Gander0 Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 (edited) Hi all, I have a spare Tyan Tempest i5400XT motherboard and instead of selling it I was wondering about the options for creating a dedicated render machine. I am working from a fairly small home office and for this reason noise and space may be an issue. The 1U rackmount cases seem to have a large footprint and im guessing they are fairly noisy? Im also concerned about cooling a case like this, I presume they are meant to be in a rack with external cooling so I cant just put it in a cabinet. Also wanted to know about operating systems for a server. Can i send renders from a 64 bit machine to a server that was running windows xp for example. I am probably not going to go over four gigs of RAM for the server machine so would I need a 64bit OS otherwise? Do I need much RAM in a render machine? Any help is very much appreciated!! Cheers! Edited July 24, 2008 by Gander0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Why a rack? It's only one computer. Just get some EATX case. You'll need the Xeon chips for it, at least 4GB or FBDIMM memory (more is an option with 64-bit Windows) and the rest of the computer, of course. If it's just a render node and you have another computer for the workstation, it doesn't need a good video card. It does need a good power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Go here http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=562 and it'll give you all the info you need about compatible hardware and software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gander0 Posted July 24, 2008 Author Share Posted July 24, 2008 Many thanks for your replies! AJLynn, looks like I will just get another EATX case then. What do you think about the operating system? I am using vista ultimate on my workstation but I have a copy of XP pro (not 64bit) from a previous machine and was wondering if i could use this on the render machine without any OS compatibilty issues?(obviously won't be able to go over 4GB Ram.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ky Lane Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Id keep the nodes specs same or higher than the workstation. Nothing more annoying than setting something to render overnight, to come in the next morning to see it crashed on the 3rd frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 You could run XP32 but you'll be annoyed if you try to farm renders between 64 and 32 bit Max versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gander0 Posted July 25, 2008 Author Share Posted July 25, 2008 Ok, many thanks for your replies! Just seemed a bit steep to have to buy another vista ultimate for a machine that isn't doing aught but rendering. I guess im gonna have to deal with it if i take this course of action Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 There's also no reason you need Ultimate for this sort of thing. Why not a 64-bit install of Business? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 When I got my computer a few months ago, the shop knew Ihaw I hated Vista but sold me a copy of Vista CorpCorporate (or something like that) - which gives me XP64 as well as Vista so I have an 'easy' upgrade path. Might want to consider it. It was only a f ew dollars more and he absorbed the cost difference in the system price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gander0 Posted July 27, 2008 Author Share Posted July 27, 2008 Great stuff, thanks for those replies. I was thinking that ultimate was the only package with a disk for 64bit for some reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gander0 Posted October 3, 2008 Author Share Posted October 3, 2008 Just found out I can install my existing Vista ultimate disk on another computer so will probably take this route. I have to pay still (-10%) but its saves effort Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now