Ikea Helmer cluster

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renderpockets

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Hello guys, I have developed a lasercut plexiglas (screwless) case for mini ITX boards that fits inside ikea helmer cabinet to create a budget renderfarm solution for CGI artists like myself to render faster. It is very compact and fits under most desks.Its also great if you want to hide your computer completely. Each node is only 400x230x80mm, so about 7L very complact. Ambient temperature is about 30c with i7 cpu, and when 100% load it goes to 70-85c, you have option to add up to 6 x60mm fans, but I think 2-3 fans more than enough.

I am not very familiar with cloud cluster computing or servers so I want to hear your opinion, would you be interest in Renderpockets idea for your project? Can you give me your advice on how I can improve renderpockets to adapt better to your projects (more storage space, hot swap drive bays in the back, micro ATX option, GPU location, more CPUs?)

I am very interested in understanding your market and hope to be a part of.

Thanks,
Art
View more at: www.facebook.com/renderpockets
www.renderpockets.com (in progress)

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Thanks guys, and yes the 2 miniITX boards in 1 case looks nice, but we had some serious heat issues with it, so its not recommended for rendering animations, maybe it will be alright with low powered atom miniITX boards that don't generate much heat.

Here is one more treat:

OneManArmy1-web.jpg
 
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some great renders and very cool project. wish i had a use for it, maybe after i hit the jack pot at the casino
 
renderpockets said:
Thanks guys, and yes the 2 miniITX boards in 1 case looks nice, but we had some serious heat issues with it, so its not recommended for rendering animations, maybe it will be alright with low powered atom miniITX boards that don't generate much heat.

Here is one more treat:

OneManArmy1-web.jpg
Click to expand...

I really like what you have done here! However it seems English is not your first language. The text in you image should read "the only thing missing is an espresso machine"

Can't wait to see this go live!
Smitty
 
Very nice. One danger might be dependency on a particular Ikea cabinet model, since Ikea SKUs sometimes tend to go out of production. How quickly could you change your specs to fit some other cabinet?

Or, simply design your own plexiglass cabinet, since you've got the skills. How about stackable? "stackable and rackable"... you can have that slogan for free :)
 
Ockie - price will be available by mid-January.

waderunner - I was looking at making my own custom rack from T-Slots, because plexiglas alone is not very stable, it is still on my to do list, so maybe a few months give or take will present something :) Stackable maybe not, but rackable more like it !

Ikea Helmer is one of their best performers worldwide, and its been available for years, I don't think they will stop the production any time soon!
 
That is really cool! Seriously awesome design idea! This is like the ultimate Ikea hack. I made a server rack from a Lack table and thought that was cool but this is amazing.
 
Need a full size ATX and full size PSU compatible version.

You can also make it double deep. So that its 1 door but takes up two slots as it looks like there are no supports between them.

Also make a standalone box for HDDs and maybe rads.

Put the double size with a single HDD rack and you got a beastly server.
 
Priller said:
Need a full size ATX and full size PSU compatible version.

You can also make it double deep. So that its 1 door but takes up two slots as it looks like there are no supports between them.

Also make a standalone box for HDDs and maybe rads.

Put the double size with a single HDD rack and you got a beastly server.
Click to expand...

Yes I am considering this option as well, with up to 4 GPU support that fit inside 2 drawer space :)
 
renderpockets said:
Thats interesting, have you had any experience with this psu? I wonder if it can run modest size GPU, like GTX 750 or higher?
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Typical server PSUs have a reputation for being loud. Not a big issue in a datacenter but if you had 6-8 of them in a single rack then they would become annoying IMO.
 
renderpockets said:
Thats interesting, have you had any experience with this psu? I wonder if it can run modest size GPU, like GTX 750 or higher?
Click to expand...

It will support pretty much any recent single video card, barring the 290X, and any recent CPU, barring the FX 8 cores, pretty well. I'd say the most you wanna put on it is a i7-47x0 with a GTX980.
 
Cool!!
With that PSU it might be possible to finally add GPU in each drawer, many people been asking me about that option but it wasn't possible with sfx psu!
 
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