GARRY HARKIN Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Hi All... im new here My boss wants me to make enquires about hardware. He is currently applying for some Governement funding to help take his business to the next level and build a render farm... the problem is that the people who regulate the applications for the funding have told him that they cannot provide support for workstations or render farms... they can only help with servers. We are trying to find away around this problem and I suggested buying in 9pc dual core machines himself then getting the grant people to help him buy 3 high spec quad core "servers" to control the farm. The idea is that the farm will be split between 6 production staff. each pair of staff will have a server which will control a mini farm of 3 dual cores... the 3 mini farms could then be combined for large jobs... this is what we want to do to get around the funding body but does it sound realistic. Thanks in advance PS: we aint doing anything underhand... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 How do they define server? If you get a bunch of Core2 Quad boxes (prices on those are supposed to drop in 2-3 weeks) and refer to them as servers, does that count? There's not that much difference these days between server and workstation hardware anyway. You can refer to the render farm as a datacenter or something. What you probably want is Core2 Quads - twice as powerful, not twice as expensive, same space taken up, number of software licenses and way less than twice the power consumption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARRY HARKIN Posted July 11, 2007 Author Share Posted July 11, 2007 How do they define server?quote] They said it must have server operating system installed and it must have a Tape and NAS backup drive... firwall and or router... UPS battery type to suit server. What you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Okay, so if the funding makes all that cheaper than buying it yourself, oh well - it won't impair rendering. You might as well make them Xeon dual-quads. Don't bother with servers that control render farms - use something less powerful for that if you need it, and make the Xeons render boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZFact Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Okay, so if the funding makes all that cheaper than buying it yourself, oh well - it won't impair rendering. You might as well make them Xeon dual-quads. Don't bother with servers that control render farms - use something less powerful for that if you need it, and make the Xeons render boxes. They need to be server doing a server job on the surface but below the surface the are actually doing a processing job... they will do a random check to make sure the servers are doing the job they are suppose to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 I keep forgetting regulation in other countries isn't always as nonexistant as it is here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughie Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 You could have a look at HP's Blade servers. That way it will be a combined workstation/server. But importantly for you it will always be doing the server job Which government body are you applying for funding from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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