CGough
11-20-2009, 11:22 PM
Hi, I'm a university student with a keen interest in CG, I find myself working on projects and spending hours of my time rendering and doing simulations, I know this time could be best spend working but I'm not ready to shoot £2,000 out of my a***, primarily as I don't have that to spare, I have been thinking though, looking at small media computers and bundles available from good vendors like Scan and Overclockers I was wondering if anybody could give objective views and ideas to hardware to suit as a little render node I could send files over to for rendering or simulations to free up my main computer for improved workflow?
Some of these "solutions" may seem stupid but the goal here is to optimize £ to Performance...
The small Asrock ION (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-208-OK&groupid=43&catid=1446&subcat=) might suit as a little node, it's cheap and performance wise it's 330 processor has done well in tests but 2 gig RAM seems a limitation.
Overclockers also offer a good range of Bundles (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=339), I'm sure that a decent node could be made with almost any of these, a DIY "blade" type of case could be made to minimise space use...
The other option I could think of is looking for a server type motherboard and building it up gradually applying additional CPU's and RAM as time (and money) increases...
Any suggestions are more than welcome, it'd be interesting to see what (if any) decent solution could be made.
Some of these "solutions" may seem stupid but the goal here is to optimize £ to Performance...
The small Asrock ION (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-208-OK&groupid=43&catid=1446&subcat=) might suit as a little node, it's cheap and performance wise it's 330 processor has done well in tests but 2 gig RAM seems a limitation.
Overclockers also offer a good range of Bundles (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=339), I'm sure that a decent node could be made with almost any of these, a DIY "blade" type of case could be made to minimise space use...
The other option I could think of is looking for a server type motherboard and building it up gradually applying additional CPU's and RAM as time (and money) increases...
Any suggestions are more than welcome, it'd be interesting to see what (if any) decent solution could be made.