6 PC`s with vray ??? + specs help/advise

[jeanvray]

Hi guys, bare with me on this one: this is the specs.

6 X PC`S FOR RENDING FARM
Intel core 2 due E7400 2.80 ghz 3 mb 1066FSB
4 gigs of ram DDR2 800 EACH ------- does ram play a factor for a rendering farm
Media Accelerator 3100 onboard graphics
Hardrive for installation / dvd rom
Vista 32bit

I`m thinking of keeping it cheap so that every month or so i can just add/buy one more pc and add to my rendering farm. thinking in buying 6 for now i bought a rackmount rack for R20 bucks lucky me old but just need some respraying..going to lay the pc`s flat down with some space for air will be about 1500m upright

One of the above pc`s will cost me R5500 SA rands 555USD or 394 pounds

The ? is: is this ok for an home studio? is it better to go buy 2 or 3 stronger PC lets say 2 x full pc`s Quad cores 2.8 or so than 6 core 2 dues remember this pc will be strictly for rendering..not workstations

Anyways just need some advise or your thoughs i have to buy all the ps hardware from this site so i`m stuck with the hardware they sell
www.bethesda.co.za

one more question i have 1 vray dongle do i just install vray on all 6 as rending servers when i go through the intallation process..since they are only for rendering purposes and not workstations ..then use them with DB and backburner ??

Regards Jeanvray

[palibebeh]

instead of 6 dual cores buy 3 quadcores. considering network speed, packet latency etc quadcore setup will be faster and cheaper (not to mention more environment friendly ).

and as for vray - you have to install full workstation installation on your main PC, and then install DR ONLY installations on your render nodes.

good luck

[Da_elf]

i just got a q6600 render machine with 8gb ram for about under 600 USD from newegg

[richard_rosenman]

We have a rack mounted renderfarm that consists of 8 dual cores and 16 quad cores. Without question, the quad-cores are a much better buy, especially factoring in power consumption, latency, bandwidth, etc.

My first renderfarm was made up of several PC's which did the job just fine but as soon as you have more than 5-6 rendernodes, it really pays to move into a more organized rack mount solution.

-Richard

[Dschaga]

do you know this one:
http://helmer.sfe.se/ ... you would only need a vray for linux and you have your own cluster.

about hardware: if you have the budget then wait for the quads with an "s" at the end of the name. They have the same renderpower but converts less energy into heat

[krassi]

thats a nice homestudio setup
we got 7 pc here.. and i think your actual working machine ur sitting in front of can be a big monster, and the renderalves can be anything. every single crappymachine will speed up rendering or vray rt..
i think the most important thnig about the slaves is minimum 8 gig ram an as much cores as possible, one harddisk is enough, it makes just some seconds between a superduper 4 disk sas raid or one single disk if u are rendering.. but its a pain in the ass if u got a big scene and autosave takes so long ..quad cores are recommended . il look forward for 6 or 8 cores.. oohh we also got one old dual quad xeon (2,00 ghz) wich i got form ebay for litle money.. and this baby is nearly as fast as my new i720 monsterbasher..

seeya, daniel

[werticus]

We have two i7 quad core's with 12gb ram
and 4 q6600's with 8gb ram

I'm fazing out the q6600's one by one now as the i7's are more than twice as fast.