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Render Pockets - DIY Renderfarm kit


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Mate, it's people/companies like you that restore my faith in personal 3D rendering solutions.

I wish you all the best, sell lots of these and then make something even more wow :)

 

Cheers.

 

Thanks for kind words!

 

If this goes well, I am planning to make a stand-alone shelving system for renderpockets with fans and stuff, also support for full ATX motherboards and multiple GPU's! Still a dream, but hope will become a reality :)

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Shipping will be almost worldwide, since I am in Germany I can cover Europe and UK, and my partner in USA got it covered over there.

 

If the item arrives broken, you will have 14 days to return it for replacement or refund, but you have to pay shipping on your own.

 

There is this plexiglas cement solvent on the market, that glues broken pieces perfectly, so this might be a quick fix.

 

http://www.industrialplasticsnyconline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Acrylic+Solvent

 

I dropped one of the cases by accident and some pieces broke, the case is still functional, but then I used this cement and it glued everything very well, I think it actually welds the parts together (its very strong!)

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That's is looking very cool! Congrats.

so I was looking on indiegogo and I can find your campain. I guess is not posted yet.

Do you have planned to sell this with the computer parts or only the cabinet?

also in the photos I see different CPU fans, is there a reason for this? or just testing?

I am guessing you are using a Noctua in one of them? how close are they from the top cabinet, it seems they pop very close to the top cabinet (Ceiling not sure how to call it but the top part of the drawer)

Thanks

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Thanks Francisco!

 

Indiegogo not posted yet, starting on Feb. 15th.

 

I cannot sell computer parts unfortunately, this requires special re-sellers license and stuff, which will delay this for long time.. also people like to choose their own options, and also when you buy your own parts you get longer warranty. If I buy parts and keep them for like a month before shipping them to you then you lose 1 month from your manufacturers warranty, plus the warranty is under my name, so you will have to ship the parts back to me and I will have to ship it to the manufacturer, so its too complicated.

 

The various CPU fans was indeed just to test the temperatures and to see if they fit inside. There is about 10mm clearance between the highest CPU cooler and the top of the above drawer. All of them perform about the same but Noctua is the least noisy, Zalman is really nice too, but really big in size.

 

Glad you like it!

Edited by artmaknev
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Thanks Francisco!

 

Indiegogo not posted yet, starting on Feb. 15th.

 

I cannot sell computer parts unfortunately, this requires special re-sellers license and stuff, which will delay this for long time.. also people like to choose their own options, and also when you buy your own parts you get longer warranty. If I buy parts and keep them for like a month before shipping them to you then you lose 1 month from your manufacturers warranty, plus the warranty is under my name, so you will have to ship the parts back to me and I will have to ship it to the manufacturer, so its too complicated.

 

The various CPU fans was indeed just to test the temperatures and to see if they fit inside. There is about 10mm clearance between the highest CPU cooler and the top of the above drawer. All of them perform about the same but Noctua is the least noisy, Zalman is really nice too, but really big in size.

 

Glad you like it!

 

Thank you for the answers, I didn't think about the warranty stuff for the computer parts, but yes you are right with that.

Do you have any drawing layout to share or top view photography of the drawer with all the components? I would like to see if I could fit a water cooling system on them. 10mm seems not much, besides the top drawer will be a little hot too because of the mother board.

Have you tested the temperatures differences between them?

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Thank you for the answers, I didn't think about the warranty stuff for the computer parts, but yes you are right with that.

Do you have any drawing layout to share or top view photography of the drawer with all the components? I would like to see if I could fit a water cooling system on them. 10mm seems not much, besides the top drawer will be a little hot too because of the mother board.

Have you tested the temperatures differences between them?

 

I wouldn't recommend using liquid cooling for the nodes, because if there is a leak in one, it might spill to the others...

 

The 10mm clearance is for Zalman cooler, thats why I prefer low profile Noctua is half the size of Zalman and the performance is great, on average the cpu temp is 65c. The difference between CPU coolers is not much, about 5c, but between the intel stock cooler the difference is huge, 15-25c!

 

By the way, you are right about motherboards heating up, I just realized that if I add two more holes to the mainboard, you can flip it and attach motherboard on the right side, so each node can variate between left and right side, anyway, I will probably show this on Indiegogo, it will probably reduce cpu temp by another 5-10c!

 

One more thing, if you do decide to fit the liquid cooling, you can attach the SSD on its side, like in the photo, you can add 3 SSDs there.

 

SAM_2096w top.jpg

SAM_1988 ssd.jpg

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Very nice.

 

How about the EMI shielding of the front plate?

 

I think i would move the power switch to the front.

 

This is just one option, the minimal faceplate without the power switch on front, so it looks like furniture without any glowing lights. But there is another option like I posted before with temp sensor and power switch at the front. I plan to make a few more faceplate designs soon.

 

What do you mean about EMI shielding, I am not sure, like the anti-static plastic piece?

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I am excited to see this coming together. I think you should put some example specifications down in a shopping list for the semi-literate computer dabblers among us. I built my own nodes already, but cant keep pace with tech at the same time as running a studio.

I see that a RAM limit of 16G has been mentioned on the Micro ATX boards that would populate these boxes, is that correct? That would be a deal-breaker for most of the people who would need this kind of equipment, wouldn't it?

My from the hip spec on these machines would be six or eight core i7's, they would need 32 gig of ram to keep pace with my current nodes, but capacity for 64 would be desirable.

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Tom - I made this graphic to help people with hardware selection, but yes the limit is 16G for mini-ITX boards, the only size boards that fit inside renderpocket case. Thats why I am considering about selling the files too so people can modify the size to their needs.

 

Also for the higher end i7s six and eight cores, you need much higher CPU cooler, which will not fit inside the ikea drawers, i was thinking about using 2 drawers for 1 node, but hit some design issues with that, so it is on hold for now..

 

PRICE-LIST2.jpg

Edited by artmaknev
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My excitement has abated Im afraid. 16G limit is no good for me. Looks like Im buying more Shuttles...

 

Sorry, but I will try to see if I can still fit Macro ATX boards, the problem is they have 3 different sizes, and all the PSU wires will be on top of the motherboard.

 

Make sure you get the case that supports Macro ATX boards if you want more than 16G, I think Shuttle only supports mini-ITX boards as well with 16G limit.

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Sorry, but I will try to see if I can still fit Macro ATX boards, the problem is they have 3 different sizes, and all the PSU wires will be on top of the motherboard.

 

Make sure you get the case that supports Macro ATX boards if you want more than 16G, I think Shuttle only supports mini-ITX boards as well with 16G limit.

 

My Shuttle farm right now has 32G ram and i7 3930's, I got them about 18 months ago and they're pretty good. Your solution is more elegant though, I would put money down RIGHT NOW if they had 64 gig. I am buying in the next week or so.

I know that for heavy .max scenes my old 16gig nodes crap out and leave the Shuttles to do the work.

 

For all of the masses of threads on performance, most 3d guys end up buying the same families of components and are not too fussy about the details, such as the size of board. They care only about the major numbers: for a node thats just RAM + CPU. The possibility of GPU rendering over network also brings that onto play, but the mainstream CPU renders.... just RAM and CPU. You are throttling down one of the major components and I think that will hurt your business.

If you can pick one popular 64G max board and endorse that board for your system, you have a winner. If there are 3 sizes, who cares, just make it for one and then the numbers work.

Edited by Tommy L
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I will try to test microATX board one more time this weekend, I know 32g at least nice to have, but I was going after very compact setup. I've been rendering mostly interiors with vray and 16g nodes performed flawlessly, some scenes were heavy too, but I also like to optimize my scenes, so memory wasn't an issue for me so far. I also noticed that Vray handles RAM really well, my main machine has 32g, so vray works with that and then it distributes to the nodes and works well with 16g RAM, I really had no issues so far.

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I will try to test microATX board one more time this weekend, I know 32g at least nice to have, but I was going after very compact setup. I've been rendering mostly interiors with vray and 16g nodes performed flawlessly, some scenes were heavy too, but I also like to optimize my scenes, so memory wasn't an issue for me so far. I also noticed that Vray handles RAM really well, my main machine has 32g, so vray works with that and then it distributes to the nodes and works well with 16g RAM, I really had no issues so far.

 

I do a lot of work with chandeliers and back-bars. I render very high res and have alot of elements, which uses alot of RAM in the buffer etc etc. My 16gig nodes are almost obsolete. Its only because they are quad core that they still handle half the stuff the six-core nodes do.

You are right, 16g currently services most scenes for most people. But the very nature of your product leans toward heavy users and future proof is a big consideration when purchasing multiple machines.

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Well 6mm is not much, you can tilt the board to one side and you'll get more than 6mm a low profile CPU fan will be even more important then, but I am sure it can be done. ;)

 

You can even make some cut on the side walls of your cabinet box, and mount the board on them, so the 2 edges of the board are flush with the cabinet wall or even pop out a little (it make sense?), to build you'll have to take the cabinet a part thou, but this is one time deal, so I don't see major problems.

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