Recycling old machines for RF

[Sketchrender]

Advise please.

 

I use a Dell precision 690, 24gb ram gtx 470 GC, good enough for everyday 3D modelling. I am happy with that.

 

My question is , I have 2 other Dell precision 690's and T7400 for rendering only.

Is it possible to build a single machine from there three to have a stand alone render machine.

They weigh a tonne, and eat electricity and take up a large amount of space.

 

Money is an issue, ie I would rather not spend any if at all possible.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Philip

[Jason Matthews]

Sorry but there is no way to make one machine out of those components. You are limited to the motherboard CPU sockets. You can build a single unit like the Helmer (drawer unit from IKEA) http://carpitecture.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-deluxe-ikea-helmer-render-farm.html

Something like this will allow you to consolidate boxes into one.

[Sketchrender]

Jason

 

Thank you, I thought that was the answer, but I presuming the cost would be too much.

 

If it ain't broken I suppose.....

 

Thanks again.

 

phil

[Dimitris Tolios]

"Recycling" as in re-configuring a number of machines into one is not possible, and probably won't be for a loooong time.

You could "retire" similar machines, using parts of them to strengthen another - say HDDs, RAM or GPUs if you are using GPGPU computing, but that's it.

 

So you won't "recycle", you need to replace if you want something faster.

 

Your computers are "old"ish, but not rediculusly slow. A fast FX-8350 or 3770K (or older 2600/2700K if you can get your hands on one) machine will be close in performance to the sum of those, but not enough to make it worthwile. It is more of matter of space and energy savings than performance.

Yes, newer machines will be far more efficient, but simple payback time due to energy costs alone is up to you to calculate. Depends greatly on region and average running times per day.

 

The only reason to switch machines altogether would be projects that would force you to upgrade RAM in your nodes, where having machines which demand DDR2 ECC RDIMM etc modules usually leads to silly costs per GB in comparison to standard DDR3 UDIMMs. If what you have works for you, I would say you keep it.

 

I have to admit that in my previous office I had a T7400 w 12GB RAM and it was feeling okz, till I upgraded my home PC desktop running an O/Ced 4.6+ GHz CPU after years of using only laptops for personal stuff. Those Xeons were "sad" afterwards.

Edited May 8, 2013 by dtolios