Quad GPU Workstation
After years of working with multiprocessor / multi GPU workstation I decide to go with single CPU but to force it to high clock values. Reason for single CPU is that except rendering engines and few other cases, nowadays software use multi cores desperately poor. It’s common situation to have one core at 100% and rest cores at 0%-5%. On the other side, at our pipeline, it’s much better to invest in GPUs. For this workstation we also made “single slot modification” because we need one PCI-E slot for Decklink Extreme card. You can read about this at separate post.
Config:
MBO ASUS X99-E WS
CPU Intex i7 5960X
Corsair Vengeance LPX schwarz DIMM Kit 64GB, DDR4-3000
SAMSUNG SSD 950 Pro 512GB, M.2
2 x WD Desktop Black 6TB HDD 7200rpm 6Gb/s
4 x GTX 980 Ti / SLI disabled:)
CORSAIR Professional Platinum SeriesAX1500i 1500W
CORSAIR Obsidian 900D
Water cooling config:
radiator: 2 x EK-CoolStream XE 480 (Quad)
radiator: 2 x EK-CoolStream XE 240 (Double)
CPU block: EK-Supremacy EVO – Acetal
GPU block: 4 x EK-FC Titan X – Acetal
GPU backplate: 4 x EK-FC Titan X – Black
GPU multiport: EK-FC Terminal Quad Semi-Paralell
pump: D5 PWM
reservoir: EK-RES X3 – Tube 250
fans: 13 x EK-Vardar F3-120 (1850 rpm)
Some pictures from building and testing phase. It was more then 3 weeks of mess at studio. Still you can find distilled water and antifreeze bins at studio:)
Due to massive cooling capacity 8 core CPU easily run at 4,5 GHz (all cores at full load!). At first picture you can see total size of radiators (ruler at top is 60cm). Core clock for GPUs are at +200 MHz, and GPUs memory clock at +400 Mhz. No intervention at voltage. For those interesting on GPU renders, there is Octane Bench score of over 530 points.