azultec, provider of an environmentally friendly concept for cloud computing, today released the RenderMaster 250, a personal supercomputer in rack server format. This render server is the perfect basis to provide cloud computing services or as a powerful workstation.
High-performance brand components
The azultec RenderMaster 250 is based on the ASRock X399 Taichi ATX motherboard. This model has four PCI Express 3.0 slots: two with full x16 lanes and two with x8 lanes.
An additional expansion card can be connected to the single PCIe-x1 slot. The RenderMaster 250 runs on an AMD Threadripper 1920X processor, which offers high CPU performance with 12 cores, 24 threads and a base clock of 3.5 gigahertz.
The 1920X is equipped with 64 GB of DDR4 RAM from the Kingston HyperX series. The system memory can be expanded up to 128 GB. For data storage, the RenderMaster 250 uses a high-speed Samsung 970 EVO solid-state drive with 1 terabyte capacity. Power is supplied by an 80 PLUS Gold-certified 1,000-watt Seasonic power supply.
Four NVIDIA graphics cards for high rendering performance
Graphics cards typically carry the main load of rendering tasks. Therefore, the azultec RenderMaster 250 contains four NVIDIA P104-100 graphics cards, each with 8 GB of graphics memory. The NVIDIA P104-100 is a version of the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070, designed for computation-intensive applications.
With a computing power of 6655 GFLOPS (Single Precision) and 208 GFLOPS (Double Precision), the P104-100 ranks between the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070 and the GTX 1070 Ti. The graphics cards are equipped with newer GDDR5X memory instead of the usual GDDR5 chips: GDDR5X enables much higher transfer rates and operates at lower power consumption.
The CUDA programming interface, developed by NVIDIA, provides enormous performance gains for a wide range of applications. For example, the OctaBench 4.0 score of the RenderMaster 250 is 540 points.
The RenderMaster 250 can only be accessed remotely as it does not feature video output.
Low-maintenance water cooling with quick-release fasteners
The RenderMaster 250 includes an Alphacool Eisblock XPX Pro 1U for processor cooling, while the graphics cards are cooled by custom water cooling blocks. To ensure low component temperatures, azultec has installed a 360 millimeter large and 60-millimeter wide Alphacool NexXxoS solid copper radiator for heat exchange.
The built-in Alphacool Eisstation expansion tank offers a high cooling liquid volume of 250 ml. This significantly reduces the amount of maintenance required: the loss of water due to natural diffusion can be compensated over a long period of time.
The integrated DDC310 pump is located below the expansion tank and offers high performance for the water circuit. Alphacool has developed a special terminal so that all water-cooled components can be replaced quickly and easily. All components can be connected with quick-release fasteners.
If, for example, a graphics card needs to be replaced, it is sufficient to open the quick-release fasteners and pull out the card.
Liquid cooling prevents performance loss
The use of water cooling offers the advantage that all components can operate at maximum capacity without thermal throttling due to excessive heat development. In a narrow server chassis with a high hardware density and restricted airflow, throttling can lead to a worst-case power loss of up to 50 percent.
Thanks to the ingenious water cooling solution of the RenderMaster 250, the render server always offers maximum performance through a permanent, maximum boost cycle of all water-cooled components. This makes the workstation much faster than air-cooled products with the same hardware configuration.
The RenderMaster 250 comes with Microsoft Windows 10 Pro pre-installed. The system supports the installation of additional hard disks so it can be used as a file server.
Optimized for cloud rendering
Like the Cube 300 for private users and the entry-level industrial solution RenderMaster 300, the RenderMaster 250 is strongly optimized for cloud rendering.
Thanks to the high parallel computing power of its graphics processors (GPUs), rendering processes can be completed faster and more resource-friendly. This enables the user to generate cryptocurrencies more efficiently than with conventional crypto mining. In other words: the work is done faster and cheaper.
Prices and availability
The azultec RenderMaster 250 is now available in the online shop of Aquatuning. The recommended retail price is €3.699,95 / $4.069,99.
