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I have been asked to get some information for my company so we can buy a three box render farm. I have searched the forums for this topic and found some good posts, however i still have some questions maybe you could help me with.

1. Whats more important in regards to maxwell , more ram or faster processor speed. I know both are very usefull but if you had to pick one what would it be. I guess having more ram would allow you to handel larger files. But does maxwell render faster if it has more ram or is that strictly processer speed?
2. Does one node license cover all the cores on a single machine wether it has 2x dual cores or 2x quad cores or 2x six cores?
3. Since this is just a render box the video card doesn't need to be a high end card does it?

Thanks in advance guys i just want to get the best box for the money not to mention make a good and informed decision on these boxses.
Gadzooks

match the ram on your servers to the ram on your workstation to ensure any scene you produce and test can be handled by all machines when sent to the queue. ram is cheap.

the processor is the muscle which any rendering engine thrives on. the processor is where you want to spend most of your budget. think of the processor as your rendering throttle. a two thousand dollar vespa compared to a two hundred thousand dollar ferrari will both get you to the same destination. the only difference is how fast you get from point A to point B.

node license covers each machine.

depending on the processor setup you choose (which should be your starting point and basis for budget), you might not even need a graphics card depending on your motherboard.

this all depends whether you plan to build each machine yourself (which is cheaper), or buy each machine pre configured.

in the case that you intend to purchase three pre configured machines, which it sounds like, processor speed comes first, ram comes second in order to handle the size of your scenes, node license will cover each box, and the video card does nothing but provide your user interface.

hope this helps. i think you need to confirm whether or not you intend to build the farm yourself, or buy the machines already built in order to get the best feedback here because there are some geeks around here that will latch onto this thread and literally confuse the shit out of you even more with technical jargon you never even knew existed.

rusteberg thanks so much for your explanation! Exactly the answers I was looking for. So i will see if i can get the fastest processors they can afford and match the ram to my workstation's ram. These machines will be purchased from a company that buy's used data center equipment. Great prices and with a 3 year warranty. I bought my workstation from them for about 2,400 dollars would have cost 6,000 new. Here is the link in case you ever want some good cheap equipment. Once again Thanks Rusteberg
Gadzooks

http://www.stikc.com/

Hi Gad,
I would personally rank the three as follow:
1) Go with the best processor money can buy - In my opinion, the processor gets updated once every 4-6 months, therefore it is really difficult to keep it up to date with this one. I know that generally Intel processors are pretty reliable. Go with either Xeon, Core i7 processors/i7 extreme processors would definitely be more than sufficient.
2) Go with a good graphics card - I did a thorough research on comparing the different graphics card out there. Personally, I would not go for the games graphics card as they are generally better in terms of performing when you are modelling. From what I've read, you should be heading towards the Workstation series graphic cards instead. Those such as Quadro 4000/5000/6000 if you have the money to spend. My past experience with rendering with them is that my graphic card never dies on me - both on modelling and rendering. I have had it for 7 months now and it has never crashed or restarted. That compared with my generic graphics card with - (similar spec processor and RAM) has caused me much grief with the Dell Preconfigured Systems (bare in mind I had a system built up to 2.6k) . I have realised that the Games Graphics Card are just not meant for visualisation works.
3) The RAM's in my opinion are the least important of the three. A 16GB RAM would be more than sufficient. In my opinion, RAM prices will always be dropping. The optimum price vs performance that you should be getting are the 4GB Modules. Considering that most PC's come with 4 slots. 16GB would be your optimum bet. At least, after a period of 6-12 months, you can easily buy the 8GB modules and turn your computer to 32GB RAM System.
4) Last but not least, if you are rendering within sketch up native programme, or are running Windows 64bit Home Premium and below, you will not be able to use beyond 16GB anyways - that is the current system which I have. So that justifies my decision to keep the RAM at 16GB. Programmes such as Rhinoceros 4 does not support more than 3.33GB of RAM unless you are using Rhinoceros 5 with 64 bit/are exporting to Maxwell Studio to set up your renders.
5) Since it is a render farm, I would save all my money against from buying/committing to unnecessary bundles such as keyboards, speakers, monitors, and put those money into Processor/Graphics Card/Stable Motherboard - which is either very costly to change or troublesome in the long run. Just get the cheapest/even second hand ones if you can land your hands on any. Those are stuff which goes on sale on Boxing Day/Christmas/Holiday Seasons, etc.


Overall, prices of workstation graphics cards are unlikely to drop over a short period of time. If you have found yourself a local dealer with a fair price, you will not lose much in the long run. That with the local warranty will definitely go a very long way. If you are not so concerned about warranty, I suggest you buy most of your stuff online. They are much cheaper anyway. Well, that's coming from the fact that prices of electronics in Australia are an absolute ridicule.

maybe you should say something about your budget... "3 boxes" can be $3000, but they also can be easily configured to $15000.

And when you say "used data center hardware", does this mean you are limited to last gen hardware? 1 year old, 2 or 3 years old?
Single boxes or rack?
Server hardware normally means Xeon (on the intel side), or is it possible to use i7 (cheaper)?
Is overclocking an option?
How much RAM is needed? Like rusteberg said, RAM is cheap these days so better buy some more and eventually upgrade your workstation too (if you need it)

It's hard to tell you something without knowing some more parameters.

rogersalph wrote:...In my opinion, the processor gets updated once every 4-6 months, therefore it is really difficult to keep it up to date with this one....

...interesting. Last Sandy Bridge-E is available since last november (~12 months now) and will be replaced in Q3 2013 or later (Ivy Bridge-E/EP) = 18-24 months

Opss! Big mistake there! Well, I did say it is based on my opinion

There was a suggestion about graphics card from rogersalph that is a bit misleading sounding. For the render nodes, you should get the lowest end graphics card you can get (if getting one at all). You only need a good graphics card for the one machine you'll actually be working on. I have 6 render nodes and didn't even purchase a graphics card for them, i'm just using onboard graphics, and that works perfectly fine.

I am not sure if getting the fastest and most expensive CPU really is the way to go. I would choose the one with the best price/speed ratio, which would be one of the better i7 I guess. Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy 6 slower machines than 3 faster ones and in the end they even perfom better together.
For the RAM I would advise to get as much as your scenes usually need (of course leave a bit room for expansion). For myself 16GB would be enough... My workstations have more, because they have to handle huge photoshop-files while running one or even several render tests.
I can agree on the graphics card. If you don't plan on doing any modelling work on these machines, try to get a mainboard with a simple graphis chip and don't get any card.
The point where I am not certain is, whether it is worth it getting a SSD hard disk. This could speed up your rendering process (since the temporery saving of maxwell is much faster) but is it worth the extra money?