Replacement for Cubix Xpander

[treddie]

Does anyone know if there is a good replacement for Cubix Xpander, which has lost support from RS due to bad customer support?

[steveps3]

It only lost support, it didn't stop being manufactured.

[matej]

What kind of "support" RS gave to them anyway? AFAIK it was just an "endorsement". If the firm is still there and they make the same product, than it works the same as before.

[steveps3]

I just had a look at their site and they are *****!!! expensive. I thought that the price must include cards but nope, just the bare case.

[treddie]

I knew the company was still there, but the fact that RS revoked their endorsement was not a good sign concerning Cubix's relationship with their customers. That's as important as a good product, ESPECIALLY when it costs so much.

At any rate, the high cost may have to do with a limited customer base. If everyone was buying, I imagine the cost would drop tremendously. If some other company uses a riskier business plan and significantly drops the cost right out of the gate, the prices may just end up being stuck there.

[matej]

I don't think Cubix cares what you use their box for. Or that it matters. The facts around canceling of the endorsement were very fuzzy. One party citing one reason, the other an opposite reason... People still use Cubix without problems.

If they are so outrageously expensive, it means that there is no competition? Or..?

[treddie]

Exactly my feeling. No competition. They don't care what you use it for, but they also need to look at their bottom line and what they think the market will bear. Without competition, they will have no incentive to drop their prices or figure out a way to make the boxes significantly cheaper without dropping quality. I did see one other out there, but they all seem geared to high end rack-mount, render farm production, not an affordable mini-render farm for the average user. I have no knowledge of how good the other's quality is or what their customer support is like. But you know prices have to be high when they say, "Contact our sales office for pricing." That's a sure red flag right-out-of-the-box (no pun intended), that they are gearing their marketing to corporations and other high-end users.

[Alain]

I dont understand the advantage of a Cubix Expander, it's to expensive in my opinion.
The price for a "GPU-Xpander Desktop 4" ist about 3000 Dollar (without Graphiccards !).
You can place 4x GTX 580 in there (I guess).

You better buy a new workstation with 4x GTX 580 for that money.
Maybe you pay a bit more for that but it's almost the same and in addition you have powerful new workstation


Kind regards
Alain

[treddie]

I agree. After all, If I wanted to, I could be running a networked CPU job on both machines as WELL as a networked render on the GPUs...That is if Octane has networking in the future. AND, still browse the Internet. The only advantage I see to their scheme at the prices they want is that you can severely decrease the footprint for all of the hardware when you have a massively parallel setup, and maybe keep the power bill down a little bit.

[gueoct]

Somewhere (was it on this forum?) i saw a custom made wooden(!) rig with four graphics cards
and long PCIe-cables that led into the main machine.
Never seen it again and never seen so long PCIe riser cables before and after....