4x 1080ti + render node build advice Tweet

[PiotrAdamczyk]

Hi,

This week i plan to buy 2 workstations for my workplace this is what i came up with:

Intel Core i7-6900K
Asrock X99 Extreme11
Corsair 4x 8GB [DDR4 2666MHz CL15 Dominator Platinum 1.2V]
Samsung 950 Pro M.2 PCIe 512GB
Samsung 850 Evo 1TB
GeForce GTX 1080ti x4
Corsair AX1500i 1500W CP-9020057-EU

i have no idea what case to use and if air cooling will be enough for 4x 1080ti (if not i could go 3x 1080ti)


for a render node i am thinking about:

Rack mount case - Chenbro RM41300-FS81
Motherboard – MSI X99A XPOWER
Enermax Platimax 1500W
Memory – Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR4 x 4
CPU – Intel i7-5930K 3.50GHz 15MB BOX
SSD – Samsung 250GB 850 EVO

What do you guys think? would you change anything?

Thanks in advance for any help you could give me on this topic.

[FrankPooleFloating]

Dude, you just happen to live in the very same city as Octane's Jedi Master of GPU workstations.. smicha.. Maybe he could build you a beast.. And you really should get air cooling the hell out of your head right now, imho. Either go 4 hybrids or full loop.

Have you never come across any of smicha's builds?.. Like this one: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=58045

That would be cool if smicha could work on something with you... May the GeForce be with you.

[esbowman]

You'll get a ton of opinions, but the biggest thing I had to look out for was the spacing on the motherboard (make sure the slots are allowing 4 large two slot cards), and at the bottom you gotta make sure you have room for the chassis cables. In my case I used an Asus ROG Rampage V Edition 10 board. I had to buy a low profile adapter to hook up the front USB 3 cable that goes to the USB ports on the front of the case. I also ended up not using the HD audio cable on the front because it wouldn't fit. I'm sure other boards have those pins in a different location, but I'd highly suggest getting the board and components from a Microcenter or other local store so you can swap the parts if you run into problems.

Secondly, if running air cooling make sure you have a few fans in the front of the case pushing air into those 4 1080Ti's with a couple of exhaust fans in the back or top as well, and make sure you get the FE versions. I made the mistake of buying two EVGA 1070 FTWs and they were getting pretty hot when sitting near each other. I ended up converting one of mine on top to a Hybrid so it stays cool, and use the second in the bottom slot since there's room to vent there. Then I used two FE cards in the middle. I've been good so far with just air cooling. They've never throttled down on me yet and stay below 80C.

I've heard that water cooling will get you more performance, but I didn't want the headache of a possible leak down the road. To each their own, but I feel like it's a potentially expensive problem to introduce into the build. I'm sure some will think I'm crazy, but I'm a fan of not working on my machine. Finally, and this is possibly the biggest drawback and reason I decided to go air cooled, imagine one of your cards go out. With air cooled, you take it out and replace...probably with a newer model. With water-cooling it's not as quick of a fix and you might even need to buy new water blocks etc.

Definitely go to PCPartPicker.com and make sure things are compatible.

As far as your list:

-Motherboard looks ok, but I bet you'll have the same issue with the USB cables and stuff on the front of the case. You can always leave them disconnected I suppose.
-RAM I'd go with 64GB or more if you're doing a lot of AE work.
-Storage looks ok. I assume you'll go M2 for OS, and SSD 1TB for Files? I did the same, and wish I would have gone with a 2TB drive for files. Just a thought.

I'm clueless on the rack mount stuff though. I'll leave that to someone else. Good luck with the build.

[FrankPooleFloating]

Please don't listen to anyone trying to talk you out of water cooling, be it hybrids or full loops. They're usually woefully ill-informed, or have a childlike fear of water in their workstation.

[PolderAnimation]

Our workstation is on air, and I am really happy that we did this solution.
It is a 5 x 780 TI and works for almost 3.5 years without a problem.
http://tomglimps.com/custom-pc-for-otoy ... animation/

I can understand why people would go for watercooling. But we chose this option because it is the best money/performance ratio.
The cards are between 45 - 70C when rendering.

We are building a new system as well with 6 x 1080 TI or with 6 x 1080.
This is the case we just orderd : http://www.ebay.nl/itm/222333379733?ul_noapp=true
The extra cost of a watercooling solution are 120 euro per gpu + a watercooling set = at least 1500 euro.
That price is the same as three GTX 1080, not worth it in my opinion.

[FrankPooleFloating]

Well, you are talking about full custom loops. I just did some comparisons on Amzn, between the various EVGA 1080s... 08G-P4-6286-KR (air) is $539.99 and the 08G-P4-6188-KR (hybrid) is $569.99... a difference of $30. Thirty bones each to never have to worry about temps or GPUs throttling down is money damn well spent.

One would do quite well to get a Thermaltake Core X9 case and slap in four hybrids. They can sleep soundly all night long whilst their beast renders like a mofo...

How do you keep your 780Ti(s) at 70° during full blast rendering? Mine goes straight to 83° while rendering, and presumably throttles down at that point... which is yet another reason I will be yanking it and going 4x 980Ti Hybrid in a X9 the first chance I get.

[PiotrAdamczyk]

Thanks for the info.

I dont want to go with water cooling, i have one water build and it was leaking few months ago (nothing serious though), another problem i have is that it shuts down occasionally and only after moving the power cables on my GPUs it turns on so i am biased towards this option. Luckily i made an air cooled build by myself with 3x 980ti on corsair cube case. it works great and i think i will stick to air cooling if possible

[esbowman]

Please don't listen to anyone trying to talk you out of water cooling, be it hybrids or full loops. They're usually woefully ill-informed, or have a childlike fear of water in their workstation.

Ha. To each their own. I'd still recommend against it considering you could use the money to buy another card. The hybrid cards are great...but venturing into a custom water cooling solution is not for beginners. There can be problems, can be leaks, definitely will require more maintenance.

How do you keep your 780Ti(s) at 70° during full blast rendering?

A big case, blower style cards, and fans. Pretty simple. Mine never goes above 78C. Never had a throttle down yet. I also use MSI afterburner with a more aggressive fan speed curve.

[PolderAnimation]

How do you keep your 780Ti(s) at 70° during full blast rendering? Mine goes straight to 83° while rendering, and presumably throttles down at that point... which is yet another reason I will be yanking it and going 4x 980Ti Hybrid in a X9 the first chance I get.

Yes they are 100% loaded, I got the windforce 780 TI so they are even a bit overclocked (and I never saw them throttling down in my Oc Guru).

It is an open case with casefans blowing away the hot air. But to be fair and more accurate (I just tested it), and one card does hits 74C but that is the middle one.
Three card are around 64-68 when rendering, the one on the inside is 57C and the one in the middle is 74C.
Idle 31C with a room temp of 25C.
In my opinion good aircooling is cheaper and gets the job done, it only makes more noise.

Octanebench score of this rig is 532

[FrankPooleFloating]

Noise is definitely another thing for folks to consider. Hybrids are so very quiet. Even more so when you put better fans on rads. When I do my upgrade, I will be shooting for the quietest workstation possible, and that may very well include push/pull of high-end fans on all rads with low fan speeds. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and listen to dark ambient all day. Kinda sucks to have even the little bit of fan noise I have encroaching and shit on my music enjoyment...

I have a huge case with two 200mm at front and two 140mm at bottom.. I guess my 780Ti SC is simply not great at removing heat from itself. Doesn't matter, it will be on eBay before too long. I actually disable it when doing unattended renders (and IPR), and really only use it when I have a deadline and need all the juice I got.