computers for renderfarm

[gilicom]

Hello all
we are using p4 lga wih 512 mb ram for our small renderfarm
we are about to buy some new computers.
can anyone tell me if an duel xeon 3.0 ghz with 1 g ram will render faster then 2 lga 3.0 ghz with 512 mb ram each.
those computers will be used only for rendering.

[Viscacha]

I have not run the test you specifically asked but our farm is 3.0ghz single processors with 2 gigs of ram, (around 40 machines) while our workstations are Dual opterons with the same amount of ram and the duals are faster but not twice as fast, for the cost we could get more horsepower from the single processors because we could buy more. The biggest suggestion, I would make to you is uping your ram to at least 2G. When you run out of ram your processing times goes really slow. Plus ram is not that expensive any more. Hope that helps. On a side note, once the single processors get old it is easier to sell or get ride of them than an old dual processor. (at least in our experience)

[gilicom]

Thank you for the reply
I think that i will do what you suggested me..
can you specify render times for the duel xeon vrs the single proccecor?
gili

[Syclone1]

Thank you for the reply
I think that i will do what you suggested me..
can you specify render times for the duel xeon vrs the single proccecor?
gili

If you search the forum there are a couple good threads comparing the Xeon's to the Opteron's that have alot of good info in them.

-dave

[Morbid Angel]

i can only say this: any dual box is better then single...but for any dual box you will need correspondant ram. So if you get dual xeon get atleast 2 gb ram.

[Viscacha]

True any dual is better than a single, but also more expensive and not as fast as 2 singles each with 2G of ram. At least in the test we have run in our office.

[percydaman]

yeah its not going to be as fast, but I still think its a better value. Single processors mean double the machine in every way EXCEPT for the actual second processor. Thats more of everthing which means more space, power, heat and so on. That was a very important variable here where I work, where we just purchased 20 dual 3.0 ghz machines for a renderfarm.

[gilicom]

Dave , if my post bothers you in any way please move to the next post or continue do whatever you do.
Vicacha have exectly the same specs that i was looking to compare and that is : single lga vrs dual xeon, that is exectly what i needed ,not opteron and which dual is better.

[RErender]

dave was trying to help you gilicom

There have been a couple threads in the last week or two that had good numbers comparing all sorts of systems....

[Viscacha]

Percy, I agree on the heat and power issue we have blown several fuses while getting the machines setup and balancing the loads and our server closet has extra cooling but when they were in another room, it was really hot. The main reason we use singles (for rendering farm) is because we are a large architecture firm and the general staff uses singles for Construction documents. It allows us to rotate our machines to the floor keeping the ones in our farm as the lastest processors. Meaning when we get a new hire we give them one of our machines from the farm and order a new faster machine for us. Yes yes we CG people are greedy that way. But having that system in place we have noticed 2 singles render faster than our duals. I will try to post some numbers this week for anyone who is interested with a sample file we used. I do not really get passionate about the differences between Intel and AMD.
20 dual machines sounds like a nice farm Hey on a side note have you been able to get all 20 to use DR at the same time? We seemed to only get about 7 or 8 running max but we have not went to version 12 yet.

[percydaman]

we are only now switching to beta sometime this week, so Im sure Ill be neck deep in DR issues...lol

We purchased the farm for animation, so utilizing them for DR is not as high on our list of priorities. I dont think Ive done a render at 3-4k or lower that took more then a few hours.

[Syclone1]

Dave , if my post bothers you in any way please move to the next post or continue do whatever you do.

Uh well for the record I was just trying to help you out due to the threads that I mention are quite long as theres alot of opinions and benchmarks posted in them and if you somehow find my suggestion offensive or what ever then no problem, Ill know in future to ignore you and your posts in the future....

-dave

[gilicom]

I think that dual is also better because pf the heat and space savings,and that is why its important to know the exect time diffrence between them
gili

[RErender]

lol

[CCS]

All good advice from vrayers more knowledgable than I.

I ended up doing a bit of a twist on the above. I understand duals are faster, better, etc. My main machine is a jacked up dual. For my additional render slaves though, I've been getting Dell refurbs. P4/HT, 3.0GHz, 1GB RAM, etc... Around $650 as I recall. Great priceower IMO.

Plus, they're real small footprint. 4700C I think is the number. I want some more of them too.

Based on DR tests, they seem to clock in at about 70% the speed of my dual AMD w/ 2GB RAM.

FWIW.....