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  • Xeon Again

    Hi all...

    The company where I am working now wanted to buy a workstation to be exclusively dedicated to render... A Dell dual Xeon 2Mb @3.2 Ghz, with 4Gb RAM, a Quadro FX1000, serial ATA 120, costing here in Spain about 10.000 Euros (that's right ).
    Then I suggested a lower configuration, like two dual Xeon @3.06Ghz, with 2Gb each, costing 5.000 each. Now I am thinking about two Blade servers Dell Power Vault at more or less the same configuration of these dual 3.06, to work as a small renderfarm (total $: 7.000)
    So, the questions are:
    1. Have you ever had some experience using those rack mounted blade servers as a render farm?
    2. Is there know problems about using this or something that could justify the worsktation choice?
    3. Could you please recommend me a configuration for this small renderfarm (2 computers, 2 proc. each), and
    4. There is something that I don't know and would like to test:
    Is the amount of cache memory important to render using VRAY? I am asking it because I know that it has a minnimum influence over scanline render. If nobody knows it we can do some tests, as I have a P4EE 3.2Ghz at the office that I can use to render.

    Thanks all!

    Joao.

  • #2
    ive heard good things about the boxx rack stuff and http://www.verari.com/ stuff

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    stupid questions the forum can answer.

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    • #3
      we bought a dual dell precision xeon a while back now...we just went for the biggest bang for buck ratio in terms of processor speed, as that seems to make the biggest difference to speed of rendering (dont know how much cache affects it though)...apart from the ram its a pretty stripped down system, the gfx card is the lowest we could get in it...as it just renders, whats the point of a monster card eh...

      one thing i've noticed is that when we push it hard for a few days on end theres certain points in the rendering when the fans come on to cool the processors...i'd make sure that what ever you get its happy to sit at 100% processor and high temperature for some time.
      Digital Progression

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      • #4
        i remember a long time ago when i did this


        basically my p3 450 with 256mb ram and using raygun for raytracing in max it took 2 weeks of rendering night and day and i thought that was amaising. (under NT 4.0 naturally)

        ---------------------------------------------------
        MSN addresses are not for newbies or warez users to contact the pros and bug them with
        stupid questions the forum can answer.

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        • #5
          Well, thanks for the answer...

          When I have some time will make a test comparison between the P4 Extreme Expensive Edition 3.2Ghz and a "normal" P4 @3.2 to see the results...
          Hope untill the end of the week I can post some results.

          regards,

          Joao.

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          • #6
            The 800 mhz fsb Xeons should be available in a month or two
            Eric Boer
            Dev

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            • #7
              Da_elf...that reminds me when we gave one of our old machines the task of a brazil (alpha) render for fun...i think stopped it at just past the 800 hour mark...poor p3 dual 450...there there, all better now
              Digital Progression

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