Eight Core rendering node

[Spiering]

The office I work for is considering buying an 8-core rendering node, and I have to come up with an idea of what to buy and how to put it together, any suggestions??

[jackb602]

How about a Mac Pro? Buy the minimal 8-core configuration from Apple, and then add RAM or storage much more cheaply through http://www.macsales.com.

 

If you go that route, it's probably worth waiting for the Macworld Expo keynote (Jan. 15), where there's a good chance an updated Mac Pro will make an appearance.

 

Jack

[Joseph Petrino]

My office bought one from XI about two months ago.

 

Very reasonably priced and fast.

[DavidR]

What software are you using? If it's Windows-based, get the fastest dual-processor quad-core Xeon node with a small, cheap HD, and enough memory for your scenes -don't go crazy with memory you don't need -It's all about processing power. Since the CPUs are the same, whether it's Dell, Boxx, HP, etc, get the cheapest. It should be well under $5000.

[F J]

how about an Intel Skulltrail ?

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Qda77RcuEc

 

[Spiering]

Hey thanks for all the past replies. The software we use is mostly Sketch-Up and Maxwell Render. We also use viz and V-ray. The 8-core would be mostly for Maxwell though. We've come to the conclusion that 11 hour renders aren't efficent and we're trying to see how to cut that time down to about an hour.

[moshenko]

I bought a Dell T5400 workstation for home recently. It's at the low end of the quad-core scale - a dual 5405 (2.0 GHz) - but it was only $2,500 (CDN) with 4GB of RAM, a Quadro FX1700 video card and XP 64. The thing is wickedly quiet as well, which is a bonus. Dell seems to be very aggressive about regaining some lost ground to HP and when I asked for a discount I was given about 20% off!

[Frosty]

What software are you using? If it's Windows-based, get the fastest dual-processor quad-core Xeon node with a small, cheap HD, and enough memory for your scenes -don't go crazy with memory you don't need -It's all about processing power. Since the CPUs are the same, whether it's Dell, Boxx, HP, etc, get the cheapest. It should be well under $5000.

 

I agree with most of this, but not "buy the fastest available" and not "get the cheapest".

 

CPU Power is important as is price. Get the most CPU Power/$ you can but do not sacrifice quality. This machine is going to run 24/7 at near 100% loads It needs to be stable above all else. When is comes to selecting the gear pick the CPU that runs your software best and has the highest performance per dollar spent. This may not be the fastest available and it may not even be a quad core. This strategy may enable you to buy two render nodes for the same amount of money and thereby have more rendering capacity.

 

When I went through this decision, Cinebench was very valuable to me as a gauge of which set up offered me the most bang for my money. I use Cinema as a rendering engine so base those results on your own software, tests, and experience.