New render rig advice Tweet

[Lanois]

Hi all!

I want to build a new air cooled pc dedicated for Octane rendering. I’ve already bought three EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB SC with EVGA ACX Cooler. But before I buy the rest of the build, I would like to get your opinions.

1.What would be the best air cooling case for a configuration like this? I like the Corsair 750D, or Fractal Define XL R2, or maybe Corsair Carbide Air 540, or SilverStone Fortress FT02... but if you have any other suggestions I would appreciate it. It doesn't matter how much it costs...I just want the one with the best airflow, and also not too noisy.
2. What kind of fans should I use?
3. Is it a good idea to buy an XL-ATX motherboard in order to get a gap between the graphic cards?

Case: ???
MB: ASUS RAMAGE IV EXTREME or ASUS P9X79-E WS Extreme
CPU: Intel Core i7 4930k
CPU cooler: Corsair Hydro H105
GPU: 3x EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB SC w/ EVGA ACX Cooler
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
MEMORY: Kingston DDR3 2400 MHz 32GB (4x8GB) HyperX XMP Beast series RAM
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
HDD1: Western Digital Black Series 3TB
HDD2: Seagate 3TB
Monitor: Samsung 27" Led Slim

[Seekerfinder]

Hi Lanois,
I have the same PSU, RAM & CPU on a P9X79-E WS which I built last Dec. I also have an Samsung 840 Pro but the 512MB version. I use 1 Titan and one GTX460SE for Octane & a Quadro K2000 for CAD work & monitor. I am very happy with this setup.

I'm by no means a pro builder but here's my take:
a. CPU COOLER: The Corsair H105 rad is very thick. I'd recommend the H110 if space might be an issue.
b. CASE: I got the Haf XB from Coolermaster. I really like this case since it splits HHD / SSD / OPTICAL drives etc / PSU from mobo / CPU / RAM & of course GPU's. There are other cases that do this too of course. I also like that the mobo is horizontal which means graphics cards are vertical & adjacent to each other which makes for better heat management between cards. Airflow is very good in this case. You can get a massive fan in the top cover but with my H110 and the separate compartments I really don't need it. Instead I opted for the windowed top so I can see my Titan crunching Octane bits in an iridescent green glow. Only downside to the XB case is that it's really designed to sit on top of your desk. You don't have to, but it's got a bigger footprint than a regular ATX case.

Regarding XL-ATX boards, I have not seen any board that spaces PCIe slots any further than the standard 20mm. Specialist backplanes sometimes employ double spacing.

Two final comments.
1. I am not sure if the ACX coolers are as good as the Nvidia reference coolers. The latter work effectively by pulling in air from the back of the card. Those ACX babies draw air from the face of the card & push it out both ends. My view is that this is not great for 2 reasons: a) unintuitive airflow in the case since it blows air out the front end of the card, typically toward other components and b) pulling in air when cards are stacked this way means you're trying to create airflow in that tiny crevace betwix the cards... Sorry, I know you already got them.
2. I saw no mention of your 'monitor card'. Basically, if Octane uses all three your 780's, your monitor will be laggy & slow to respond. One of the great things about Octane is its ability to continue with other work while your GPU's renders away at your Octane scene in the background. If you don't need a good card for CAD / other graphics intensive work, just get an entry level display card so that you can dedicate your 3 780's to Octane.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Seeker

[glimpse]

Hi, Lanois

both Corsair 750D & FD XL R2 are wonderfull pieces. Personally I'd go for Fractal (have one myself) - love the quality, pluss it has a bit of foam damping that should help a bit with acoustics. A lot of websites that make reviews gave it the best feedback.

As for SilverStone Fortress FT02 - keep in mind that it has 'only' 7 expansion slots for PCI & that means You can't use four double slot cards even if Your mobo will be capable - I still don't fully understand why they made like that..'because it's really wonderfull case with 90degree rotation, working with convection perfectly..but these 7slots just kill it..

..in the end it's hard to recomend a good case ('cos more or less they are all like that), but You'll find some small things here & there that migh worth knowing before You buy particular case =) So, simple advice would be to read few articles before You make a choise.


2. As for fans I'm always going for Noctuas in my builds for myself or others & haven't heared any regrets so far
(only the one thing that they are not so cheap). But You simply can't beat them in terms of acustic performance.

Not so long ago Noctua realeased two new series - budget (black & grey) & server (black & brown) oriented. As budget line should be less costly..but server line will even be better than originals capable spining up to 2000-3000 RPM. In this case hooking six fans on controler & having a silent system that on the need could provide insane airflow is very tempting.


3. You migh be agle fo find a piece that would allow you to have that extra gap (conecting dual slot GPUs to every third slot). This would help to keep GPUs breathing better & thus spinning their fans at lower speeds (emitting less noise) or simply keeping them at lower temps. BUT..if You're are going to provide enough airflow (& that's a must considerign cards cooler design) the spaceing shouldn't be a problem. More or less all cards are designed to be able to run comfortably being stacked =)

& about that cooler. As alredy mention cooler will split airflow & that will leave part of the air inside the case.. so simply get 3 fans (two front, one down in the bottom) sipping air in, and three (two up & one on the back) throwing it out.

Tune intake fans for a bit faster RPM to provide more airflow getting in creating possitive preasure inside the case. In this way if You're going to use dust filters the computer remain less dusty inside keeping GPU rad's bit more clean too.



as for mobos You've dropped here (ASUS RAMAGE IV EXTREME or ASUS P9X79-E WS Extreme) I'd go for WS model - both of them are based on the same X79. But the main reason WS attracts me is the possibility to use raisers (or single slot slot mod for GPUs) and make insane render node hooking up to 7cards (x16/x8/x8/x8/x16/x8/x8). That makes this beast very tempting looking more to the future.

Cheers
tom

[Lanois]

Thank you guys for all the tips and suggestions. I found them really useful.

[Spherical]

This is nearly my system, with the exception of a 650D case (which is way big enough), a P9X79-Deluxe board, an H100i cooler and only one GTX670 GPU at present. I did an analysis on airflow some time ago and posted it on the Corsair forums: Push Hot Air In or Out? At the time, Corsair's standard recommendation was to pull cool air into the case through the radiator. This made no sense to me. You want to get it out of there. So, the testing began. Now, it doesn't make sense to them either. A number of people have followed this approach and agree.

The use of the Noctuas would be good and, now that they apparently have other colors, I'll be opting for a set because I like the engineering but I'm also an artist. Aesthetics in both worlds is important.

[Lanois]

That is an interesting post, thanks for sharing it.
I am still hesitating about the case. Actually I found the horizontal motherboard concept of the HAF XB very practical for my ACX cooled cards, probably better than a vertical layout. But it has only 7 expansion slots, so I wouldn't be able to use a fourth card if needed. So now I am considering Caselabs Mercury S8 which has a similar horizontal mobo layout just bigger, and I could use 3+2 120 mm front intake fans, one fan in the rear also intake as you are suggesting and up to 6 120 mm fans for exhaust on the top. I am thinking of the Noctua Industrial series for intake and Redux series for the exhaust fans.

[glimpse]

The use of the Noctuas would be good and, now that they apparently have other colors, I'll be opting for a set because I like the engineering but I'm also an artist. Aesthetics in both worlds is important.

they introduced two now lines =) light/dark grey & Black/Brown =) these look 'better' than old Brown/beige scheme =) check their website or some review sites =)

[glimpse]

The use of the Noctuas would be good and, now that they apparently have other colors, I'll be opting for a set because I like the engineering but I'm also an artist. Aesthetics in both worlds is important.

they introduced two now lines =) light/dark grey & Black/Brown =) these look 'better' than old Brown/beige scheme =) check their website or some review sites =)

So now I am considering Caselabs Mercury S8 which has a similar horizontal mobo layout just bigger, and I could use 3+2 120 mm front intake fans, one fan in the rear also intake as you are suggesting and up to 6 120 mm fans for exhaust on the top. I am thinking of the Noctua Industrial series for intake and Redux series for the exhaust fans.

nice choose, Lanois. Personally I'd take Merlin http://www.caselabs-store.com/merlin-sm8/ as Your posted case has a bit too much of wasted space, unless You're planing to use it =) these are not cheap, but build quality is probably the best You can get =)

[Lanois]

nice choose, Lanois. Personally I'd take Merlin http://www.caselabs-store.com/merlin-sm8/ as Your posted case has a bit too much of wasted space, unless You're planing to use it =) these are not cheap, but build quality is probably the best You can get =)

SM8 was my second thought, it's a nice one too. Unfortunately the price of the shipping to Eastern Europe is 230$ and I should pay duty and tax too, so it's probably better to wait untill Caselabs go to Amazon. And for now I finally ordered the Lian Li PC A-79.