OTOY Forums

Hope this is the right forum to post to.

I have spent almost two hours now to find a german or european based company which sells open / modular cases like this one http://www.ebay.de/itm/Open-Air-Aluminu ... 4ae6a859bb but can´t seem to find any.

Has anybody got a tip to a store which has such an offer?

PS: Due to my casemodding background I could also build one myself, but its easier and faster to purchase a rig and then send the receipt to the accountant...

hi Ralf.

Those are probably not based in Europe, but they put quite some thought into this type of cases =)
http://spotswoodcomputercases.com/ - check them if You're thinking about something similar. prices due to shipping cost might be higher, but might be worth =)..just an idea.

Thanks for the quick reply Tom.

The wide rig looks perfect http://spotswoodcomputercases.com/wp/?page_id=1008 they also ship international and accept paypal. Just contacted the store for shippment duration, cost and a receipt.

ralf_breninek wrote:Thanks for the quick reply Tom.

The wide rig looks perfect http://spotswoodcomputercases.com/wp/?page_id=1008 they also ship international and accept paypal. Just contacted the store for shippment duration, cost and a receipt.

I've kept an eye on them for a while - their Helmer cabinet mods lately been very interesting for me =)
Glad I could help, hope You get a good deal =)

ralf_breninek wrote:Thanks for the quick reply Tom.

The wide rig looks perfect http://spotswoodcomputercases.com/wp/?page_id=1008 they also ship international and accept paypal. Just contacted the store for shippment duration, cost and a receipt.

Looks a lot like Amfeltec (Canadian Co.) GPU-Oriented PCIe Expansion Cluster [ http://amfeltec.com/products/gpu-oriented-cluster/ ] that allows more GPU cards to be added to a system, but whose usefulness is subject to IO space availability.

Thanks Tutor for your tipp.

Fun thing is I am going for an Amfeltec produkt, to be precise for their PCI splitter, because I did not like their Cage setup. I would prefer a stackable setup which also holds the needed PSUs

ralf_breninek wrote:Thanks Tutor for your tipp.

Fun thing is I am going for an Amfeltec produkt, to be precise for their PCI splitter, because I did not like their Cage setup. I would prefer a stackable setup which also holds the needed PSUs

Actually that spliter is quite better as it has faster interface too .. four instead of single lane =)

Don't want to hijack this thread but I'm curious about the comments on the Amfeltec cage ... I was just about to drop the $435+ on it and saw the comments on IO vs the Amfeltec splitter ...

I have a 2009 Mac Pro with one 780 6GB internal and was hoping to add two external 780 6gb gpus and thought the amfeltec was best bet ... and found a 1300w EVGA Supernova on amazon for $159 so less than $600 for the external rig plus cost of the GTX cards (just received another 780 refurb from newegg).

With just two or three GPUs on it , how bad of a hit is the IO issue you are talking about?

Edit: Some more info: I use octane about half the time for camera only animation and the other half for full animation ... currently renders are in the 2 to 6 minute range ... and anywhere from a simple object to whole cities. Full animation tends to be for characters (AXYZ peeps) where I can break them out from the architecture.

Really appreciate any suggestions/knowledge.

-mark

DigitalOven wrote:... .
With just two or three GPUs on it , how bad of a hit is the IO issue you are talking about?
... .

Really appreciate any suggestions/knowledge.

-mark

Mark,

A GPU's normal operating speed is its normal operating speed whether I put that GPU in an PCIe v1 x1 slot on my 2007 MacPro or in a PCIe v3 X16 slot in one of my more recent 32-core Supermicros. The hit comes only during the time it takes for the GPU/Vram to get data from the CPU/ram - this is all pre-render. Once the information gets in the GPU/Vram, there's no hit to rendering. So the hit is really just job load related. The more complex the scene, the longer the data transfer takes. I haven't noticed any delay greater than 30 to 40 secs, and most of the time its just about 10 -15 secs. difference, but it is noticeable by comparison.

Thanks Tutor, very clear explanation and in particular good to get some real world numbers to make a decision between Ralf's Amfeltec splitters/custom box and "off the shelf" Amfeltec cage.

The Spotswood cases look awesome with an x4 splitter but not sure about all the cable lengths, running it into the mac pro etc ... and probably going to take the cage path with it's 10 ft cable.

Only thing left to figure out is what "1 channel Host Board" vs "2 channel Host Board" might mean ... got a question into Amfeltec on that.
Edit: Just got response from Amfeltec ... hmm, saying cluster might not work with mac pro 2009 (4,1)

I am not sure about Mac Pro 2009. It may be too old for the Cluster.

The one channels Host board will be preferable for you compare to 2 channels, because 2 channels Host board has additional bridge that
You don’t need.

As for x1 vs x4 ... I guess it's really a matter of x1 being "fine" for the camera only animations I do where load is done once and whether it's "workable" for the animations where there is frame by frame load ... and most heavy loads are camera only.

I've been rendering animation for 30 years now and after dealing with render planning for that long, with the help of your numbers I can do that math Been out of hardware since my early days with SGI machines though so really great to get the help.

Thanks again for your time.