Workstations

[grasshopper]

Hi folks i've got a couple of hardware question for you. I have been offered a new workstation (woo hoo) and have been given a couple of choices from the IT manager.

Option 1: 1 Dell Precision 490-Dual Xeon 5130 (2.0GHz 1333Mhz,4MB). 4Gb ram, 750W-512Mb NVIDIA Quadro FX4500

Option 2: Keep my Dell OptiplexGX620 P4 3.0GHz. 4G Ram and add. 4/5 Dell Optiplex 745MT Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13MHzz/1066MHz machines with 2Gb Ram

We currently have a variety of Dell Optiplex machines around the office i use to Netrender through backburner at night but it can be a pain waiting for people to go home to start renders and for the big single frame renders i am struggeling. With option 2 the 5 Dual Core machines will be dedicated render slaves so i will be able to use DR for the single frames or use backburner for seperate frames.

Q1. Which option would you choose 1 flying machine or 5/6 (decent)work horses?

Q2. Does it matter what graphics card the slaves would have? my IT man seems to think the graphics card might be used in the processing. ( I don't)

Q3. Does anyone have any other suggestions Budget about £2500

I know it's a nice problem to have but I'm not that experience in hardware config so all advise is welcomed as i'll probably have to live with this choice for 2-3yrs.

Thanks in advance Greg

[grasshopper]

Ok maybe someone can tell me this.

How much quicker is a dual Xeon than a Core 2 Duo? I checked Tom' s hardware CPU chart but the xeon doesn't feature.

[kimgar]

we recently had the choice of upgrading the farm or our workstations, the choice was simple - upgrade the workstations!
as i went from a P4 to core 2 duo the impact on my everyday workflow was tremendous!

one of these bastards rendered faster than our whole farm together, so we got one extra core 2 duo for day rendering, adding an occasional ninja render on my colleagues machines, things are pretty good

as far as i know, a slaves graphic card amounts to nada

[Blitterswitch]

I have mentioned in a previous post the systems I have setup recently:

I have just built myself a renderfarm on a budget and have used AMD.

My main workstation is:
AMD X2 4600+ (oc to 2.7ghz from 2.4ghz)
3gb DDR2 667 Ram
256mb Ati Radeon 1950pro
£450circa

The rendernodes are:
2x X2 3800+ & 1x X2 4600+
Each with 2gb DDR2 667 ram
Each cost about £200

The setup will render out the current benchmark scene in about 2mins 10secs using DR.

Just for reference, a AMD X2 4600+ is the equivilent to a 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo but it is about half the price. I know this because I also have a 20" iMac with a 2.16ghz Core 2 Duo and the benchmark comes out about the same time as the 4600+

Hope this helps in some way.

[jacksc02]

or put all your money into a dual quad xeon like I have done and watch the benchmark fly in a little over 1min. Well worth it!

[Blitterswitch]

I would agree that if you have the £3500+ for a properly spec'ed dual quad core then you should go for it. But for my money the renderfarm setup offers a better ratio between cost & performance.

My setup cost about £1100 and renders the benchmark in 2mins 10secs
The setup which jacks02 mentions will cost upwards of £3500 and renders in 1min 10secs or so.

so although it is twice as fast it is also 3 times more expensive.

The single system route would definitely cause the least headaches though

[jacksc02]

i can understand the cost point of view, but just being able to do test renders in no time at all will pay for itself as you wont be sitting around doing nothing for 10mins while a rendering is crawling.

[Blitterswitch]

Agreed, I think that your argument is definitly the winner in a production environment. I think though that for personal setups at home you couldn't go far wrong following my example. :P

[jacksc02]

my xeon is at home

[Blitterswitch]

grrrrr, no fair.
I have just bought a house so a £3k comp wouldn't fly with my gf.
I am looking to save up the cash for another comp purchase in 12 months time and I would like to think that the new AMDs would be finally out by then!

[ene.xis]

grrrrr, no fair.
I have just bought a house so a £3k comp wouldn't fly with my gf.

i sure know that feeling!
fortunately i ve got a pile of work as freelance and i was able to "change" her mind


nevertheless i went down the cost/performance route and decided to buy a q6600!

i m veryy hapy with it!i ll be benchmarking it pretty soon!

[grasshopper]

Thanks for your input folks but it's been taken out of my hands and we'er going with the 5 dedicated render nodes and a new graphics card for my work station.

I was leaning that way anyway as i think this is a good compromise, it will give me a better workflow in realtime, I can DR with 4 core 2 duo's or send individual frames to each node.

I certainly won't be complaining either way, well not for a wee while anyway

PS. We couldn't consider building a setup as our IT man likes to get everything through dell to increase our buying power and get the 3yr onsite warranty crap.