2x GPU Rendernodes with 4x GPUs each in a self-built "Rack"

Hey there CGDirector Community!

I am working on lots of Cinema 4D + Redshift Rendering jobs and need a bunch of gpus to do my final rendering.

Thought I'd share some of the specs.

First node:
AMD Threadripper 1900X
4x Nvidia GTX 1080Ti
64GB DDR4 3200
MSI x399 Pro Carbon AC (From back in the days when these were among the only 4xgpu boards)
500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
Corsair Carbide 600q Case
Corsair Ax 1600i PSU

First node (This one is newer):
AMD Threadripper 2950X
4x Nvidia GTX 2080Ti
64GB DDR4 3200
Gigabyte x399 Designare Ex
500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
Corsair Carbide 600q Case
Corsair Ax 1600i PSU

Here's a quick Inside look of the first node. It's not pretty by any means, but it does its job:


And here are the two Rendernodes on top of each other in a wooden shelf-like rack, sitting in the living room.



The entire point was to have them be as inconspicuous as possible, so they don't draw too much attention. I'll have to run that power cable along the edges more neatly, but when they are off and don't make any noise, they don't disturb the warm atmosphere of a living room at all.

They have been running in that configuration for a long time now, and I hardly ever have any problems with them. The Temps are fine even though they are just air cooled and in such a tightly stacked multi-gpu config, but that just shows how great blower-fans for gpus can be.

It would really be nice to have some sort of remote management option before OS load, like IPMI, because when they do hang at POST, I am either lugging one of those towers back to my workstation to attach some monitors and keyboard to it, or vice versa...

Cheers!
Alex

I love how tidy they are in the room, you could walk past them in the house and not even realise that there is two computers sitting there.

nb50733 said:

I love how tidy they are in the room, you could walk past them in the house and not even realise that there is two computers sitting there.

Click to expand...

Jup that's what I was going for! Of course, once I turn them on, they do make a lot of noise

Alex Glawion said:

Jup that's what I was going for! Of course, once I turn them on, they do make a lot of noise

Click to expand...

That is what happens when you wake beasts! Out of curiosity, how are the computers connected to output ie monitors etc?

They are headless. I only access them by remote through LAN. Of course if there's a problem in the BIOS or the OS doesn't boot, I do have to hook them up to some peripherals for troubleshooting. But that happens rarely.

Using Thinkbox Deadline as the rendermanager.