I know this topic gets done every couple of weeks and I seem to have read every single one of them, but i have a choice to make and i cant decide.
Its dead simple really, i have the choice of 8 P4 3ghz + 1gig ram or
4 X2 4.2Ghz + 2 gig ram.
The reason i’m asking is that i read somewhere on google that its the number of cpu’s in a farm that count not the power of the cpu’s, this has caused me a lot of head scratching and completely thrown me.
Steve,
Personally I’d go with the 4 X2 4200 + 2 gig ram. The render times of a x2 4200 should be half (or less) that of a P4 3Ghz, and the 2gig of RAM will allow you to render more complex scenes, whereas the P4s with 1 gig may well fall over. On top of that, it’ll be less maintenance and less power consumption. Let us know how you get on.
thats with vantagecomputers.co.uk, yep it includes build costs, already got the network cards, they were £8 each or there abouts.
not sure on OS yet, I’ve got XP 64 bit on my main workstation, mainly due to 4gig of ram, and i cant say i’m too impressed with it. I’ll probably go with XP pro, buy it from ebay, about £60 a licence. Not looked at linux, and i would’nt really know where to start with it to be honest.
What sort of problems have you had withXP 64 bit - driver issues? I’ve specified it on my new workstation from Scan Computers, which I should be getting at the end of this week, so I’m hoping it’s going to be reasonably problem free.
I’ve only had driver issues with my camera, its a sony cybershot F828, and the usb drivers wont install, as yet sony hav’nt got any updated drivers yet.
Other problems are,
1. blue screen of death for no apparant reason, this has happened about 4-5 times since i’ve had the machine (2 months). Always produces a corrupt error report aswell, so microsoft cant read it. Its never happened when doing any work though, only when idle.
2. Max and MS Outlook dont get on, in fact i’ve found outlook is sometimes unusable when max is open, if i want to type a message i have to shut max down first.
3. Max seems to hang for a very long time when i start it up, it loads all the pluggins ok then just hangs for 2-3 minutes, seem like ages.
There is the advantage of being able to access all of the ram on board though, the 64 bit machine can handle scenes that my dual 3.2 xeon just runs out of memory on.
Also, looking forward to the 64bit version of vray, (think max will need to be 64 bit aswell though) there should be a decent increase in rendertimes when that comes out.
SteveC.
I dont think there is a big difference in price. I´m looking at a dual dualcore opteron gight now. I pay 12500 swedish kronor for it. don know the curency but its not far away from yours I think.
Nice idea, just checked it out, i could buy 1 Dual dual core opteron 265 with 4gig ram for around £300 less than what i’m paying for 4 X2 4.2ghz,
definately sticking with the X2’s i recon, based on that.
SteveC:
For the outlook/max problem i have that same issue and im using xp pro… the secret is to stick max on below normal priority.. its basically doesnt affect render times but allows me to use outlook when max is rendering.. however if your problem is when max is just open and not rendering then obviously the priority thing wont help (I dont think)
I just put together a new render node last week. I first looked at using a Shuttle with an X2 proc but didn’t care for the reviews I was reading on the chassis. I was also interested in getting the nodes away from my work area and into the server room. So I went with a 1U Tyan package. It ended up around $1,300(US). The Tyan server box came with the MOBO, PSU and CPU heat sink, CD-ROM and on-board video. So all I need to add was the CPU, RAM and HD. From the time I open the first box to the time I started installing the OS was about 15 minutes. I had the OS and apps done in about an hour. No problems whatsoever. My only complaint is that the system is REALLY LOUD!!! When I flipped on the power, everyone in my wing prairie dogged and gave me that “WTF is that” look. Even my system administrator said “you’re NOT going to put THAT THING in MY server room!” Anyway, it’s in the server room happily rendering away. It’s pretty fast too. Haven’t done benchmarks yet.
that trick you mentioned has got to be worth giving a try Daforce, i’ll give it a go today, see what happens.
Pixel Jockey, thats a sleek little thing, never thought about those, I just automatically assumed they would be mega expensive so i did’nt bother, are they really that noisy? My dual xeon is very noisy, once the new mahines come its getting moved with the slaves in to another room out of the way.
i’ve been asked to price up a small farm for work - my boss was like, “the IT guys have got a few old machines lying around, you could probably just use those”
i had to explain to him that a couple of 8 year old PIII’s probably wouldn’t make much of a difference to productivity!
i think i might borrow your spec and put forward the prices from vantage for a couple of those bad boys…
have you ordered yet? i’d be interested to know how you get on…
If you hav’nt oredered yet, I found somewhere cheaper so your in luck, an online store called acmw.co.uk, i got the following spec for £522.00 per machine, including building, vat and delivery.
X2 4.2 Ghz with Nforce mobo
2gig ram
80 Gig HD
CD-DVD rom
Floppy
Gigabit Lan card
Onboard sound and graphics
spoke to a chap called Alan in the trade sales dept, give em a go, tell em a bloke called steve just ordered 4 of the above and you want the same deal
It turns out the Tyan system I put together was TOO LOUD for my system administrator. It is REALLY LOUD!!! I looked up the specs on the (5) 40x40x28mm Sunon cooling fans.
15,000 RMP
24 CFM
55.5 dBA
Five fans running at 55.5 decibles! Ouch! If sound is not a problem I’d highly recommend the configuration. It’s a great 1U setup. Since it’s been banished from the server room I’m going to return the Tyan barebone part and get a 4U rackmount chasis and a nForce4 mobo. It’ll actually be a little cheaper than the Tyan barebone. Although setup time will be longer.
Well…the slaves we recently got sound like a powerplant too…but that´s what you got a server room for, no ?? Safe Powersupply, Autoclimate and get out the noise…
and I seem to have read every single one of them, but i have a choice to make and i cant decide.