Buying a Render Farm

[Signal2Noise]

Send me the money and I'll set you up real nice like. :thumbsup:


Seriously, all you really need are large & fast HDDs, fast CPUs, and a load of RAM. You could go BOXX but you'll likely get stuff you don't really need. Buy some small format cases, like Pundits, and spec out the main components for 'em.

PM me and I'll send you my mailing address for that cheque.

[besnik]

No seriously, i realy need to know what is the best thing to get with the budget i have.

Please help

[lots]

Give Boxx a call, honestly... They may be able to help you sort out everything you need. They of course will want to sell you thier systems, but nothing says you have to. And you will likely get a good set of information that will help you in your buy. Of course come back here to get a good check before actually spending money :) When you call Boxx, you may want to talk to Ed (a member of these boards) I can't hope to spell his last name, but it starts with a C :). He will be more than willing to help you out. Though he's been out on the road as of late.

With that amount of money you are likely going to go with a server rack with a bunch of 1U rack mounts, probably with one or two CPUs per node and at least 2GB of RAM for each system (though I'd recommend more based on your render usage). Those are really the most important parts of the node. Outside of that, you will need to ensure you have a properly equiped room with AC and proper power, along with power backup systems to keep the farm alive and protected from power outages, surges and the like. Among all the other little details, you will want to make sure you have enough money after buying the nodes to pick up these extra important parts that often are over looked by normal consumers.

[Ed Caracappa]

I'm in town for a change. Feel free to give me a call. I'd be happy to help advise on a configuration that will work whether you decide to buy or build your own.


Ed

[Ed Caracappa]

Sorry, noticed you are in Albania. Feel free to email instead of call.


Ed

[besnik]

Thanks guys

Ed i sent you an e-mail read it an tell me what do you think

PS. sorry for my english

[ihavenofish]

for 20-25k euros you have the potential to get quite a few nodes.
once you hit about 15 nodes under heavy use you have to begin thinking seriously about a file server with high quality networking and a fast hard drive array. make sure you include this in your budget if you dont have it already.

later

[besnik]

Why a file server where all i'll be rendering are a small sized png's maybe all i need are about 700 Gb of HDD

[lots]

In a large farm, you will have many many nodes accessing the fileserver at the same time. If your file server (where files are being read from, and images written to), is not fast enough, you will get a serious bottle neck. Which will result in lower performance numbers, as each node waits for its turn in the queue.

This is not so much a problem on smaller farms, as a few machines will not heavily tax a traditional consumer hard drive system. But on the large scale, you will need a high bandwidth network connection, and a fast storage solution in order to provide a reliable and fast place to keep the rendered sequence and all associated data files (objects, scenes, etc).

[gribo]

Any specific renderer in mind? different CPUs work better in different renderers. The current champ is the core2 from intel with either 2 or 4 cores/chip.

you might want to consider having quad core nodes with cheaper boards instead of dual socket boards with 2xdual cores.

A good 1GB switch is a must, even for a small render farm.

Do you plan to have a rackmount? is it mission critical? did you spec a UPS? what are the power requirements/capabilities of your facility?

[cooperunionstud]

build a NAS "network assigned storage"..

as my company have recently encountered this very same problem, its generally better to cram as many cores to one node, IE if you can get a 2 dual cores instaed of one quad, get a quad, and if you can get a 8 core machine for the price of 2 quads, get the 8 core machine. This way you have less system to maintain as well as using less power during rendering.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.