Build me a supercomputer (Or close to one)

[Bacon]

I recently have been able to increase money flow and now I can finally build a sick machine.

I saw nVIDIA's tesla computers but 10 g's isn't too appealing if I can build something that comes close for less, like in the 5-6 thousand range. No, this isn't a joke, I bought crysis and its a fun game but one problem, My computer cant play it. 800x600 and it still goes MABYE 20 fps if im lucky, that's with a 9600m GT // 4 Gig ram // Centrino Core Duo (I think that's what it's called i'm not at home. (it's a laptop though)

I also need a machine that can render huge 3d drawings, Right now one model I have takes like 2 minutes to render, which I really have no patince for. I don't think quadro ideo cards are an option as they are like $2000 each, no?

This isn't realy JUST to play crysis... I also need it for rendering as I said.

Anyways i'm looking for a triple sli setup with GeForce GTX's, and if possible, support for a shitload of RAM, as I run a lot of apps off of a ramdisk. Why? Render speed is about 5x faster using a ramdisk.

I'm not really hardware smart when it comes to building a computer, mabye back in the day when we did it in school but everything kinda has been lost from my memory...

Is A tesla good for gaming / rendering? Is it better choice than building something like a tri sli setup when it comes with 4 quadro cards in it? If not i'd just like some advice on what parts I should buy to build a nice machine, like how many Watts PSU i'll need, mobo, etc. I just want a SICK computer lol

Thanks

P.S - I spend half of my life on the computer, if I didn't, I wouldn't be buying something like this.

[werldhed]

This won't help with your rendering, but if you want a speedy rig you could take this route:

[Bacon]

That was pretty cool but im looking for something aesthetically (sp?) presetable, that thing looks like a robot with it's guts hanging out

[AmIdYfReAk]

i would agree, you could check out a SSD raid 0 array for your windows and apps, and then a large platter based hard drive for your Documents/movies/music/etc etcccc..

then you would get the best of the ram drive without the complications.

[obsidian]

When you say "render" it depends on what you are rendering and how the program goes about doing it. Certain things will be rendered primarily on the GPU while others rely on the CPU.

Crysis for example, is a game and depends heavily on the GPU, real-time rendering of polygons, shaders, textures, etc. Radiosity and raytracing for pre-rendered images and video on the other hand, is generally dependent on the CPU (though a lot of it is starting to be transferred over to the GPU through interfaces like CUDA). So depending on which you need more of, your hardware will need to remove those bottlenecks. Granted, with a 5-6K budget you don't have a lot to worry about and can probably get the best of both.

CPU based rendering is usually pretty good with multicore performance, so you may want to look into something like an Intel i7 (quad core, each hyperthreaded) or perhaps an Intel Xeon processor (get two physical processors, each with 4-6 cores) and it looks like the new Intel i7 based Xeons are due to be out soon if they aren't already.

So get as many processors/cores as you possibly can along with 2-3 GPUs along with a mobo to support all of that. Prices for triple channel memory for i7's have dropped so you can get 12GB for under $300. Increase storage performance with a RAID 0 of SSD's (careful, some brands of SSD's have been shown to have poor performance) or high RPM Wester Digital Raptor or Seagate Cheetah drives. I suppose you'll need at least a 1000W PSU. Also concentrate on cooling, every single component in that computer is going to cook.

AFAIK, the Tesla computers aren't your normal workstation, they're more like a dedicated rendering server running GPUs set up to do many many many floating point calculations with programs optimized with CUDA. I think rendering studios use a more traditional workstation for all the content creation and then send that data over to the Tesla server for rendering. It's basically a very fast, dedicated rendering farm.

BTW, I just built a new i7 computer, nothing close to your budget, but it may give you some ideas.
http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewto ... 13&t=39781

[obsidian]

Honestly, I can't build a $6K computer, so here's a $4K one... that leaves room for other stuff I haven't considered like cooling. You could go watercooled which should bring you up to about $5K. Prices from Newegg.com in US dollars. I haven't checked compatibility (insert disclaimer note here), so I don't know for sure if the PSU will handle that, or if the mobo will run properly with that kind of SLI setup, or if everything will fit inside that case, but I assume it should all work. (You also get 3 copies of Call of Duty World at War and World of Warcraft for free, WHOOP!)

http://www.robotrenegade.com/temp/zomgcomputer.png

...Or maybe you should get yourself a Mac Pro... or this AND a Mac Pro.

[shaft]

Honestly, I can't build a $6K computer

I can.

[lvlshot]http://home.comcast.net/~shaft01/macpro.jpg[/lvlshot]

[AmIdYfReAk]

Honestly, I can't build a $6K computer, so here's a $4K one... that leaves room for other stuff I haven't considered like cooling. You could go watercooled which should bring you up to about $5K. Prices from Newegg.com in US dollars. I haven't checked compatibility (insert disclaimer note here), so I don't know for sure if the PSU will handle that, or if the mobo will run properly with that kind of SLI setup, or if everything will fit inside that case, but I assume it should all work. (You also get 3 copies of Call of Duty World at War and World of Warcraft for free, WHOOP!)

http://www.robotrenegade.com/temp/zomgcomputer.png

...Or maybe you should get yourself a Mac Pro... or this AND a Mac Pro.

jesus, that is one hell of a setup.

Those SSD'd Raid 0 with that Cuda for your main files would be deadly.

[Bacon]

Once again thanks for the help guys, and thanks Obsidian. However wouldnt 2 physical xeons be less efficient? You have to bridge them/process them over north/south bridge of the mobo

Anyways i'll take a look when I get home at what you came up with, as for the Mac Pro, that is not an option.

Thanks

[Bacon]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=3585

Can I have 3 of these? Or just 2, it said 2 combined makes quad sli, so if i try and add a 3rd would it make it 6x? Or just not work at all?

I want 3

[obsidian]

Pretty sure you can only do quad-sli with that thing. But honestly, I don't think you truly need more than 2 (or even one for that matter) GPU unless you actually have a specific CUDA based application in mind. It just becomes a point of diminishing returns.

[bitWISE]

Well, SLI does have large gains in high-resolutions.

PS: as an owner of the first Rampage Extreme motherboard (x48 chipset) I definitely recommend the second board as obsidian did. Maybe you could take what is left of your budget after building his suggestion and go with a sick water cooling setup in a badass Silverstone case.

[AmIdYfReAk]

i think with this you are on your own bacon, i can only talk for my self, but i couldn't do much better then what Obsidian posted.

[SOAPboy]

i think with this you are on your own bacon, i can only talk for my self, but i couldn't do much better then what Obsidian posted.

Without buying shit retail, not many people could.

5-6k is ALOT of money. Hell, you could buy a fucking falcon/voodoo if you didnt want to build for that kind of money.

[Fender]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/promotion_ ... a_gpu.html

[Massive Quasars]

Tesla has been name dropped already.

That being said, even obsidian's specced rig is no supercomputer. You want something approximating a supercomputer, the early 20th century engineer/physicist remains your best bet.

Mathematica, Matlab, C variants, CUDA, FORTRAN, faggots, etc. The platform and possibilities entice.

[obsidian]

If he wanted a pure dedicated number cruncher, then I would have recommended a rackmount server type supercomputer setup, but those requires special custom written software to do your bidding (like the Tesla) with a couple of dozen threads and they are certainly not designed with video games in mind. For 3D renderings and video games, I think he's going to be looking at the top end of a traditional desktop workstation.

BTW Bacon, any updates/pics yet? If not, better hurry before everything is obsolete again.

[Massive Quasars]

Fair play, but a supercomputer it is not.

[DTS]

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/f ... xpress_ssd

The 1TB version costs quite a bit.

Edit: I think you'd need to get a motherboard that has PCI-E (PCI-Express) 2.0 x4 or higher than x4.

Remember to get one with enough slots to leave space for your graphics card or cards aswell!

[Fender]

mega write up on SSDs
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3531

[DTS]

mega write up on SSDs
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3531

That's a good article, despite being very long.

Here's a short follow-up article:
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3535

In light of that first article, the drives I linked to before aren't worth getting. I think so, anyway; nowhere in the article are those drives mentioned, so I think they are old ones, based on the "broken" controller the writer complains about.
See the short follow-up for ones that are worth getting.

[Tsakali]

solid state hdd

[Whiskey 7]

mega write up on SSDs
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3531

Wow Fender. Just what I was looking for A topic pops ups from nowhere I am about to buy an SSD next week (or do I wait a week for prices to fall )

Simply awesome vid there too werldhed

Anyone else have one of these SSd's or similar links?

/steals topic maybe

[Fender]

updated
viewtopic.php?p=781561#p781561