Amen

Could you mean this? https://www.presenzvr.com/ from those guys? http://www.nozon.com/

Have you decided yet? I would go for this https://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-1461526. If you have a better budget get a 3970x. you would not need any rendernodes. One other thing about cooling. I am using a Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 on the 3970x threadripper and I do not go above 65° C when rendering. Just beware you need lower profile ram or at least 185mm space for the 14cm fans in your case.

Have a look at project manager, https://3d-kstudio.com/product/project-manager/ I am using it for six years at least and it is great. Updates are coming regularly and you get the ability to relink assets. You can preview ies files, hdris and can batch render previews of your 3d models + lots of other stuff. It is a great piece of software.

How about this one: Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-2000 You can get 700ml cartridges. This is a good resource http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/photography-articles-and-reviews/printing-paper-reviews-articles/

Something funny for me to tell... I build myself a similar configuration. At the beginning I was wondering about temps which were rising to 96°C after a few minutes. I did not go further than that and stopped the test render. Well it turns out the cpu fans work a lot better if you remove the cardboard that has been put in there to protect them during transport..... Bye, Jan

Here is my shopping list. The case is very small. And if you followed the cheap rendernode thread, it makes for a nice looking node, too. 1 Samsung SSD 960 Pro 512GB, M.2 (MZ-V6P512BW) 1 Intel Core i7-6800K, 6x 3.40GHz, boxed ohne Kühler (BX80671I76800K) 1 Kingston HyperX Fury DIMM Kit 64GB, DDR4-2400, CL15-15-15 (HX424C15FBK4/64) 1 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming, 8GB GDDR5, DVI, HDMI, 3x DisplayPort (GV-N1070G1 GAMING-8GD) 1 ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer/3.1 (90-MXGXT0-A0UAYZ) 1 Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm 1 Noctua NH-D9DX i4 3U 1 Fractal Design Node 605 (FD-CA-NODE-605-BL) 1 EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650 650W ATX 2.3 (220-G2-0650-Y3) I would go for two of thos monitors: 2 Dell UltraSharp UP2516D, 25" (210-AGUB/210-AGTW)

Have you checked, if they are scaled? That was my problem, they just did not work anymore, when they were scaled.

You can buy used ram off of ebay, too :-) It is really cheap.

Don't forget a power backup: APC Back-UPS 1400VA This is another very good option: Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T Have a look at servethehome.com. They have a good forum about networking, nas...

If you go with the 10GB Network, you should not forget that a new 8-port 10GB switch (Netgear ProSAFE XS708) cost around 900 €. you need a 10GB network card (NIC) for the workstations (Intel X550-T2) around 300 to 370 € each. If you go with the bigger Qnap Nas (TVS-1282-I5-16G) it is 2250 € plus 10Gb NIC, +2 500GB nvme SSDs (350 €), 2 1Tb SSds (300 €) and at least 4x 8TB Nas HDDs (300 €). You want the Nvme SSds if you want to be able to get the most out of the 10GB network. But it all amounts to a lot of money - around 8k €. It is future proof, though, and it should be really fast.

Have a look at this: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/items_by_series.php?CA=2&ref=header It is not really cheap. But you can have 10gb, it can run virtual machines for a license server..., and it uses tiering (ssds for often used data and hdd for less used data). If you want something cheap you could build a server using a Dell t20. Lots of information about that on the internet. And a raid is not a backup.

Have a look at the Xiaomi mi laptop. The 13 inch even has a dedicated GPU. It looks as good as a Mac without the apple, it does not show any logo. And it costs a lot less. I think you can even add a second m2 ssd.

I use the vertical mouse, too. The best thing I ever did. At the company, where I work part-time, nearly everybody got one. After a long 12 hour/day week of 3d even a vertical mouse will not help you anymore. But eight hours a day working with a mouse are not a problem anymore. I was at the point where a normal mouse was very painful to use after just a few hours. As a sidenote, my brother works at VW and he said most of the office workers get a vertical mouse if they complain about pain.

It is expensive as it is easy to use. Unreal is the other way around free (+more powerful), but it has a lot bigger learning curve. I like Lumion because it is very stable and easy to learn. I do not like Lumions upgrade policy. Each year you have to 1k $ for the newest version.

How about Laubwerk plants? Deadline as a render manager? Nvidia GTX 1070 or 1080 for gpu rendering (I know, it is not software but it speeds up previews). RailClone is very nice, but it takes time to master it. Lumion is an option if you can use it for projects? Project Manager for asset management and relinking of missing links - I like it a lot.