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Building new Renderfarm / Advice

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:22 pm
by JorisMX
Hey Folks,

I just received the information for a renderfarm which purpose it will be to eat through highres maxwellscenes with alot of power.
I figured I'll post some details in case something conflicts with how a farm should be setup and configured to handle this task.

Here's the specs I just got from our Hardware man

Image

I'm currently running Snow Leopard with Maya on the workstation and will use the new Network system to monitor the Farm from the workstation.
Any comments, hints tips? Incompabilities or things I should watch out for?

Joris

Re: Building new Renderfarm / Advice

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 6:17 pm
by numerobis
nice system... 12.700€ w/o VAT :shock:

so this is 4 dual proc systems with 12gb ram and 500gb hdd in one rack with infiniband?!? ~3200€/node?

Re: Building new Renderfarm / Advice

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 6:44 pm
by JorisMX
I dont pay for it I just get to shoot mxs files at it :D

Still trying to figure out the right Linux distribution... Newest suggest was SUSE

Re: Building new Renderfarm / Advice

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:21 pm
by JorisMX
JorisMX wrote:Still trying to figure out the right Linux distribution... Newest suggest was SUSE
http://maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopi ... 16&t=35721
12.700€ w/o VAT :shock:

so this is 4 dual proc systems with 12gb ram and 500gb hdd in one rack with infiniband?!? ~3200€/node?
Yupp thats about it, I just asked him. Big Clients need big machines ;)

Re: Building new Renderfarm / Advice

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:49 pm
by dmeyer
What kind of networking?

Don't forget 4 node licenses...

Those CPUs are nice, they'll run around a 2800 in benchwell.

Re: Building new Renderfarm / Advice

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:15 pm
by JorisMX
Yup Licenses are on the List too of course :)

I'm no huge Hardware nerd but the Techguy said he would pair the outputs from the workstation to one dedicated switch connected to this Server
Sounds good to me. Still a little worried on the linux choice

Using a Render Service would probably be a cheap alternative and much less headache.
BUT some clients just dont allow their Designs to leave the shop.