BOXX technologies has just made a leap in compute density with their new “renderBOXX 10400” system that features Intel’s Xeon 5600 6-core processor.
Previous generation 10300 five-module render farms featured 80 processing cores in a 4 rack unit space. The new 10400 increases the amount to 120 cores in that same space. renderBOXX 10400 also carries the distinction of being the first dedicated rendering solution to feature solid state drives for increased R/W performance, greater efficiency, and stability. In terms of throughput, the 24 core renderBOXX delivers an astonishing 222 MB per second.
So now you can pack 120 cores in a 4U space, or 1200 in a 42U rack, with a bit of space left over. From the specs they show, I believe this is a small 4-processor box (4 processors * 6 cores = 24 cores) that you can pack 5 into a 4U space (similar to a blade design), making 5 boxes * 24 cores = 120 cores in a 4U space. Their website seems a bit slow at the moment, so you can view the Spec Sheet here (download PDF).
via New BOXX Rendering System Features Six Core Processors and Solid State Drives.
@valmig 42U typically makes up a full rack.
How many 4u fit in a full rack? It would be awsome to fill a whole rack.