How are these configs!

#1

Hey,

Finally decided on my workstation and mini render farm configs. Pressured Dell for some changes in the hardware, but in the end I think I got what I needed.
Anyone using this setup or care to chime in, why or why not, you are all welcome, …

Gonna be using for animation and some arch-viz, so, general 3D work…

Workstation: Dell Precision T5600
CPU: 2 x Intel® Xeon E5-2643 (3.30 Ghz, 1600 Mhz, 10 MB, Turbo, 4 Core, HT)
RAM: 32 GB DDR3 1600 Mhz ECC RDIMM (4 x 8 GB)
SSD: 256 GB SSD
HDD: 1TB 3.5inch Serial ATA (7.200 Rpm)
Chipset: Intel® C600 series
VGA: Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (Integrated 2GT) (Already have a Quadro K5000)
OS: Free Dos

Server: 2 X Dell PowerEdge R520
CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2450 (2.10GHz, 20M Cache, 8.0GT/s QPI, Turbo, 8C, 95W )
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 1600 Mhz RDIMM (2 x 8 GB)
HDD: 1 x 300 GB SAS 15.000 rpm 3.5" Hot Plug
OS: Free Dos
Size: 2U
PSU: 2 x 750 Watt Hot Plug Redundant

Monitor: 3 x U2412M (wanted to go 2410 but decided to spend the difference on 2nd server)

cheers…

#2

free dos? really… lol!

#3

They look fine but it depends what theyre charging you for them

#4

A lot… :slight_smile:
Actually, I think I can say that, considering the msrp, I got the monitors and than some for free. Its still a lot tho…

FreeDos, yeah :slight_smile:

The main reason is, I heard rumors about Windows Server not liking to work with 3DS Max. Do not know if this is true or not (have you heard something like that?), but as I like to reformat my system until I’m happy with it and have some win 7 x64s lying around, why not.

Plus, as the nodes are 32 core (with ht) I don’t need to run windows server to get use of all the cores (vray can’t run 48 except with server os, i think, except on different jobs), so I think I am good to go.

One problem may be the drivers of R520, as Dell does not provide drivers for Win 7 for R520, or any server.
But I asked the guys to make me a dvd of all the drivers which work with win 7, hope that works too.
Plus they are going to install win 7 anyway, I’ll just need to enter my keys, unless I want a clean format just because I have some psychological problems :slight_smile:

cheers…

#5

If youre not getting the systems with an OS, and they cant even provide you with drivers, and presumably wont get any support because of this; why are you paying the extra premium to get them from Dell? With how theyre being provided to you, theyre as good as self built, or purchased from a smaller supplier.

#6

Its me who didn’t want the Server OS, because of the reasons above.
And did not wanted to pay extra for win 7s, as I have volume license.

I’ll have the full warranty as they will do the initial install and till today I have never heard of a system being out of warranty just because you have reformatted.

Plus, they are the ones who confirmed that win 7 will work OK.
Even if there is a slight chance that max/distributed render causing problems in server OS, I wanted nothing to do with it, as vray dr is already a pita to setup imo.

If the case was “Oh, if you do not want server OS, we can not guarantee the stability etc…” than there could have been a problem, but that’s not the case.

But, besides installing the raid etc… drives for hdd’s (I only have 1 in each, so…), as long as I have the drivers, which I will, I do not see what might be the problem in installing win 7, hopefully I am right. (Probably, installing the K5000 will be a bigger problem)

Well, I guess, thursday, I’ll try and see…

#7

I have not heard that issue at all. My first thought would be to put vSphere Hypervisor on the server, its’ free and seems to be supported by the R520… would definitely scale well enough. You may need more RAM though, easy enough to do with that thing and DDR3 is cheap.

That way, you could configure all types of VHDs for your rebuild fixation :twisted: and rendering tests… Linux, Windows, whichever.

#8

Thanx for the info tswalk, never heard vSphere Hypervisor before, looking in to it right now…

Well, read and watched some videos, but I guess the info couldn’t penetrate my tick skull.

So, you can control other machines from a single machine, share drives and what not.
I know I am missing something huge here, but what’s the difference from remote desktop connection/team viewer?
What can I do with it, could you give a little more info, in laymen terms please…

thx

ps: just found the vm forum, maybe I can dig up something info there…

#9

I am not sure I’ll be able to boil it down that well, but it simply is an operating system that allows you to create multiple “virtual” computers on one system.

It allows you to obfuscate hardware (to a degree if chosen), drivers, etc on your “guest” operating systems from the host machine (the actual bare metal hardware). The strongest benefit of doing this is to be able to easily bring online new machines quickly, control the number of cores per machine, and switch “virtual machines” between bare-metal systems. One potential drawback is that there are some performance penalties… but with today’s hypervisors and hardware, this is not so much of an issue as it once was.

One limitation of the free ESXi (vmware hypervisor), is that you can only assign 4 CPU’s to a single virtual machine (these are physical CPUs)… but is that really a limit? :smiley:

I tried to find something that might give a better breakdown here:

http://youtu.be/HtNJD5cDpL8 (not so sure if it helps, but might)

#10

sorry… looks like the increased the limitations to 8 CPUS per virtual machine:

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere-hypervisor/requirements.html

… even better.

Thought the cost to get full version with management features gets redonkulously stupid…

#11

Hey man,

Where you not comfortable with building your own system? I know its a tired argument that you can save money by DIY, but you could’ve saved 5-6 grand if you had spent a few days doing some research. Its really not hard nowadays, and you can snap together a system in an afternoon.

-AJ

#12

@tswalk: Hmm… This will probably work better for multiple users, where if they do not need all the cores you can dedicate half of the cores for another person/job.

@AJ: Hey,
Believe me I was looking for parts all over for the config I had in my mind. Its my first system that’s not DIY.
Workstation was the easy part; 3930k, asus extreme, corsair h100i, CM cosmos 2, corsair AX1200 and throw in some ram, done…
But compared to the config I got from DELL, it was going to be way slower, max 2 years of warranty for individual parts and the hole shebang about diy vs brand name.
Add in the discount I got, it was gonna be either the setup above (cost: $3100) or 2 x Xeon E5-2643, 32 ECC RAM + 3 years of warranty for $4000… I think its worth it.

Server is a whole other story: Couldn’t find a decent rack mount case for starters, than there was the issue finding small size mb for 2 cpus which I couldn’t and xeons which was way too expensive sold separately. So, yea…

Based on my calculations, I paid 40% more than what I had in mind at the beginning, but got probably more than 50% increase in computing power.

Meeh, will see, in either case, I’ll have to work hard to get that money back :).

#13

Cool man, no worries. I didn’t mean to troll your thread.

I guess I forgot to factor in that prices on individual components might be higher in Turkey than in the US. I snapped together a bare-bones 3930K rendering rig for a friend for $1100 USD. It only took about 2 hours to get it up and running, and It beyond a failed PSU that was RMA’d for free, it hasn’t gone wrong.

-AJ

#14

actually, its’ design allows for simple system and resource management. like you said, being able to assign cores at will to any “vm” or application where it is needed.

you could get away with just putting a linux variant on it (that your renderer supports) and go to town with zero problems… i didn’t mean to complicate things, sorry.

#15

@tswalk: No no, its good, I’m learning stuff…

 @AJ1: No problem mate, just makin a conversation ;)
 
 
 Oh, by the way, here they are.....  :)

Tomorrow my new rack is coming and hopefully k5000 on saturday.
Don’t know how I can wait till saturday without booting up the workstation.
Should I try it with quadro 4000? Naah, it might mess up the K5000s installation…
Dang…

edit: can’t seem to upload a picture, strange…

#16

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