Advise to build a simple Octane Render PC.

[tapanojum]

Hi Luca,

The Asrock X399 Taichi allow only 3 GPU because the case panel plug make contact with the last GPU card. you will need to do some tweaking to modify that. I have try to find a 90 degre adaptator on the net, but don' t find any.
if you are good with electronics it must be easy to create your own.

Are you talking about the usb 3.0 header getting in the way? There's a 2nd 3.0 header on the side of the board so you can just plug into that one. I have the same case and board as you and was able to fit 4 cards.

[GIOLETS]

Thanks a lot Phantome for your suggestions.
I'm actually built a PC with quite the same hardware:

- AMD TR 1900X
- Asrock X399 Taichi
- HyperX - HX426C16FBK4/64 - FURY DDR4 64Go (Kit 4x16Go)
- A mining case
- Corsair hx1000i
- 2x NVMe M.2 Samsung 970 EVO

So I'll can report briefly my experience here.

One thing I just have to ask about the OS: I really wish to install the old Windows 7 but seems that is a way full of problems (driver, compatibility with TR AMD,...) so I ask if is better to go with Windows 10 also if I've read in the past about some leak of VRAM connecting monitors to GPU....

[fantome]

@tapanojum ,
thanks for your feedback.It's the System Panel Header which is blocking the fourth GPU. I don' t know how you have achieve to plug all the front panel plug ( reset / power / hdd ... ) without blocking the GPU insertion ?
If you have any tricks i am very interested by this !

@GIOLETS,
I am very happy with windows 10 so far, multidesktop which is a new feature is priceless, ( yes the feature we have on Linux since it's inception ... )
Of course you will have to disable a huge amount of things to avoid giving away your data to MS.
I am wondering if ram memory controller is not better compare to 7 when dealing with 128GB ? ( well windows still sucks compare to linux on this regards too ... )

Cheers
E

[GIOLETS]

Well my first days with AsRock Taichi X399 are not so reccomanded ...

I've installed in about 5 minutes Windows 10, yeah!!.... but when I've attempt to upgrade BIOS from 3.50 to 3.80 the MB won't boot, no fans, no error code,nothing...
I've tryed to re-flash bios using usb specific port, remove CPU, Memory sticks, press an hu8dge number of times Clear-C Mos button, but ..nothing
I have sent back the MB and buy another one, hoping to have more lucky with the next one.

Surely AsRock Taichi have a bad system Bios error recovery procedure.
I'll keep you inforned about the progress...

[glimpse]

welcome to AMD ship.. - that's exactly why I prefer Intel.

[GIOLETS]

Just a quick update:
the second ASRock Taichi X399 didn't give problems and the BIOS update procedure went well.
I've installed two RTX2070 Super (Inno3d blower version) with 431.70 driver and GeForce NVlink bridge.
The systems seems stable at the moment.

Also the NVLink test goes well.

I'll keep you informed about the progress in the next weeks.

[fantome]

@GIOLETS, you sucessfully setup NVlink with 2 * 2070 ? i thought they didn' t have Support for NVLink SLI,? how do you achieve that ?
you can run octane with 16G of ram with 2 * 2070 ?

EDIT :
https://www.nvidia.com/fr-fr/geforce/gr ... 070-super/
Gotcha, i didn' t know NV has release new 2070 with a new specs !

[GIOLETS]

Hi to all!
Here the new machine seems to work well without problems for the moment.

I'm only not so satisfied about the "uploading time", the time thas is request every time we sent a scene in GPU.

I have a sample test scene (that I could share here if someone is interested) that we use to measure this specific time, because, having to build a new machine, is a relevant amount of waste time especially when you have a big scene and you have to re-send a hundred of times mesh and texture in GPU's.

So, mesuring this time I have about 42 seconds till I hit "render" to the moment that the image appear into Live Viewer.
This with a new AMD TR 1900X that have a 3.8GHz frequency.
Much better times I have obtained with my old i7-4790K 4.0GHz that take about 35 seconds to do the same.

So (and I ask again in special way to user Glimpse that surely have good suggestions to give about):
I have to build another one machine (yes we are a lot of people in our Company!) and I ask what could be the best suggestions for decrease at maximum this loading time...
If I understood well is better to choose CPU whit less cores and high frequency, correct?
But seems that the new Intel and AMD have not much to offer at reasonable price (around 400-500$).

I give a look to an "old" I7-7740X Extreme edition tha start from 4,3 GHz and cost about 400$ to match with an ASUS WS X299 SAGE, but I really wish to know your suggestions.

Thanks to all.

Luca

[GIOLETS]

Hi fantome I know very well your hardware configuration because yuo've inspired me in this post.
I only have choosed 1900X for its higher native frequency.
Now I'm away from office but on monday I would share here my sample scene test in order,if you want to test and share the time for your machine.

As I said I've to build another pc, fully watercooled, completely open case (it is a mining case) and it is my intention to watercool also the CPU,so heat dissipation should not be a problem...

So I thought that a 4.0 GHz or more native frequency should be useful..

[glimpse]

Good day, Luca.

So (and I ask again in special way to user Glimpse that surely have good suggestions to give about):
I have to build another one machine (yes we are a lot of people in our Company!) and I ask what could be the best suggestions for decrease at maximum this loading time...
If I understood well is better to choose CPU whit less cores and high frequency, correct?
But seems that the new Intel and AMD have not much to offer at reasonable price (around 400-500$).

The best CPU You can buy now for OctaneRender and such is 9900KS (or 9900k) offering 4Ghz vase and 5Ghz boost. If You can put it under water, You can squeeze even more, but I doubt it could be justified if You are building a tool. You are right with Your observations about speed vs cores.

I give a look to an "old" I7-7740X Extreme edition tha start from 4,3 GHz and cost about 400$ to match with an ASUS WS X299 SAGE, but I really wish to know your suggestions.

mentioned CPU is around 500 and good board for quad GPU is 400. If You are not building 7GPU machine, I'm not so sure You actually need X299 SAGE + the total cost is higher.

I have a sample test scene (that I could share here if someone is interested) that we use to measure this specific time, because, having to build a new machine, is a relevant amount of waste time especially when you have a big scene and you have to re-send a hundred of times mesh and texture in GPU's.

So, mesuring this time I have about 42 seconds till I hit "render" to the moment that the image appear into Live Viewer.
This with a new AMD TR 1900X that have a 3.8GHz frequency.
Much better times I have obtained with my old i7-4790K 4.0GHz that take about 35 seconds to do the same.

If You could export scenes as ORBX and upload it we can try to test things out side by side on given standalone build. have few systems that I could check those files.