Helmer Renderfarm update

[dlparisi]

I was getting excited until I realized I would need 5 more V-Ray licenses.

... and 5 more Windows licenses too. Not a ton of $ but it all adds up.

[glorybound]

The cost of doing business, I guess. So, with V-Ray being $350 per node and Windows 10 being $120, it does add up quickly ($2350). And, of course, plugins cost per node, if I am not mistaken. I went with one machine to avoid all that cost, so I might just stick with my initial thoughts; one beefy machine.

... and 5 more Windows licenses too. Not a ton of $ but it all adds up.

[3LP]

If your node goes down, (can happen but with xeons less likely than i7), and it's a case of absolute necessity then you can go online like rebus etc. You'll bite the bullet for that one job to get the job out of the way before you fix things.

I was thinking the same way as you 5 years ago.
Now I'm thinking that less nodes but more powerful is better for a lot of reasons. Some others would be : rendering animation comps like AFX will be faster on one node in stead of 6 (where it's a pain to distribute the tasks or with a lot of time/management and with highly priced soft like deadline). Simulations (realflow, fumefx,etc) can't really be distributed across nodes, you can have a lot of ram for the same price (64 or 128Gb) in stead of 32*6 nodes meaning you can handle bigger jobs and work with multiple apps at the same time more easily, rendering previews of large scenes can be done locally without DR so you'll win a lot of saving/loading time, plus all the necessary licenses that will add up like dlparisi mentioned, etc etc.

We have a farm with 40x 2600k, 10x 2*5660x and 5x 2*2680V2
For daily work, we switched some of our workstations to 2680v2 with 128Gb of ram and saw a massive difference using the 2680's in stead of i7's, it just works and it's fast, even without DR.
We still use the whole farm for all our animations or when we have big high def renders to do where we DR, but for all previews and quick stuff, the dual xeons are the way to go.
As you can see from the 40x 2600k, I was more the type of "a lot of small" in stead of "less high end and more expensive", but having tried the xeons in production make me think twice and changed my mind when I saw it in real production environment.

Stan

[vlado]

There is some discount on render nodes if you buy 5 or more, if I'm not mistaken.

Best regards,
Vlado

[glorybound]

Now, if Autodesk blind sides us with a node license of MAX, I might go postal.

[artmaknev]

Stan - I forgot to point out that my parts are 2 years old, right now they cost $2000 on ebay and still have the power of single rig of dual xeon 2699 V3. Right now you can buy mini-itx full system for like $300-400 on ebay that includes windows OS, you can assemble 6 nodes with used parts for $2000. Since parts are so cheap its easy to replace them and move the windows license to new node. The only high price is the vray node licenses, this can of-course add up... When I assembled my renderfarm 2 years ago, there were no 6 core or 8 core i7s and the most powerful dual xeon was the dual 8 core, so 32 render threads, I believe my farm was almost twice the power of that thing, and somehow i had to use my 10 render node licenses, so that was the push to build the helmer renderfarm.

Right now, there are so many more options, like the 6 core and 8 core i7s, so I do not persuade anybody to build helmer renderfarm, its good that people can make research and compare different options. But there are many people who simply do not need 1 super powerful $5000 machine, like me, I am totally fine with my 2 year old renderfarm and never had any issues. If there is an issue with one or two of the render nodes, I can replace the broken parts for a few hundred bucks and its back to business. About online renderfarm, its good service, and I used it couple of times when I just had my laptop, but as long as I remember, the upload speed can take longer time then the actual rendering... if your file is like 200MB it can take an hour to upload, maybe its faster nowdays...


Dmitry - it can get noisy when at full load, at idle its pretty quiet.

[Morne]

Don't forget that you got 10 DR licenses for FREE with your previous VRay licenses (VRay 1.5 and VRay 2.0). You can still UPGRADE those DR licenses with 3.0 for much cheaper than buying new Render Nodes!

[artmaknev]

Okay, I got a new idea, and would like to hear your response before I go ahead with this!

It seems that there is enough room to make 3 powerful render nodes inside ikea helmer by doubling the height of each node for good airflow, so instead of 6 x 4 core nodes, I am thinking about doing 3 x 8 core nodes. It is possible with the new Asrock x99 mini-ITX motherboard that supports 8-core i7-5960x and 6-core i7-5820K, also it supports the 18 core single Xeon cpu. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157588

RAM - I think up to 64GB (2 x 32GB sticks)

For airflow, I am thinking about adding 140mm fans, at the front and back (maybe 120mm on the back), or maybe watercooling (single 120mm fan).

Anyway, attached are some sneak previews of the prototype.

Let me hear your opinion!

[artmaknev]

Also, I was working on another prototype made from aluminium t-slot design and plexiglas covers, but I kind of stopped because it will be too heavy to ship...

This design can be modular and stock up, and can support any size motherboard tray, so 3 motherboards with Dual Xeon 2699 v3, no problem!

maybe I can make a DIY plans for it only, just like with the lasercut files, but not sure if there is any interest now.

[3LP]

Ah ha, getting 5960x in there sounds like a great plan!
Would it be possible to get some corsaire h100 in there as well?

Stan

[Morbid Angel]

You need to make them as compact at this. 4 nodes each supports dual xeon of you choice max 192 gb of ram

[artmaknev]

You need to make them as compact at this. 4 nodes each supports dual xeon of you choice max 192 gb of ram

that's cool! not sure if those cpu coolers will handle any type of rendering though, very low form factor probably just for web servers.

[Morbid Angel]

that's cool! not sure if those cpu coolers will handle any type of rendering though, very low form factor probably just for web servers.

I have 16 units for rendering of this exact model - works fine

[artmaknev]

Ah ha, getting 5960x in there sounds like a great plan!
Would it be possible to get some corsaire h100 in there as well?

Stan

nope... only single fan 120mm cooler, h100 is double

[artmaknev]

I have 16 units for rendering of this exact model - works fine

wow nice! I guess its one of those Xeon-D 1540s or something like that with low clock speeds 1.8Ghz - 2.4Ghz to keep the temperature low