527) - 155

XP 64 three pack (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16837102066) - 410 (what a ripoff)

That puts me @ 2886.67 /w tax (212) and shipping (94).

see any holes I can poke in it? I may pull the trigger today then go camp in the lobby.

looks good from what I can find. As per the manual ~ the BIOS has the options for adjustable CPU frequency, DDR2 voltage control, and multiplier. It also has CPU Parameter Recall so When the system hangs due to overclocking failure, there is no need to open the case to clear CMOS data. Just simply restart the system, the BIOS would show the previous setting and you can amend the CPU setting again.

If it means, anything I'd go with this setup (well, maybe a different case :P) were, I building an AM2 farm:buttrock:

what a ripoff
indeed! ~ MS gets you both coming and going!

good luck : )

[ZephyrStar]

I want to do something like this myself, but with 5 nodes or so...and I'll probably do microATX boards, 80gb hd's, 2gb ram for each, and use the integrated video on the boards...and I'm going to build a custom enclosure that can handle all the boards in one case. Will probably use plexiglas and aluminum. This could reduce the cost of your shuttle boxes with the case/size. (you could probably squeeze 3 comps into a custom built case...and we're talking like 100$ of parts at your local hardware shop for the case.) Depending on the power consumption of the computers, you could even power em off one single PSU, like a 500w or such. I've yet to save the money/do the research on my parts/computers, but if you've any doubt as to my contstruction skills, check the "mad science" link in my sig :)

[monovich]

from the looks of the response over in the OC forum, the spec looks decent. Doesn't look like anyone has tried the overclock with this combo yet...

I'm feeling good about buying today.

[tecton3d]

fire away monovich ~ post 28 edited : )

[monovich]

done :)
let the waiting begin. I'll update this when it's all installed.

thanks for the help!

[tecton3d]

done :)
let the waiting begin. I'll update this when it's all installed.

thanks for the help!

"ouch" says the cc! I'll be tuned in : )

horray beer

[monovich]

ups arrived! :)

now I gotta put it all together. Hopefully no DOAs.

[tecton3d]

ups arrived! :)

now I gotta put it all together. Hopefully no DOAs.
I was lucky and didn't get any DOA's from the 'egg with my 4 machine order:thumbsup:
awesome!! keep us posted :beer:

[rawshark]

ups arrived!

I think I drooled a little on your behalf, looking forward to the results!

[monovich]

okay I've got all the parts plugged in.

When I start the first computer it comes to life and I get the beep, but I'm not getting any video out of the DVI, at least that I can tell. I've got it plugged into my Cinema 23". The screen is just black.

I also tried it on the other two and they both behave identically.

ideas?

[monovich]

ok if I install my 7800GTX in the PCIE slot video appears fine. So I'm kicking around in the BIOS to see if there is a setting I need.

strange.

edit: I also noticed that it's saying "CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded"

what's that about?

[monovich]

well I've kicked around the BIOS all day long, and I can't find ANY setting that gets the onboard DVI working with my display. This is a serious time waster... but thats what I get for building my own system.

If I install the PCI-E 7800gtx then I get perfect performance with the display, so it's definitely an onboard video problem. All of the three boxes are set up identically, so I'm wondering if the DVI specification in the onboard video isn't compatable with the display. Is this possible?

Someone mentioned that the DVI on this board is a DVI-D standard, not the DVI-I, but I'm not sure what the difference is or if that has anything to do with why it is not working.

I noticed on apple's page it says this about their displays:

"The same DVI connection removes the barriers to using an Apple display with your PC — provided your graphics card supports DVI with DDC technology for widescreen viewing."

I'm trying to find out if the 6150 is DVI with DDC or not.
...

[tecton3d]

are you sure the onboard 6150 can support the 1920x1200 res of the apple display regardless of DDC ... ? (that info should be somewhere in the mobo manual)

Can you change the resolution of the display to something less than max...1280x800 or 1024x640 and try booting from the 6150? :)

[monovich]

the manual says the max of the 6150 is 1920 x 1440 @75hz for the RGB output, but it doesn't specify for the DVI-D output.

would I change the resolution of the display in windows and then reboot? I'd have to boot up and change the display /w the 7800 then switch heads to the 6150 when I rebooted(?)

I don't think that will work because the BIOS boots up at well under 1900x1200 (probably 640x480 and it the monitor still doesn't get a signal.

I'm near giving up. I've read everything I can find and nobody has encountered this combo ( I guess).

[lots]

The onboard video should handle the monitor resolution fine.

One thing to note: The ACDs tend not to show BIOS on PCs, since that display mode does not exist on them... Strange that your 7800GTX would though :P

Have you any other monitors?

DVI-D is a pure digital signal, it contains no analog.
DVI-I is both digital and analog
DVI-A is pure analog, no digital.

Check your panel and make sure it supports the same outputs as your computer.

[monovich]

found an interesting tidbit here that says the analog VGA can handle the 1920xwhatever resolution, but the DVI can only handle 1600x1200. hmmm

http://www.pcmoddingmy.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.337.2

if that's true, that's false marketing on the part of ASUS. Nowhere do they mention a lower spec for DVI output.

-s

[tecton3d]

found an interesting tidbit here that says the analog VGA can handle the 1920xwhatever resolution, but the DVI can only handle 1600x1200. hmmm

http://www.pcmoddingmy.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.337.2

if that's true, that's false marketing on the part of ASUS. Nowhere do they mention a lower spec for DVI output.

-s

300 MHz RAMDAC
Blazing-fast RAMDAC supports display with high, ergonomic refresh rates up to and including 1920x1440@75Hz.

Single-Link DVI Support
Able to drive flat-panel displays up to and including 1600x1200.

that is indeed rubbish! ... the little detail the 'egg and Asus site failed to mention:wip:

~ at least dvi vid cards can be had for $20

edit: just read through the M2NPV-VM manual (ftp://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2NPV-VM/e2527_m2npv-vm.pdf)(page viii) and it doesn't mention the reduced 1600x1200 res support for the dvi...

[monovich]

tecton: got a good line on a $20 card that can support 1920x1200?

:P

thanks for the support, guys.

ps. the ASUS manual conveniently mentions the VGA resolution, but not the DVI resolution. I'm still not 100% it can only do 1600x1200, but the only info I found supports that. Info is so scarce on this chipset...

[yhloon]

Hi, monovich!

apologies to my poor english first...

Have you ever face any freeze while using your new computer?...

I just bought myself a AMD X2 3800 AM2 last week, i face the system freezing all the time, including copy files (very small) to my external Hard Drive... I find my new baby is impossible to work with, when the system freeze, i've no other choice except reboot...

here are my spec

MSI nforce 570 ultra
AMD AM2 X2 3800
XFX 7600GT
1GB kingston value RAM
Maxtor 200GB SATA II
cooler master 430W PSU
chasing with 2 fans
Windows XP Pro SP2

[tecton3d]

tecton: got a good line on a $20 card that can support 1920x1200?

:P

thanks for the support, guys.

ps. the ASUS manual conveniently mentions the VGA resolution, but not the DVI resolution. I'm still not 100% it can only do 1600x1200, but the only info I found supports that. Info is so scarce on this chipset...

with just the DVI field activated in the search params. clickie (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069109630&Subcategory=48&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=) ... If you're only buying one card, it looks like the GIGABYTE GV-R925128DE Radeon 9250 may be worth the extra $10 based on the reviews.

mono ~ do you not have another monitor to plug in and test with the onboard 6150? You could always borrow one from a pal, set up the nodes one by one, forget about the vid.card problems and access each node via UVNC and your network.

cheers

[tecton3d]

Hi, monovich!

apologies to my poor english first...

Have you ever face any freeze while using your new computer?...

I just bought myself a AMD X2 3800 AM2 last week, i face the system freezing all the time, including copy files (very small) to my external Hard Drive... I find my new baby is impossible to work with, when the system freeze, i've no other choice except reboot...

here are my spec

MSI nforce 570 ultra
AMD AM2 X2 3800
XFX 7600GT
1GB kingston value RAM
Maxtor 200GB SATA II
cooler master 430W PSU
chasing with 2 fans
Windows XP Pro SP2

... sorry 'bout your problems mate but your issue may be worth starting another thread:thumbsup:

when do most of the freezes happen . . when you are executing a variety of different tasks or just when you're copying files to your external HD?

[yhloon]

thank for the reply tecton3d

The freeze happen... quite "randomly" sometimes happen when windows start up, sometimes when I try to copy files, install application etc...

I did found some info (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1900618&frmKeyword=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear)in other forum, mentioning about disable 'cool n quite' in the bios, install the X2 dual core driver & AMD Dual-Core Optimizer i'll try that once i reach home...



wish me luck!:)

[yhloon]

and this
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=64936

[monovich]

with just the DVI field activated in the search params. clickie (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069109630&Subcategory=48&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=) ... If you're only buying one card, it looks like the GIGABYTE GV-R925128DE Radeon 9250 may be worth the extra $10 based on the reviews.

mono ~ do you not have another monitor to plug in and test with the onboard 6150? You could always borrow one from a pal, set up the nodes one by one, forget about the vid.card problems and access each node via UVNC and your network.

cheers

I do plan on trying these with a different monitor asap, but that's not such a good long term solution because I don't really have a good space for the other monitor. I was really liking the idea all of a sudden of switching all 4 systems via DVI KVM. I'd like to be able to put the farm to sleep when it's not in use and I think that'd be sort of impractical if I'm using a VNC solution (correct me if I'm wrong).

The card you linked to is AGP, but there seem to be some other decent ones for relatively cheap in PCI Express versions.

cool. I'll probably just grab three cheap cards and throw them in there. It's a bit disappointing, but $100 +/- extra isn't a lot of money - a couple of nice dinners or a big parking ticket. :p

p.s. this mobo overclocks like a piece of crap. it has very few settings to tweak, and it won't even post with the pre-configured 10% OC in the bios. For ram you can set "Auto" or 1.9v. Bleh! So much for +400 per core! I'm getting +120 per core right now and that's as high as she'll go. I guess I can manage with that. Originally I only thought I'd get two nodes for my price, but I have three. Also with the AM2 I can swap out better chips later when they arrive.

thanks for the help!

[lots]

If you're running XP Pro or newer, remote desktop should be installed by default. Using this, it will provide you with much better functionality than VNC, and not require you to set anything up :P

Plus you can also shut down via remote desktop.

[monovich]

woo hoo! update:

I just recieved an IOgear 4port DVI switcher today which I ordered before running into all of these woes with the onboard 6150 DVI.

Long story short: When plugged into the DVI switcher, the 6150 is able to sync up to the Cinema Display no problem, and it even supports 1920x1200.

That makes me a happy camper. I was not looking forward to buying video cards or accessing the nodes via remote destop. Now I can treat them more like workstations if/when I need to.

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