Render Slave System specs

[schultzeworks]

Render Slave System : core i7

Thanks for all of the feedback. You guys are great!

RE: UNIX
I plan on staying away from any UNIX solutions, mostly becuase I don't want to learn a whole new OS just to save $100 on Vista, which I already use on my two other workstations. If you know UNIX / like UNIX, then yes, I'd definitely recommend you take that route.

RE: Heat
As for the heat, that is a concern. However, this case is designed for quad core + a video card -- and I am not installing a video card. I may have to upgrade the fan, but I'll play it by ear.

RE: core i7
I researched this core i7, but ran into two major price issues.
1) The i7 is a newer and pricier chip. The new 3.2 ghz i7 will cost you $1,000, so I passed.
2) The new motherboard chipset to support the i7 adds $350 to the cost of the shuttle case
3) The RAM required for a core i7 is DDR3, but was only about +10%

My goal was to get the lowest cost per CPU core/cycle so here's the comparison of just the CPU and case:
1) Core i7 3.2 + case = $1450
2) Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz + case = $400

Your comparing the cheapest quad (q6600) to the most outragous i7 (965). The i7 920 can be had for under 300 bucks compared to the $1000 extreme counterpart. The i7 is MUCH MUCH MUCH faster than the q6600 (around 60% from what I have tested) even though its clock speed is only 200mhz faster. Your going to get around the same price/performance ration with the i7 I would think. The only problem is the fact that you would have to spend money on a video card for the i7 machine. Your probably doing the right thing by going with the Q6600 if you want to save money but its not much.

You are absolutely right. So, damn (and thank you!) and I wish I knew this earlier. However, the goal was to add these render slaves incrementally, so I'll use the Shuttle as test-bed and then expand with the system you suggested. Thanks again for the time and great advice.

[remon_v]

Re: Render Slave System specs

Sounds way better then the Q6600 system for not even 200 bucks extra. Only u don't need vista ultimate I think.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Render Slave System specs

Sounds way better then the Q6600 system for not even 200 bucks extra. Only u don't need vista ultimate I think.

If you want to remote in to the slave, then you would at least need Vista Business if not Ultimate. With something like this, you really don't want to set it up if you can't remote in.

[jrharvey]

Re: Render Slave System specs

Sounds way better then the Q6600 system for not even 200 bucks extra. Only u don't need vista ultimate I think.

If you want to remote in to the slave, then you would at least need Vista Business if not Ultimate. With something like this, you really don't want to set it up if you can't remote in.

Very true and remoting in can save money on a monitor or save time having to reach around and plug it in when you need it.

[remon_v]

Re: Render Slave System specs

ahh I see... isn't VNC doing the same thing?

[Micha_cg]

Re: Render Slave System specs

Sounds way better then the Q6600 system for not even 200 bucks extra. Only u don't need vista ultimate I think.

If you want to remote in to the slave, then you would at least need Vista Business if not Ultimate. With something like this, you really don't want to set it up if you can't remote in.

I use XP64 and the remote works too. Maybe you get it cheap.

I found Mandriva Linux 64bit that looks quite interesting.

http://www2.mandriva.com/

ftp://ftp.free.fr/mirrors/ftp.mandri...el/iso/2009.1/

Also Wine 64 is included

http://www2.mandriva.com/linux/overview/

Doe's anybody use a 64bit Linux for a spawner? Can a remote desktop connection between Windows XP64 master and a Linux slave be started?

[jrharvey]

Re: Render Slave System specs

You could also take a look at the Phenom II line of quad cores. You can get a 3ghz CPU for the same price if not cheaper. They perform better than the Q6600, can overclock higher and you can get a CPU/motherboard combo for around $210.

[remon_v]

Re: Render Slave System specs

yeah that's what I said also.... I have a phenom II. it's cheaper then the i7 and the mobo is also twice as cheap

[jrharvey]

Re: Render Slave System specs

yeah that's what I said also.... I have a phenom II. it's cheaper then the i7 and the mobo is also twice as cheap

Yes, it is much cheaper. The i7 is about 33% faster with rendering but the Phenom is about 50% of the price so when you think about it, you can get 2 for the same price and get better performance overall.

[schultzeworks]

New system is in

The shuttle and parts just arrived from http://www.newegg.com and everything went together very smoothly. If you haven't built your own computer (I haven't in many years) it was much easier than I imagined. What probably helped a lot was the Shuttle's inclusion of so many typically separate components like the built-in audio, video, networking, and CPU cooler.

The system has also been very quiet and cool, which was another nice surprise. My dual core laptop makes more noise during renders than the quad core Shuttle PC.

One concern I had was the ability to see the display -- since this machine was going to be mostly a render slave and I did not want to keep much hooked up besides power and Ethernet. It was a big pain to switch the cables for video, mouse, and keyboard, especially if it as just for 3 minutes to approve or start a windows update, so I didn't want to do that very often. The next option was a KVM switch (keyboard-video-mouse) but good ones cost over $100 and you had to keep both computers relatively close together. I then investigated using Windows Remote Desktop. I got it working GREAT on two Vista machines, but then hit a wall with the Shuttle, which was using Vista Home Premium OEM ($99) -- which has no remote desktop at all. It turns out that Remote Desktop only works between Vista Business or Ultimate, and those cost another $100. Damn!

The solution I found was the free version of http://www.logmein.com located at https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/Its a remote access browser plug-in you load onto both computers (almost any version of Windows; i.e. Vista, XP, or Server 2003 (32 or 64 bit), and Windows ME, NT4, and 2000.) You then can control the slave computer from any other computer -- and pretty much administer anything you need to. It works great, so now I can hide away the Shuttle Render Slave and check its display anytime.

The total cost for the machine was $705, including tax and shipping. That gave me a Core-2-Quad CPU at 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, a 300GB HD at 7200 RPM, and a DVD-CD ROM drive. Thanks to some good tips here, I will get the Core i7 for the next Shuttle Slave. I'm also going to build a tower workstation and will share those specs later.

[schultzeworks]

Kudos to ASG for the DR Spawner

I almost forgot to say thanks to the folks at ASGvis for doing an amazing job on the DRSpawner application, which was the whole point in building this Render Slave machine in the first place. I was able to get that up and running so easily I was stunned. A quick scan of a few paragraphs in the manual was all that I needed to get it going. Then it worked! My jump in render speed, going from 2 cores to 6 cores is +260%, or almost triple the performance. Beautiful job, guys.

I can also appreciate the quality of the programming because I tried the same thing a few years back with Studio MAX and it was a sad and cruel joke. Just never worked.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Render Slave System specs

Great Dave...Glad you're up and running, and thanks for the kind words on the Spawner...a certain amount of the credit goes to the Chaos Group as well. The only "gotcha" about the spawner is that Light Cache calculations are not shared, they are only performed locally. So if you're going to rely on DR all the time, then you may want to transition towards DMC while using the spawners. Depending on how intense the LC calcs are, or how intense the scene is, DMC might be faster than LC. Just thought that would be some useful info.

[remon_v]

Re: Render Slave System specs

aahh nice to know Damien.... I use the DR alot. Only sometimes problems with 1 laptop because it's on wireless