New render node

[Aditya87]

hi

 

i'm kinda new to all this..thus, requiring help!!..

i'm buying this rendering node that i'm going to attach to my alienware...just want you guys to help me out in the configuration of this thing..its driving me crazzy!!..

TECH SPECS are:

Intel® Xeon® 5600 Series Westmere 32nm Quad/Six-Core CPU’s

Intel® 5500 / ICH10R

Intel® Quick Path Interconnect (QPI)

6 Channel Reg. ECC DDR3 Memory (12x DIMM Slots)

2x Serial ATA Ports (Support for RAID 0, 1 & JBOD)

2x Gigabit Network/Ethernet Ports

2x USB 2.0 Ports (Rear)

Integrated 8MB 2D Video Controller

2x Gold Efficient (92%+) Ultra High Quality 400W Power Supplies

Baseboard Management Module with IPMI 2.0 (Serial Over LAN)

Microsoft® Windows® 7 & Linux Certified (64Bit)

 

There are 2 nodes in this , both with the same config:

 

DUAL Intel® Xeon® E5620 2.40GHz 4C Processors

 

12MB Shared Level 3 Cache - 1066Mhz Memory Speed

Intel® EM64T Architecture & Execute Disable Bit

Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution with Inteli-Power

Intel® Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) @ 5.86GT/Sec

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology @ up to 2.66GHz

Intel® Hyper-Threading (HT) Technology

On-Die/Integrated Memory Controller

Advanced Smart Cache & Smart Memory Access

Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost

 

6GB (96GB Max) 1333MHz Reg. ECC DDR-3 Memory

 

6x 1GB Triple Channel Interleaved Memory Modules

6x Free Memory Slots for Future Memory Upgrade

 

High Speed 250GB Main System Hard Drive (SATA2)

 

7,200RPM Platter Rotation Speed with Data Burst Cache

Configured as a High Performance OS Drive

 

Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional 64Bit

 

Baseboard Management Module with IPMI 2.0

 

i have questions like is the memory enough or i need to go with something higher and what about the processing power..is it sufficient??...or i should look at x 5660's.....help guys!!...dont want to buying something worthless....as it is its costing me a bomb!!!...

 

besides this i'm looking to buy render cards as well....need info on that aswell...i primarily work on rhino , max and sketchup and render on vray...i'm thinking of ati fire pro cards...but the reviews that i have read so far acknowledge the quadro as a more proficient one... currently i;m using ati radeon 5870's working in xfire, they came along with my alienware( core i-7 960 3.2 ghz.... 12 gb ddr3 1666 mhz...1tb raid 0 harddisk...dual ati's 5870 2gb ram)

 

thanks in advance...

Regards,

Aditya Tognatta

[AJLynn]

Well, render nodes are all about CPU power. If you're only looking at current-generation Xeons, all you need to do is multiply the GHz by the total number of cores (4 or 6, or 8 or 12 for dual-CPU boxes) and so long as your RAM is sufficient you have a handle on how fast it renders.

 

For the time being, forget video cards, you have more than enough of them. Until you identify some GPU rendering solution you'd actually use, there's no such thing as a "render card".