Render Farm?

[barton]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm just about to buy a couple of new computers to join a couple that I already have to make a render farm. I am new to distributed rendering and I will be using 3ds max 2009 and vray 1.5sp2 for the rendering and intend on using vray distributed rendering to set it all up.

 

I will be rendering a small animation and the 2 computers that I have now are:

 

1. desktop - intel quadcore q6600 , 8gb ram, 64 bit, windows vista ultimate

2. hp hdx laptop - dual core, 4gb ram, 64 bit, windows vista ultimate

 

The 2 new render farm computers I intend to get will have: intel i7 860, 8gb ram and basically just low cost for everything else. They will be used only as a render farm for now.

 

My questions are these:

 

A. Given that the 2 computers I already have are running vista 64 bit, should I install vista 64 bit on the new render farm computers or is it fine to use windows 7 or even xp?

 

b. With the 2 new computers are there any other important things to consider? ie graphics card, hdd etc etc? it is my understanding that for render farms the cpu and ram are the most important and everything else doesn't really matter..is that right?

 

c. Is that a good choice for the 2 new computers? Or would the i7 920 be a better option?

 

d. Because the ram on the hdx laptop is only 4gb would I be better off leaving it our of the render network? I read somewhere that in vray settings the dynamic memory limit should only be set to as much as the amount of ram in the computer with the least ram in the farm....which would be the laptop as all the others would have 8gb. Or would having the extra 2 cores from the laptop be of more benefit than having to not use 4gb ram from all the other machines?

 

Anyway, I know there are a few questions here but I would love to hear your response!!

 

Cheers

[ihabkal]

a- any flavor of windows x64 will work no problem, go with 7 though

b- cpu and ram are most important yes.

c- i7 920 will allow you to upgrade to 12GB ram if you get a mobo tha thas 6 slots for the ram. 860 is dual channel so you're stuck with 8 maximum (or if you are super rich you can get 4GB sticks

d-most scenes will not need 8GB, unless you add a lot of library high poly items. landscaping, cars...etc.

you will find that in time your notebook will become your work machine while the others are rendering an animation.