putting together a cpu-render-server / advice wanted

[drendir]

Hello,

As the title explains, I'm putting together a render-server myself for the first time, I still need to read up on the software requirements, but for now i'm configuring the hardware - so my current configuration is:

cpu ///               AMD OPTERON 16CORE 6370P 2.0Ghz socket G34 (x4) - 520€ x4

http://www.amd.com/us/products/server/processors/6000-series-platform/6300/Pages/6300-series-process...

motherboard /// SUPERMICRO H8QG6-F (4x G34 sockets) - 824€

http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron6000/SR56x0/H8QG7_-LN4F.cfm

memory ///        CORSAIR XMS-3 - 32Gb DDR3 1333Mhz (x4) - 255€ x4

http://www.corsair.com/us/memory-by-product-family/xms-classic/xms3-32gb-ddr3-dual-channel-memory-ki...

graphics card /// ... don't know yet, minimal.

I chose for AMD cause basicly I've been working with AMD since the beginning, and I'm unwilling to spend so much money on Xeons with the rapid hardware changes on the market. I did the math and even with the hyper threading, i can buy more Opterons for the same amount of money.

Question is if I'm missing out on anything, is there anyone who has an opteron cpu render sever, if so, whats your experience with it?

kind regards,

Ethan

[drendir]

is it considered taboo to compose a render farm with AMD opterons or something... All i see is intel Xeons and i7's being used

So i get that they're almost nihil renderfarms with amd opterons, but still, if Xeon is so much better has someone at least looked into Xeon vs Opteron or is everyone just automaticaly leaning towards Intel because all the others are doing it?...

[BenBisares]

No taboos with using AMD for render farms. I myself used to prefer AMD for my personal rigs but at the moment the Intel processors are so much better at rendering. They beat AMD in pretty much every category (Performance, efficiency, power consuption) and are more or less similar when it comes to price when comparing performance not clock speed. Keep in mind if you start looking at the real high end for Intel their prices ramp up pretty quickly.

    ...has someone at least looked into Xeon vs Opteron

There have been a few Xeon vs. Opteron tests. You can take a look at my favourite place for hardware reviews Anandtech

http://anandtech.com/show/6508/the-new-opteron-6300-finally-tested/8

In terms of experinence I setup an Xeon render farm at work and at home I had an AMD farm. I've never had any problems with either one hardware-wise, both worked fine. The Xeon one did out perform my AMD farm but then again it should've since I'm not made from money and was using mostly old AMD systems lying around that I ressurected for render farm duties.

[drendir]

thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

I've been looking towards # cpu render cores/threads vs. price, i'm trying to keep the cpu speed just above 2.0Ghz, since for rendering the number of render threads is more important then the speed if you compare it price wise one can have more render cores for the money that would be spend for a faster processor of the same kind.

So when I do my calculations, budgetwise, for lets say 4000€, I can get ALOT more out of AMD then Intel, I get about 64 render cores for AMD opterons for that budget and only 24 render cores, or 48 render-threads for Intel Xeons

48 xeon threads are not going to render faster then 64 AMD cores, if they're both around 2.0Ghz... are they...? Is there really some internal "technology" that makes an intel 2.0Ghz thread go faster then a 2.0Ghz AMD core?...

In the link you've send me they for example compare an 8core/16thread Xeon E5 2660 of 2.2Ghz vs a 16core AMD

so agreed, this is based on speed, and speed alone.

They don't start from a budget wise skeeme, if you have a budget, and one gets the question, which brand which give me the most render-brackets, the awnser will always be AMD..

All render farms using i7's or Xeons will easily have 20% to 30% MORE render brackets if they would have bought AMD for that same budget

So i'm pretty much lost how pple decide to go intel on rendering.

If we're talking how much render-power you can stuff in a computer, regardless of pricing, then yes, Intel is victorious, especialy with the double Xeon-socket-render-computers, they would beat the crap out of AMD render-computers

But when talking render-servers?...