[Cosmasad]

Good morning friends,

Wondering if anyone is using the render farms from Boxx? Looking seriously at buying one and wondering if anyone can comment.

Thank you.

Cosmasad

[rusteberg]

Tom Rusteburg
Wanderplay Studios

A client whom I've never worked with before sent me this sketch Monday evening, 7-8ish, and said he needed it Wednesday morning to print out at 8ft x 4ft. That left a day to model the scene, render it out at more than 10K wide, and do post work. Here's what I handed off a couple of hours ago at over 10K in rendered length and less than a day’s turnaround time. I'm glad I have these metal things with the word BOXX on them in the studio.

You can't go wrong with BOXX.... http://boxxtech.com/customers/customer_reviews.asp

[brodie_geers]

They've always seemed pricey to me.

-Brodie

[Half Life]

If I could afford them I'd have 2 in my studio right now... it doesn't get much better in terms of build and component quality.

Best,
Jason.

[Cosmasad]

We have some very fussy architects and I don't want to wait forever to get results.

Thanks, Jason. You're always helpful.

[brodie_geers]

If I could afford them I'd have 2 in my studio right now... it doesn't get much better in terms of build and component quality.

Best,
Jason.

What would separate a Boxx from a Dell with similar specs?

-Brodie

[Half Life]

Well, for one thing -- at the high-end you can't get a dell with the same specs... and what you can get from Dell that does have the same specs is near the same price.

On pro level gear the cost really doesn't fluctuate from vendor to vendor more than a few hundred (if you account for extra software and third-party certifications).

And I've seen both, built all my own systems (as well as several for others --both Mac and PC) and I can tell you the build quality of BOXX is better -- it's like the difference in a high-end enthusiast/gamer motherboard and a server motherboard... no contest. Does everybody need it, no -- but if you can afford it why not choose the superior option.

Best,
Jason.

[brodie_geers]

Interesting, I've never really gotten too deep into pricing those sorts of things and looking at the ins and outs. It'd be interesting to test out your statement about the high end stuff being about the same price. Sadly, I'm both lazy and busy at the moment, so I'll have to live with it

-Brodie

[numerobis]

i think if you can build one by yourself, you can get the same stability and the same or even more power for less money (if you know what you are doing and you have the time).
I use custom build hardware for 15+ years now, nearly all of them with desktop components and overclocked to the max and i had no hardware related problems in all the years
(knock on wood...)
But their xtreme systems look nice... overclocked + watercooled ...but i don't want to know the price for them.

[Half Life]

Edit, in my previous post (deleted) I missed a higher-end dell model:

The highest-end Dell is the Precision T7500, right now on their website to make it match the BOXX (which it really can't, but let's pretend) the cost is about $5,200 (they have some sort of discount but I'm not sure of the details) -- this is the equivalent (kinda) of the BOXX 8550 XTREME series which goes for $8,317.00 with similar specs except with double the processors and liquid cooling thrown in. The extra processor goes for $1700 on newegg -- and I'm sure the motherboard to seat two of them costs more too(not to mention the liquid cooling solution for 2 processors). Even if you could get a Dell with double (the current top of the Dell line) processing power and liquid cooling (not likely) I still would hesitate to say the quality of build would be comparable to BOXX.

Pro gear costs $$$ no matter where you get it from... if you can afford it, why not go with the better option -- for alot of businesses this is just a tax write-off anyway.

I need to make some cash so I can get me 2 of those beasts -- it would make rendering a joy

Best,
Jason.

[Cosmasad]

Thank, guys for the dialogue. I just ordered the RenderPro 8 and I can't wait to get it. Now, I have to finish Jason's tutorials (this weekend) so that I can figure out what I'm doing! They said it was an easy program, which it might be, but it hasn't been easy to learn.

Patience.

[Half Life]

Congrats! I am officially jealous

Once you "get it" all you'll be fine -- it's a great program that is only going to get better as time goes by... but after all this we want to see some renders in the gallery though.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

Here's a review from Toms Hardware that backs up my point that BOXX is no more expensive than Dell, and in this case is thousands cheaper for better performance:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/box ... l=55872848

and a PDF of another review from Desktop Engineering:

http://www.boxxtech.com/Downloads/revie ... _01-11.pdf

Best,
Jason.

[Hervé]

I don't get it...? Jason, in the first link, all posters are saying it's a major ripoff and the design is very old and cheap...

[Half Life]

I was talking about the review itself -- which is done very professionally... the comments below can be by anybody. Most of the readers there are gamers and so workstation components seem overpriced and not "cool" by their standard... something like an Alienware system would be more suited to their taste.

The reality is not too many everyday computer enthusiasts/gamers know enough about workstation and server components to make any kind of educated comment... so I wouldn't read very much into their opinions.

Here's a quote from the end of the review which really says it all:
"Our test build from Boxx was well-built to the point that we didn't run into any problems with the overclocked configuration. It's confidence-inspiring to work with a vendor oriented toward a very specific market, especially if your comfort level revolves around software, and not the hardware you plan to use. If you’re an artist striking out on his own or hired by a non-media company that doesn't understand the fundamentals of graphics workstations, Boxx is willing to help configure your workstation to suit. You pay a premium for the company's expertise, but it's an investment able to pay for itself in productivity gains."


Best,
Jason.