Additional workstation for rendering?

[chansen]

I have my own (very small) business and have generally been fine with using my own workstation for rendering but lately have been getting backed up with one client in particular. He'd like to see about helping me invest in some sort of render farm for myself. I'm thinking that just another workstation might do the trick but not going to lie..I'm clueless if that's the way that I should approach this. If so, what would anyone recommend for that? I'd appreciate any help as I'm not technically savvy when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks!

[Nikolaos M]

Hi, 

Could you share a bit more information? As, what's your current build, the programs you use in your workflow and for rendering in particular, and of course, how much are you willing to spend on this render node. A render node for cpu rendering is completely different in philosophy than a gpu rendering machine. 

Investing in a render node is generally a good idea, but is also depends on some factors like how tight are your deadlines, how often you render (previews and final renders), if you render animations too etc. In some cases rendering your work via a render cloud would be more rational, but a local render node is often needed for delivering simple previews of the final render while you continue to work on the scene, and of course final renders without strict deadlines pushing you. 

[chansen]

Hi Nikolaos,

thank you so much for you reply. I'm currently working off of a Dell Precision 5820 Tower, processor is an Intel Xeon W-2145 CPU @ 3.70 GHZ, 64 GB RAM. I primarily work in 3ds Max with Vray, Corona, Photoshop, and Illustrator. I also utilize at times After Effects, and Premiere and occasionally Painter. I mainly do stills although on occasion I've had to do small animations.  Because of the nature of my most of my work with my clients, I tend to have to do constant tweaks to a scene, so a lot of preview work and with clients pre pandemic (and hopefully post pandemic) I would have super, super tight deadlines. This client in particular that's wanting to help invest in a render farm solution, not so much of a tight deadline kind of thing, but still, he would like to hopefully get it done faster. As far as budget, he's not so concerned about it being the least expensive as he understands that you get what you pay for , so to speak but I'd like a range so that we both can get a better grasp of cost versus benefit in the long run. Hopefully that makes sense! I really appreciate any help that you can give me with this and if you need any other info from me please feel free to ask away. 

Thank you!

[Nikolaos M]

So, the basic rendering is done with Vray and Corona. But, if you use the node for PP and AE rendering too (version 14.2 or later), the render node should also include at least a mid range Nvidia gpu for export acceleration (I guess a 2060 Super 8gb would be more than fine and it's adequate for 4k resolution videos).

The way I see it, there are two options you can pick from as general directions. The one is to build a Threadripper rig with 3 cpus to choose from, depending on the budget, and the other is to go to a cheaper but powerful enough solution, based on the 3950X.

A Threadripper node in its basic form with a 3960X (24c/48t), could be something like this: 

PCPartPicker Part List

The cost is ~ 3170$. The same node with the 3970X (32c/64t) would be around 3670$, and if your client is too kind, the 3990X version would climb up to 5420$ but with 64 cores and 128 threads smashing rendering times both in Vray and Corona.

The cheaper alternative would be a AM4 build with the 3950X, something like this: 

PCPartPicker Part List
 

You can see the comparison of these 4 cpus in Vray and Corona here and here

[chansen]

Nikolaos, thank you so much for this info and the parts lists!. The graphics card that I have for my system now is an Nvidia Quadro P4000.  Forgive my ignorance but what exactly do you mean by "Threadripper"?

[Nikolaos M]

18 minutes ago, chansen said:

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly do you mean by "Threadripper

Threadripper is a CPU family which operates with the high end desktop platform of AMD. The last group of Threadripper CPUs (3rd gen) are those I mentioned above, 3960x, 3970x and 3990x and are compatible with trx40 motherboards.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/ryzen-threadripper

[chansen]

Ah, thank you so much!

[Tommy L]

Get the fastest node you can (3990) as it will pay for itself many times over.