OTOY Forums

I'm looking to build a dedicated render server for Octane.

Current thoughts:

Supermicro 4028GR-TRT barebones server
-24x ram slots
-dual xeon 5x v3
-8x pcie3 x16 slots (dual width)
-4x 1600watt power supply
-8x 90mm fan
-24x 2.5" hot swap bays
-2x 10gb lan

2x Intel Xeon 5620 2.4ghz 6 core cpu
16x 16gb 2133mhz ddr4 registered ecc ram
2x 128GB Samsung 850 ssd (OS) Raid 1
2x 1TB Samsung 850 ssd (local render cache) Raid 0
8x Nvidia GTX 980ti gpu (brand to be determined)

Any suggestions on this build?

Notes:
Water cooling is not an option in our server room.
Budget is 25k so far the rig above comes in well under that. I'd like to keep a good performance to cost ratio.

Well, as You speak 'bout value..for the price of 25k You could build two 7GPU (yes watercooled rigs) that each would easily outperform Your single machine.

..but since watercooling is not an option & You're into overkilled servers feel free to waste Your money on parts that will not give You any benefit & lower value to something like 40%..

Unless You're planning to use server for something more than octane render workloads, this route is comple waste of money =)

As for storage? Why not any NVMe drive instead of pair striped (raid 0) sata ssds?

p.s. watercooling is available for serious servers too - that's not amatuerish.. - but again it's Your preference..just don't talk about value =DDD

True, some shops do have the infrastructure to support water cooled servers. We aren't one of them. Our server room configuration doesn't allow for the risk of a leaking cooler.

Since this machine would be dedicated for Octane, what would you recommend that we build given the budget. You critiqued my proposed configuration but didn't offer any of your own in opposition. Keep in mind the proposed solution needs to be rack mounted and air cooled.

I'm interested in hearing your suggestions. This system is coming out of another department's budget and I'd like to give them the best solution for their money while keeping our facility standards and requirements.