• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

9 system overclocking needed

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

UltraNoob

New Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Hi Ppl.

I have just bought a renderfarm with 9 nodes (systems) and want to overclock them (system specs at the bottom).
I personally have no experience with overclocking and i am posting this because i am hoping to find someone i can consult (paid) to get it all going.

The 9 systems all have no cases and i am operating on the belief that creating
an efficient cooling system will be much easier given there are no space restrictions (i will custom build the case).

DESIGN:
I am a 3d animator so if you give me a drawing (and part dimensions) i can easily finalize the design in 3d (in preparation for building).
I am currently considering putting it in a chest of drawers or filing cabinet such as this: http://helmer.sfe.se/19-helmer-klar.JPG however don't anticipate any problems building a custom case to fit them all.

REQUIRED WORK:
I am prepared to pay up to $500 usd for the cabinet and including the cooling things i will need to buy.
If i can get a 20-30% performance increase on 9 systems this is a massive advantage for me, however these are BRAND NEW, so I don't want to try something risky. As my username says i am new to this and will probably need some theory, and will also want help in getting them overclocked (via online guidance) once the cooling system/case is built.

SYSTEM SPECS:
Intel i7-920 Core i7 CPU, 2.66 GHz,

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R

Seagate 500GB SATA

KINGSTON 6GB (3x2GB) 1333Mhz DDR3

Nvidia 8400GS 256MB DDR2 (not important btw)

HYTEC 650W PSU

FANS (as required by case design).


If you are interested and legit add me on msn with [email protected] (don't email this though).

_-Adam-_
 
Last edited by a moderator:
:welcome: to the forums!

I'm sorry, but paying people outside the classifieds isn't allowed; you need 100 quality posts to get there along with a valid email. Please remove the references of the "sale".

With that being said, since you are running this many systems and need them stable, YOU need to know the basics of overclocking. So if something happens, you can fix it.

This guide is for the "older" Core2 series, but the basics apply. It covers overclocking basics, stability testing, etc. The only difference is the bus speed is 200mhz by default and the memory controller is on the processor.

EDIT: Forgot my last part. We help each other for free here. I don't want to make it sound like we won't/don't want to help; quite the opposite. I want to make sure that you understand the basics first. Hit me up via AIM/MSN (found in my profile to the left) if you have any questions.
 
:welcome: to the forums!

I'm sorry, but paying people outside the classifieds isn't allowed; you need 100 quality posts to get there along with a valid email. Please remove the references of the "sale".

With that being said, since you are running this many systems and need them stable, YOU need to know the basics of overclocking. So if something happens, you can fix it.

This guide is for the "older" Core2 series, but the basics apply. It covers overclocking basics, stability testing, etc. The only difference is the bus speed is 200mhz by default and the memory controller is on the processor.

EDIT: Forgot my last part. We help each other for free here. I don't want to make it sound like we won't/don't want to help; quite the opposite. I want to make sure that you understand the basics first. Hit me up via AIM/MSN (found in my profile to the left) if you have any questions.

thideras is correct about this and I deleted the part about "Paid Offer" from your thread title. I see by your IP address that you are based in Australia, so most of us here have no idea of what is easily available to you for a quick cabinet build like in the pic you linked. But we can help you with overclocking those i7 systems and we can also make some suggestions on how to build your cabinet to hold the systems too.

I also deleted the other duplicate thread of your you posted in Cases. Please just post one thread on the subject in the future. :)

muddocktor
 
What kind of aftermarket cooling is available to you? Unless you have an AC unit blowing air to them the stock cooling will not be sufficient. I'm not sure what exactly to recommend there as I water cool my i7 pc.

A bit on the technical side, Intel's whitepapers can be found here. Some easier to read articles would be this one from X-Bit and I enjoyed Lost Circuits article too. There are plenty out there on the platform.

A 10-20% OC should be pretty easy to achieve which should give you quite the boost in rendering speed. I assume that is what you have them for anyways. Keep in mind you will want to keep HyperThreading enabled as it really improves rendering projects. I know of someone else using one for rendering and he has found 3.8Ghz with hyperthreading is faster in rendering jobs than 4.2Ghz without it.

I really want to stress how much heat output these processors have though. You simply cannot really understand until you have seen it in person. They climb so high, so quickly at full load. You must have substantial cooling, even to run them stock at full loads for long periods...which is what heavy rendering is.

GL&HF and I hope to hear back from you.
 
Hi,
Thideras has been a great help however as i have not been able to contact him today i am posting the questions here. Thanks also to N3buchan3zzar (for PM's) and muddocktor for keeping this thread up.

The situation is i have been looking at a GPU based system as it is clearly creating massive performance increases for some programs. - Pointed out to me by Thideras.

Questions:
1. DO GPU CARDS HAVE THEIR OWN MEMORY OR IS THAT STILL NEEDED?
I realized i could swap what i bought for an Nvidia supercomputer (which has 920 cores) however unless there is somehow 920 gig of ram going along with that, it will be MORE than useless to me (you need at least a gig per core for 3d Animation).
It seems likely this is not applicable but i just wanted to check there wasn't some new technology in the cards that also carried ram.
Note: If memory IS needed on top, you can ignore the following questions:

* Is it possible to overclock GPU cards?
* How is it different?
* What would the expense be?
* How should I go about assessing the performance of GPU cards (for determining what to buy).

Thanks heaps for the help.

_-Adam-_
 
Hi,
Thideras has been a great help however as i have not been able to contact him today i am posting the questions here. Thanks also to N3buchan3zzar (for PM's) and muddocktor for keeping this thread up.

The situation is i have been looking at a GPU based system as it is clearly creating massive performance increases for some programs. - Pointed out to me by Thideras.

Questions:
1. DO GPU CARDS HAVE THEIR OWN MEMORY OR IS THAT STILL NEEDED?
I realized i could swap what i bought for an Nvidia supercomputer (which has 920 cores) however unless there is somehow 920 gig of ram going along with that, it will be MORE than useless to me (you need at least a gig per core for 3d Animation).
It seems likely this is not applicable but i just wanted to check there wasn't some new technology in the cards that also carried ram.
Note: If memory IS needed on top, you can ignore the following questions:

* Is it possible to overclock GPU cards?
* How is it different?
* What would the expense be?
* How should I go about assessing the performance of GPU cards (for determining what to buy).

Thanks heaps for the help.

_-Adam-_
Heh, sorry, I've been sick through Saturday :(

1) Yes, they have their own memory. I have no idea where you are getting "1gig per core", it will treat one card as a "core". Think of the shaders like multi-threading (although they are not!), the system sees it as one.

Yes, you can overclock the GPU's. There really isn't much difference, you have the core clock, shader clock and the memory clock. The biggest difference that you will notice will be by upping the shader clocks.

"What would the expense be?". I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you asking what is the downside to overclocking the video card, if so, added heat, noise and power.

I'm unsure how to "rate" the cards. I've never done GPU based 3d rendering, so I don't know how well "normal" cards perform that job.
 
Op: Your program probably can't use the GPU processors. The program needs to be wrote to use the GPU. Powerful GPU's have 1-2 Gig of ram each, and if your program can use the GPU processor it could work. Each powerful GPU will be $250+ each. A problem is motherboards max out at 4 PICe slots, one for each GPU. So using the GPU's is probably a no-go. Ask the software manufactuer if they can use the GPU processor?

On to cooling your PC's. Getting a $40 aftermarket air cooler for the CPU and adding a decent fan to blow on the NB chipset should be enough to get a decent 20% overclock on each PC. It would be the cheapest way to go.

Getting a cabinet to hold them all has one drawback. HEAT. The cabinet will need massive airflow to remove the heat of nine PCs all rendering away. You might need forced cooled air into the cabinet, like from a window AC unit.

It can be done though.
 
I have posted a 3d animation video with the 9 system case design.
Please watch it.

http://adamsodyssey.net/FARM/RF.wmv

I should mention that everything will be airtight when complete.

EDIT:
To avoid frustration it would be better to right click and "save target as".
My server is going slow for some reason and while it's only 20 something meg it's taking a while to stream.
Thanks for the help.
 
Last edited:
In general your box design is pretty well thought out. One thing I would mention is that you have your backplate area facing to the sides instead of the front or back.
Otherwise you have basically made a rackmount server case for all intents and purpose.

With only 2 intake and 2 outtake fans you would need some strong ones but the general idea is sound. You may want to look into having a spare fan mounted somewhere in the box to give some supplemental airflow over your chipset area and pwm area, we call that "spot cooling."

With your ventilation chamber, your fans will need to push as much air as all of your exhaust fans do. That would mean some very strong/loud fans. I'm not sure but the existing exhaust fans from your boxes may be enough pressure to expel it all out of your exit hole.

Even if their pressure barely pushes it all out having a floor AC unit, or sealing the door to run the AC thru that room first, may help alleviate the issue by offering a very low ambient operating temperature.

I don't know the specifics of rendering on a GPU but I do know it can be done. Folding @ Home is much more efficient on GPUs from what I understand. Major rendering jobs are 100% CPU dependent to my (limited)understanding.

You had asked me about the viability of socket 775 vs 1366. I don't have any actual numbers but the two people I know of that render with an i7 system are extremely satisfied. One of them is a rabid overclocker and he sold his 775 system to build his 1366. He was the one who tested and confirmed that rendering at 3.8Ghz with HT on was faster than 4.2Ghz without hyperthreading enabled. The i7 was developed with just such heavy cpu tasks in mind as I understand it. That is why it crushes almost everything else in the world in "server" type benchmarks and tests but is only a little bit better for things like average use gaming, browsing, etc.

As far as CPU heatsink, I was given this option for cheap/effective by someone using air cooling. This heatsink, but you will need to get this backplate/mounting mechanism. However, I found this also on Newegg with 1366 mounting included which should save the 10bucks for the mounting kit. Check that they will fit height-wise though. You should probably ask around if they perform equally also as there may be a difference.

If you find that your application will run better GPGPU and still want to go with an i7 system then I think the ASUS Workstation motherboard(can't think of the actual name...sorry)would be your best bet as it has the most PCI-e slots if I recall correctly. I would first confirm that your application can be run in such a fashion first of course.

Good luck, your asking the right questions I think and you should get very solid results.

Curiosity here but, can't you only run one rendering job per machine? No relevance to anything else, just curiosity.
 
Thanks for the response and i will check your links now.
Theridas has been an incredible help with things and i am comfortable with my knowledge of heatsinks now (installing different models at least).
I think i will probably put a hole in the roof of that area to have all units ventilate directly upward.
In referance to GPU usage, it is MASSIVELY faster but for some god unknown reason it doesn't exist in a practical way for 3d animation (despite massive demand and promises from companies).
I am Getting a dual xeon workstation to be the server for this farm and to answer your question about rendering jobs: No, 3d programs specialize in being able to distribute data over many systems. Rendering 1 frame that would take an hour (which is fairly typical with my work) will take me 3.56 minutes now (with 20% overclocking).
:)
 
Just so i know, when you are talking about making sure they are high powered fans, how powerful do you mean?
 
By powerful I(we) mean CFM. Cubic Feet per Minute. That is what dictates how powerful they are to the OCing community. Generally, higher CFM means higher RPM means higher decibel volume...

The volume your exhaust fans move should be comparable to what your intakes are pulling in. I assume strong to mean at a minimum 60CFM and that is actually on the ..tame side for extreme air cooling. Let's just say I have a few fans that could double as leaf-blowers if I stick them on a pvc tube =]
 
I agree on the noise level. I have been in a few server rooms and it's a loud high pitched annoying scream. As far as DB's it's hard to say. Somewhat less than a vaccum cleaner, but a much higher pitched noise. Not gonna be fun to be in that room. And I expect the ambient room temp to go way up. Might have to invest in a window AC unit big time, or the room will easily climb to 90F in a few hours of rendering. Lastly, might need to look at upgrading your 20 amp wall sockets too. I can see an easy 2000 watts for it all.
 
I was online when you posted that conumdrum and had been thinking exactly about those things for 3 hours.
I immediately made a video showing my 3 options (as i see them) however have not been able to upload it until now as godaddy had screwed my account up in a way they didn't understnd (i spent 2 ****ing hours on the phone and they didn't even repair it properly).
I managed to get it on through a back way now SO, i would appreciate ppl reading this watching it..

http://adamsodyssey.net/Issues.wmv

_-A-_

Btw, the "box" in the 2nd option will be flat against the wall and i will use the channels in the wall to carry the heat into the
cavity (inbetween floors).
 
Back