New Slave PCs

[Saulkar]

Hello there. In my second thread I am asking the community for their input on 2 identical Mini ITX builds I am going to be doing within the next couple of months.

The purpose of these 2 computers is strictly slaves for a small home render farm. I will be rendering intensive 3D animations using these 2 computers thus I will rely solely on the 2500 integrated graphics for visuals as a 3D card is not actually necessary for these things. The real deal is that I do not know if I have gone overboard with a few things or chose underrated parts. I will be purchasing everything from Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! mind you.

The main points are an evaluation of my parts choices.
Trying to keep a budget between 600-850 dollars
The necessity of the Mini ITX form factor for space, 8-16 gigs of ram, and the Intel I5 Processor

So here is the list. Mind you I will be building 2 of them.

Windows 7 64-bit

LIAN LI PC-Q08B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 ...

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 compatible

ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL

SAMSUNG USB 2.0 External CD/DVD Drive Model SE-S084F/RSBS

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800AAJB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

I am unsure about the combination of components I have and I would like a second opinion. The power supply came highly recommended by a friend but is it not overkill? Additionally will all the parts actually fit together OK, the ram is rather expensive but at the same time it is the cheapest I can find at 16gb? So what say you?

I remind you that the purpose of this build is to create a Windows 7 peer2peer network between 3 computers with the intention of the 2 newly built computers acting as slaves in a renderfarm, rendering all of the animations send from my main computer. The external DVD drive is so that I do not have to purchase a DVD drive for both computers and I am very timid and ignorant when it comes to networks thus I rather not risk installing the new software on the 2 machines over said network. If that can even be done. So what say you? Have an even better idea of what a renderfarm slave should look like? Let me know.

P.S. Sorry for everything bolding, it will not turn off!

[NI3]

Are you absolutley sure that you NEED motx?

You can get 2600 with ATX

[JD]

Even going mATX would open you up to a lot more choices and potential.

Unless you really need 16GB, I'd stick to 2x4GB (8GB).

Might as well get the i5 2500K, barely costs any extra. No need for a heatsink either since the CPU comes with one that should be adequate enough, and won't pose any height issues.

And you have an IDE hard drive listed, that motherboard has no IDE ports. You'll have to get a SATA hard drive, or a SSD.

If you're building 2 identical systems though, with the intention of rendering, why not build a single dual-CPU-based system? Might end up costing around the same...

[Saulkar]

Originally Posted by NI3

Are you absolutley sure that you NEED motx?

You can get 2600 with ATX

I am sure. The price disparity between the 2500 and 2600 is off putting and I do not believe necessary additionally the Mini ITX form factor is due to the fact that I am very short on space.

Originally Posted by JD

Even going mATX would open you up to a lot more choices and potential.

Unless you really need 16GB, I'd stick to 2x4GB (8GB).

Might as well get the i5 2500K, barely costs any extra. No need for a heatsink either since the CPU comes with one that should be adequate enough, and won't pose any height issues.

And you have an IDE hard drive listed, that motherboard has no IDE ports. You'll have to get a SATA hard drive, or a SSD.

If you're building 2 identical systems though, with the intention of rendering, why not build a single dual-CPU-based system? Might end up costing around the same...

Ok I will take those points into consideration, really thankful for you pointing out the Hdrive. One thing I will point out that when it comes to rendering 3D animation, it is the number of computers rendering multiple frames of the same animation over dual CPUs rendering a single frame of animation in sequence that makes the difference.

Ram is a must because they are going to be loading multimillion polygonal 3D models fully animated and textured.

Lastly, what is the standard idle and load temps using the included heat sink? These things are going to be running full load for up to days at a time?

I am cheating quite a bit since a render slave is usually MUCH less powerful than what I listed but I am only getting 2 of them due to space constraints.

Thank you again!