So, I am finally pulling trigger on my rendering rig.

[alucasa]

What the hell is a QS?

Qualification Sample, a fancy name for final ES stepping.

 

[JCOecksler]

Hello Alucasa. I followed your advice and bought the used 2683v3 OEM (not the same vendor, it was unavailable at the time I needed it).

It work perfectly and I am very happy. Thank you! There is a picture of the Asrock A-Tuning with the config:

(Xeon E5 2683 V3 - 64GB ECC Kingston - There's a M.2 Ultra Plextor 512GB - GTX 1070 (will stack 4 of thoses):

 

[Ensefalon]

I've done my researches for a month on parts and have assembled a list of components I am going to get.

This is CPU rendering rig based on 2011-V3.

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2683 v3
This is a 14core / 28 threads monster at 2Ghz. I am able to source this on Ebay for 450CAD. This is a non-ES, OEM, CPU.

CPU cooler: ARCTIC Freezer i11

Mobo: Asrock Extreme4 X99

Case: Cooler Master Silencio 352

RAM: G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB)

HDD: A single M.2 Samsung 256gb EVO SSD (Already own)

PSU: Cx500 500w

OS: Fedora x64 (Blender performance is far superior on unix than on Windows by a clear margin of 10%+)

GPU: AMD *60 75w version to reduce cable.


The rig is solely for rendering, nothing else. If you have any comments and advice, let me know.

For me having a power hungry renderfarm myself, I approve...I have nothing really to add except I'd prefer you using the C602 chipset instead of X99, It negates any possible issues you might encounter.

EDIT: You might want to try adding a few disks and putting them in RAID, so you don't have to worry about bad things happening while the server is under utilization

 

[Caring1]

I have nothing really to add except I'd prefer you using the C602 chipset instead of X99

I thought Asrock X99 used the C602 chipset already, otherwise it wouldn't be capable of running Xeons.

 

[cdawall]

I thought Asrock X99 used the C602 chipset already, otherwise it wouldn't be capable of running Xeons.

X99 runs xeons fine none of the boards I have seen have an issue with xeons it's the ES broadwell-e chips you have to use specific brands for.

 

[alucasa]

The only benefit of having C602 would be 2 CPU option which I wasn't going to use at all, so X99 was the logical choice.

 

[Krei]

You have an MB/CPU with quad-channel memory support, yet only two memory modules. Did you see any rendering performance increase when going from the single 8GB stick to the 2x16GB kit? That would be due to the (theoretically) doubled memory bandwith, and you could double that yet again with an additional 2x16GB kit later.

 

[alucasa]

Memory speed has virtually no impact on rendering. Rendering is all about calculation of light bounce which is all about either CPU or GPU CUDA/OpenGL.

I do plan to add another 8GB stick soon because I ran out of memory more than few times, resulting render crash.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Asrock makes some of The Sexiest Boards....gotta Love 'em

enjoy the Renderer

 

[alucasa]

It is about 120% faster than i7-6700 (non-K) in rendering. That speaks volumes.

I am waiting for Zen now to replace/upgrade my i7-6700 secondary, media, rig. Of course, it will depend on minor details like price and actual performance though. I was going to go for an ES Xeon chip but I can wait.