11k Render Machine

[Waco]

The CPU? I was actually asked to overclock it, so probably. Once again, it just depends on how everything operates at the end.

You're just trying to blow up that power supply aren't you???

[SpeedCrazy]

When you start overclocking have at least 3 things in place.

 

#1 A liability waiver. (if that thing blows you dont want to have to replace it) (at least i dont think you do )

 

#2 Camera(focused on the open side of the case and filming continously) (make sure it is far enough back so as not to be knocked down by the concussion)

 

#3 Fire extinguisher. (remember to get some good footage before pulling the pin)

 

#4 Optional. Safety goggles/helmet.

 

Once the above have been seen to:

Push those CPUs as hard as you can.

 

Upon further consideration; have them give you a bonus for risking your life. (and their equipment)

[paulktreg]

most outlets are only capable of 1850W, so I don't think we(the US at least) are going to see that PSU

 

The only real solution for a 2kW power supply in the US (or anywhere on 115VAC for that matter) would be two mains lead for the AC Power otherwise you'd have to pull 20A from a single wall outlet. The wall sockets in the UK are rated at 13A maximum, what's the maximum in the US and Canada?

[Waco]

The only real solution for a 2kW power supply in the US (or anywhere on 115VAC for that matter) would be two mains lead for the AC Power otherwise you'd have to pull 20A from a single wall outlet. The wall sockets in the UK are rated at 13A maximum, what's the maximum in the US and Canada?

I've got 20A outlets here; I think the standard is usually 15A though.

[CowKing]

Waco is right. Doesn't Europe have 240v, so that's 3120VA. There are 240V lines you can put in your house in America and special outlets that can do 20A. As far as I know all almost every building with a lot of occupants use the 20A outlets such as schools or other public buildings.

[Andrewr05]

I've got 20A outlets here; I think the standard is usually 15A though.

I'm not sure what the outlet can handle but I know that the circuit breaker is usually 15A or 20A which gives you 1725/2300W respectively.

 

If they've got a 20A circuit run into this ONE outlet directly from mains power then they may just barely squeak by.

 

Then again you've got to take into consideration that circuits are not rated for a continuous load either.

US code says that anything over 3 hours maximum current draw is considered a continuous load.

source link

 

 

So you're looking at about a ~10% decrease in available amperage if it is going to be a continuous load, which gets you 1552 and 2070 with the continuous load.

 

 

Waco is right. Doesn't Europe have 240v, so that's 3120VA.

Yep, at 240V even a 15A outlet would suffice.

15A x 240V = 3600W

20A x 240V = 4800W

 

 

Doesn't really help him though unless he is in Europe or he convinces his school to run 240V into the computer lab.

[mattyamdfanboi]

we'll see it in australia then.. coz we've got 2400watt+ from memory

[ccokeman]

You can run dual PSUs to this system to make sure one is not overloaded. Just one 480 and an overclocked i7 920 with all the rest of the parts pulls close to 650 watts under load with furmark. WHile that is a worst case scenario it gives you an idea how much juice the system can consume

[GabrielT]

most outlets are only capable of 1850W, so I don't think we(the US at least) are going to see that PSU

Then it requires you to mod your house a little bit. It wouldn't be so hard to make one very powerful outlet in your house with its own breaker box and cable going to it... that does sound hard actually...

It doesn't mean it would be a bad idea to buy one. If you had a system that could theoretically draw 1700watts why not have a power supply that can run at 1700watts without batting an eye? Even if the outlet could not provide 2000watts who cares if you aren't using over 1700. The idea is to not run the power supply at full tilt anyways. I know that there would still be about a 15% power loss because of the inefficiency of PSU's.

 

Edit:

Here is a link to a review of an Antec 1200 running bench marks at 1700watts. 500watts over spec. Lets how that the power supply you have has some serious horsepower as well. This was with 4 GTX 480's like you have and 2 CPU's. You may need something else plugged into a different outlet to fully power this beast. Underclocking or taking out one card will give you results if you do run into instability. Your power supply might just bow up and take out that wonderful motherboard too. They have a really mild oveclock for using what looks like DICE cooling (looks like that to me).

Edited October 30, 2010 by gabrieltessin

[RogerDeath]

Hey guys, I have no clue whats going on with this anymore (it was moved to where it will be in use) aside from one of the 480s had to be RMAed because one of the outputs was bad. Other then that, I'm as clueless as you!

[paulktreg]

Hey guys, I have no clue whats going on with this anymore (it was moved to where it will be in use) aside from one of the 480s had to be RMAed because one of the outputs was bad. Other then that, I'm as clueless as you!

 

I found

video on YouTube on Quad SLI'ed GTX 480's and it shows a power consumption, which I pressume is from the wall outlet, of 1500W so you are going to have some problems if you push your rig hard. A power consumption of 1500W from the wall converts to approximately 1275W from the power supply assuming the EVGA Classified SR2 hits its claimed 80 Plus Silver efficiency of 85% at full load. (It's actually an Antec TPQ 1200W).

 

I know little about rendering but I can't imagine it pushing the graphics cards has hard as Furmark so you maybe OK? One more problem I can see here is heat. The Antec TPQ 1200W uses a relative small 80mm cooling fan which combined with the high enclosure air temperature (it must be high with four GTX 480's churning out the heat?) will put the power supply working temperature at maximum I should imagine?

 

You may very well be OK but a good quality 1500W power supply with a single 12V rail and large 135~140mm cooling fan would be a better and safer option in my opinion. I think if I was building this PC I would, as Frank suggested, probably use two power supplies, a good quality 400~500W for the motherboard and peripherals and a single 12V rail 1500W unit used exclusively for the graphics cards although you'd have to do your research and find one thats happy supplying 12V only and how to install and wire for safe operation. You may think these wattages a little high but I like to have room to spare and especially so with this sort of investment in quality components.

 

Good luck with the build anyway and invest in a Kill A Watt and give us some power consumption figures.

[imm0rt41]

Damn that is a beast. In my old department at University of Arizona we used a bunch of Apple Xserves for this same rendering purpose. Only thing we needed to do to get them to run in our setup was install an OS and put them in a rack. No need for this power calculation and worry