Rack Based Render Nodes

[dande]

I currently have a small render farm with 4 x i7 in tower cases. I'm looking at increasing the number of nodes and building rack based nodes and maybe converting my current render nodes to rack based boxs due to lack of space. I've built plenty of PCs but not rack mounted. My main concern is cooling. I've had problems in the past with chips over heating during large animation renders so I have all my machine currently water cooled.

 

Does anybody know where I can get the cases.

[Devin Johnston]

You can get 1U cases anywhere, I have 15 of them myself. They usually come with their own high speed fans which will cool them just fine as long as they are in an air-conditioned space.

[Dimitris Tolios]

If by water cooled you mean closed loop system like Corsair's H80/H100, Kuhler 620 etc, you will have to use a large rack mount case solution in order to fit the 120mm Rad/Fan assemblies, probably 4U or even bigger.

 

Here you can see a rough sketch showing that it will be tough with a 4U, as things are designed to fit pretty tightly, and exhaust fans are almost always 80mm - leaving no room for the rad to rest without interfering with the motherboard.

 

 

You best bet is mounting the Rad internally in the center of the case - either on the side of the mobo, or behind the HDD/optical drive cages, but depends on the actual clearance of the case you will get.

 

I think it is hard to find affordable rack-mount cases bigger than 4U.

I also think 4U is big enough to house large enough CPU air cooling solutions + provide enough air flow for them to work properly. I doubt it will be easy to mount closed watercooling loops internally without getting creative and/or modding the cases but not impossible. Perhaps researching for proper air cooling would be a good idea, tho with this kind of airflow I would believe the stock air coolers would suffice - unless you have your i7s overclocked.

[dande]

Thanks for your replies. Yes I have Cosair H80/H10 in the machines. If I put them in a cooling cabinet I shouldn't need the Cosair H80/H10 then