ChooChoo Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 I am slowly coming up to speed on my rendering. I have 3 computers which I can farm together. Mine, my wife's, and my daughters. I built all of these and they all can do some pretty good processing. I figured my rendering, prolly just like everyone else here, is the drag in production. I am already hooked up to my wife's which is right beside mine, with firewire and I have no complaints about the speed. My daughter's is the question. It's 50 ft away as far as the cable routing will go. I know there is length limitations, but I was wondering if I could get some clarity. I think this place, some people would have something like this setup already. I can firewire, or crossover cable to my ethernet card. Firewire seems to have the limitation, but right on the border, like 15 m's which I might be able to make that stretch. That would be 400 mbs if I read correctly. And gigabit, which could get me 1000 and maybe longer distance. Is that correct? Understand, I don't want the bandwidth just for giggles. I have a master plan! Eventually, hopefully, I can configure my house up so I can have toys everywhere, but I know that gets me into different hardware setups like gigabit routers and such. This is just comp to comp, no router. Any suggestions? Firewire OK with the right cable (and which) or crossover cat5e? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e-YELLOWCABS.COM Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 hi I'm not an expert but, last quarter I tried to setup a micro network rendering farm with: 1 bipro xeon 2.8 2 gig ram 1 bipro xeon 2.8 1 gig ram 1 bipro opteron270 2 gig ram 1 qx6700 2 gig ram ( my new beast) Guess what? I did not have such good results because the computers were too different in their speeds. My quad does better alone than with his little friends ! The closest your computers are (type of cpu, ram)the better it is. pierre:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyca Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 hi actualy, the processor type is not relevant, if your network is well done. 50ft is just 15 meters, so if you have a correct switch ( -/+ 200 us dollars for 4-8 ports), every aded computer should bring you something. as little it is. i've used cinema4d xl in network rendering, with those old colored iMacs (first generation) had 20 of them, and i can tell you their was pretty fast together, and this was 6 years ago :-) and i also did it with after-effects. this is just a matter of networking them good. good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 Networking is usually by CAT5 cable, and there isn't an issue with distance within a house. I have CAT5 running from my basement to my attic (floor 3) where my router is, then back down to the main level (floor 1) and it is fine. Mine is 10/100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 If you want to use gigabit speed, you'll technically need cat6 cable. I'm not sure of the price of a 4-8 port gigabit switch, so the increased cost might not outweigh the speed benefit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 If you want to use gigabit speed, you'll technically need cat6 cable. Will a gigabit router work at that speed if ANY machine connected to it is slower? I think I read that recently, but I'm not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 With a router, hub or switch you do not need a crossover cable. Use a crossover when going directly between 2 computers or hub-to-hub when the hubs don't have an uplink port. BTW, you don't need Cat6, you can use Cat5 but the recommendation is usually that you can choose 5e or 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChooChoo Posted April 28, 2007 Author Share Posted April 28, 2007 That's what I was going to do is the comp to comp setup. I already have two connected and have other ports to spare. I'm pretty sure both comps that I want to hook up have gigabit cards. I figured I would go for the gigabit, but the firewire on my 2 existing computers was a snap. I'm sure I have to do some in-depth reading on how to set it up for the gigabit if I remember correctly from hooking up my original 2. 400 compared to 1000. I can definitely use that bandwidth up no problem. 100 is way too slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 Will a gigabit router work at that speed if ANY machine connected to it is slower? I think I read that recently, but I'm not sure. As far as I know, it doesn't make a difference what speed is hooked up to it. Of course a gigabit router only makes a sense if you have other machines that are gigabit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted April 29, 2007 Share Posted April 29, 2007 I have BB setup thru a VPN with Systems here, 10 more in an office 50 miles away and 6 more machines in an office in Europe that I can use. and I have machines in the remote and overseas office that render faster per frame then I do with any of the 10 local machines. It all is really based on how large the scenes are, and what you are tring to render. if you are using DR to render then the slower machines really do slow you down, but if your doing a 5,000 frame animation, then all the machines will help out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted April 29, 2007 Share Posted April 29, 2007 I was just talking to a guy who does corporate networking while we watched our kids play soccer. He said that with regular ethernet cables (cat5 or cat6) you can go 1000 feet, but beyond 400' - 500' you start to get data loss and other problems. So if you're going farther than that use a router to keep the signal strong. He said the new networking his company is putting in for customers is copper based and is cat7. And that the next step is possibly to use existing electrical supply systems to carry data. That's a pretty big installed network, the power grid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChooChoo Posted April 29, 2007 Author Share Posted April 29, 2007 We need a "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" kinda guy to do gorilla grunting sounds about new technology coming up or cool things people do with it. My other post I did on the wiring kinda goes hand in hand with this thread a little. Can firewire not be used between computers without the router switching stuff? Maybe I'm too paranoid about stuff being too complicated to switch over. It's new territory for me. I have a router, but only at the 100 speed which wouldn't harm the rendering stuff I guess. I don't plan on going over 100' total anywhere in the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted April 29, 2007 Share Posted April 29, 2007 100 speed should be fine. I have some systems at gig, some at 100 and the VPN connections are below 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChooChoo Posted April 29, 2007 Author Share Posted April 29, 2007 OK, the noob here found out if you plug end a into computer and end b into router and disable firewire, the whole thing works LOL. Thanks everyone, time to play! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 And that the next step is possibly to use existing electrical supply systems to carry data. Makes sense to do it that way. The network's already there. I wonder what kinds of speeds you'd get though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 Makes sense to do it that way. The network's already there. I wonder what kinds of speeds you'd get though. It's not the speed, its the amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 the problem comes when you need to pass the data thru transformers and other electrical equipment. Thats the problem Commonwelth Edison (Exelon) has been having to create their own Highspeed Broadband system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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