Beginning Architectural Visualization Studio

[guppy]

I want to start a one man Architectural Visualization studio. I need advice on what hardware I should get. I will be rendering large still renderings and short fFly-Throughs. I would like a small render farm and two monitors. I work with Max, Mental Ray and Photoshop on P.C and dont have a budget yet.

Any suggestions and options will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[chiquito]

mmmm sounds complicated.... I would advice you not to get into spending before you can count on some real income, (perhaps you are workin fine, I asume this as you said you do not have a budget?). If you do a quick review of the cost of your render farm, the life it has, and the difference you will make with it, either you will have to work some very long hours or you will realise that you wont be making a lot of money for the next months. I would recomend you to render with a single machine, and if the job requieres a special timing or size, outsource the renders with a render farm on line, depending on the arrangement you have with your clients, you can pass this cost to them. pass the renders to be done to places where your costs are lower, geographically speaking. Compare this outsorced rendering pricings to the pricing you would get by doing them on your render farm, and see if it hepls you.

Another option would be to offer your render farm to freelancers or people you know, so you can get an extra dollar while your machines are not working. This will help you pay faster for your machines. Working with two monitors? I dont believe it will increase your work flow, you could be happier with them... but they just wont add much to your workflow, this if is you are on a tight budget, invest on a nice video card instead, Ram, a nice processor....Dont know if you get your machines build up for you or you buy brands, but you could check specifications on nice running machines and render nodes on boxx computers, and alienware and see how much a similar solution would cost you (just doing some thinking here) The render farm solution didnt work for me, but perhaps it does work for you,

Good luck!!

M.