I want to build a system with 8 CPU cores

I want to build a custom system with 8 or more CPU cores.  Is this possible with any Intel or AMD (or any other "x86-compatible" company) chips?  What about motherboards that support this?

I need to build such a computer that'll take care of intensive rendering sessions for my graphics work, and my desktop computer I use is underpowered for anything other than Preview-quality renders.

I don't think you can get an off the shelf motherboard that'll support all those cores.  you're better off building a distributed network

Only servers and specialized apps require that sort of power. For you >1, I'd agree with >>2, build a distributed network render system. Your rendering system is a failure if it fails to do distributed rendering.

yeah! somebody agreed with me! do I win something?

CFLAGS JUST KICKED IN, YO!

Won't help unless you got a properly multi-threaded app.  And the chances of that are... well, let me show you a picture of the number: http://goatse.cz

>>1
Quad 940 boards have been around for some time now. Dual 771/775 works too. How did you not find this stuff?
>>2 See above.

....unlimited processor works

>>3
>>6

Pretty much every major renderer is multi-threaded anyway.  From the free  YafRay to the multi-thousand dollar things the Maya people use, it's pretty much the norm nowadays.

USE THE CELL PROCESSOR FROM IMB/SONYYYY

>>1

YOU'RE FREAKIN CRAZY MAN! DON'T DO IT!!!

>>10

Say, when IS that fucking thing going to be out for anything else besides the PS3?  IBM kept saying "oh we're going to introduce this CPU to desktop systems" but they're not putting the fuck up.