Short 2U Rackmount Mobile Renderbox

[kmhacker]

In addition to the customacs I am building for the studio render farm, I plan to build a 2U unit for remote production. This will be as beefy as I can cram into a 2U form factor. It looks like this fellow has a good start:

http://www.eigenzone.org/2011/05/31/rac ... e-playing/

I've include his shopping/gear list list below. I plan to mirror it with two exceptions ...

1) Research on the mobo (ASUS Rampage III Gene) reveals that it has a lot of RMAs. And, I like Gigabyte boards. So, I'd like a recommendation for the best possible micro-atx Gigabyte board. Ideally, it will let me pop in 16-24GB of RAM.

2) I cannot find his case for sale anywhere in the US. So, I am considering the following one instead.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811219032

The idea is for this to be able to be racked in a mobile "gig" rack along with other components. Thoughts?

3) Please call out any other concerns you see.

Thanks in advance,

KMH

****************************

Case: X-Case RM 204 Short
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III GENE (Intel X58 Express) – Micro ATX
CPU: Intel Core i7 960 3.2GHz – Quad Core Socket 1366 QPI 4.8 GT/s Cache L3 8 Mo 0.045 µm
CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken
Thermal Paste: Arctic MX-4
RAM: G.Skill RM Series RipJaws 12 GB F3-12800CL7T-12GBRM (3x4G)
Graphics Card: ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) PCI Express
Firewire Card: LaCie Firewire 800 PCI Card
Wifi Card: D-Link DWA-556 Xtreme N PCI Express
SSD Drive: OCZ Vertex 2 Series – SSD 120 GB 3.5? Serial ATA II
Hard Drive: Western Digital WD RE4-GP 2TB
Optical Drive: LG GH22LS50 (SATA)
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA500 Green ATX 500W
Front Case Fans: Two Rasurbo 50mm
External Rear Case Fan: Scythe Mini Kaze 60mm

 

[kmhacker]

*bump*

 

[kmhacker]

OK, with 4 CustoMacs under my belt, I am ready to start planning this video edit gig box. The goal is a screaming fast mobile edit/render platform with the easy ability to offload rendered video to the client at an event.

Here is my planned list of gear ... so far. Have a look and let me know what you think. Any "gotchas"?

Thanks!

KMH

Case: NORCO RPC-231 Black 2U Rackmount Server
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz
CPU Cooler: Scythe SCSK-1100 100mm
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB ***
Graphics Card: VisionTek 900345 Radeon HD 5570 1GB ***
Firewire Card: LaCie Firewire 800 PCI Card ***
Wifi Card: D-Link DWA-556 Xtreme N PCI Express
SSD Dock: Thermaltake RC1400101A MAX-1542 5.25" (x1) Bay to 2.5"
SSD Drives (5): Crucial RealSSD 128GB ***
Hard Drive (2/Raid): Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM
Optical Drive Bay: SilverStone TS03B 5.25" Silent Combo Drive Bay
Optical Drive: SONY Opti-Arc BD-5740H-01
PSU: CORSAIR HX650 650W PSU
Case Fans (3): SUNON HA40201V4-0000-C99 40mm Case Fan

*** May bump to 32GB as mobo supports it. Not sure it is worth it.
*** Most half-height video cards are not up video rendering load. Is this one? Dicussion here ...
*** No half-height bracket, so their will be some hacking.
*** Open to suggestions on netter SSD drive value.

 

[SMHI]

MEM: Their are no 8GB non-ECC sticks out there. They will come soon. Their are a Xeon CPU that is identical too 2600 but support ECC. But if Mac OS X supports that CPU is another thing.

GPU: I do not know. It is a low power card.

FW card: Why not a PCIe low profile card?

SSD: That is a old SSD drive. Get new SATA3 drives released this year. Look at reviews to get a good one because they perform very different.

 

[kmhacker]

MEM: Their are no 8GB non-ECC sticks out there. They will come soon. Their are a Xeon CPU that is identical too 2600 but support ECC. But if Mac OS X supports that CPU is another thing.

GPU: I do not know. It is a low power card.

FW card: Why not a PCIe low profile card?

SSD: That is a old SSD drive. Get new SATA3 drives released this year. Look at reviews to get a good one because they perform very different.

Great feedback. What PCI-E FW card & SSD do you suggest?