Hi

I want to setup a small render farm of 5 computers.

I looked at some renderfarm companies but they seem quite expensive.

After doing a little research I believe it’s not good to mix 32bit and 64bit O/S not sure about i7 and Xeon but was told to keep O/S and CPU “in the same family” so I’m taking it literally.

I searched for hardware but could only find one item…

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Rendering.html

If you know anywhere I can get good prices on renderfarm hardware please let me know

For: Backburner, Vray and Vue, Windows7

Thanks

If you are OK about configuring your own systems, look for “barebones” computers, or barebones servers, from a place like NewEgg. Some notes:
I have a mix of (1) i7 intel and 4 Xeon machines; no problems noticed. All have been upgraded to 64-bit Win7.
You don’t need video cards (other than to display the desktop), so motherboard video is fine.
Keep everything as much the same as you can, it makes installation and troubleshooting easier.
1-U rack servers are nice, but noisy. 2-U cases are much quieter. With 5 of either, you will want them away from your workspace. They will also generate a noticable amount of heat.
Don’t forget to consider power needs: 5 render machines could easily require 3000 VA or more, which would need 2 separate 15 Amp circuits in the US).
Search through this forum some more, you’ll find lots of suggestions.

-jeff

Max/Composite 2012 (subscription)
Win7-64pro, Intel i7-hex on SuperMicro mobo, 12 GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 5000, render farmette on BB2012

Thanks Jeff
I’ve been looking at some i7 machines from cyberpowerpc.com and it’s a much cheaper option than Boxx.
I searched the Max forum and they recommend a Nas server on the network for texture/scene files otherwise they’ll be a bottleneck at the workstation.
Thanks for the info Jeff

Well, it’s good to have (even simple NAS) redundant storage for all your workfiles: textures, projects, meshes, pretty much what ever is not the program software on your C: drive. Do remember-- even a simple RAID 1 unit needs to be backed up. A bad power even could take out both NAS drives…

-Jeff

Max/Composite 2012 (subscription)
Win7-64pro, Intel i7-hex on SuperMicro mobo, 12 GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 5000, render farmette on BB2012