Now, i’m nowhere near a computer hardware nerd, but I know how to build a computer so i’m ready to tackle this task head on. I’ve done some research trying to build a system as cheap as I can from all new components (some being incredibly limited only to local sources) – I don’t mind spending the money as its all for work and is tax deductable… Anyway the plan is to build a custom case, network all the computers together in one box, and hopefully distribute jobs wirelessly… See how we go with that. Anyway I did some quick price checking on components to build a basic system… Here are some that I’ve decided to chase due to low costings.
Intel Dual Core E1400 2.0G CPU – 2 cores 2.0Ghz = $69.00
ASUS P5KPL-CM Motherboard – Max 4GB RAM = $89.00
2048 DDR2 800 HYNIX Hyundai generic ram stick = $26.90 x 2 == $53.80
Basic 400W Power Supply = $49.00
160gb HDD Western Digital = $60.00
TOTAL = $$320.80 for the core basics for the system. In summary, this is a Dual Core celeron 2ghz, 4gb 800 RAM system with on board graphics. I’m open to feedback on this rig, I have yet to do detailed research to see if it will all work together but I don’t see any problems as both the processor and motherboard chipset are LGA775. If I build this, depending on how many boards I can fit in a custom tower, I may range from 5 computer tower to potentially 10, so upwards of $3,200 for all of them, 5 = 10 cores 10ghz 20gb RAM, 10 is double that obviously…
I’m in need of this setup to be able to be made instantly, so if you know anywhere thats cheaper and has stock and can express post while still being cheaper, i’m all ears. I’m in Perth, Western Australia so postage may be a killer – let me know!
Off to research render distribution programs and linux setups to be used on each node…
To google!!!
- Jarrad
It’s been awhile. How’re things going these days?
Fail blog though.. about 6-7 months out of date? I’m disappointed mate… tsk tsk..
I was having a brain melt, so I was cruising through random interwebs and found this link somehow, somewhere.
I know this is an old post by you, but I assume you are still using a similar, or the same, set up?
I’ve just build half a dozen render boxes for a job which I would have no hope of getting rendered on my workstation because it’s tied up non stop atm. Anyway- basically I don’t want to run out now and shell out $160 for Windows 7 64-bit OEM for 6 boxes. I was going to get a Linux setup cracking using DrQueue, but it looks like it doesn’t work all that well with VRay, which is essential. I could use WINE, but from what I have read, WINE won’t let backburner install at all.
Just wondering what you have got up and running at the moment, and whether you know a way I can avoid spending $960 on Windows licenses, especially since they are OEM and linked to the motherboard, so if the board dies, it’ll cost me a new board + Windows.
Cheers
Hi John,
Good to hear from you – I changed the setup a little more, went down the AMD quad core route, and beefed up the ram to 8gb each. All capable of 64 bit obviously, and they work pretty well. The nodes were a little more expensive but the performance made up for the cost.
I never ended up setting up a proper distribution client, was still toying with it all and put it on hold for now. Although I did set up an After FX watch folder and set up network rendering on AE. It works quite well – currently its sitting on Vista (old school). From what I understand, when the OEM links to the motherboard and you change hardware, you can actually call up an automated service, and they relink your serial to the new hardware – I cant remember exactly how it works, but I think you just select that you have changed hardware and it reallocates you a new activation key. Unfortunately if vray doesn’t work properly on linux, I don’t think you have too many options… Perhaps talk to a vray group about network rendering to find out the best possible solution.
I posted late December about a render distributor I was looking at called Royal Render – http://www.royalrender.de/cms/
Obviously I didn’t have a chance to test it out but prices look reasonable.
Let me know what you end up setting up because I’m interested in getting vray on my boxes too so I can handle outside jobs!
ahh, cheers mate.
I will look into that Royal Render, at the moment I have 6 boxes running a Windows 7 RC, which is just.. stupid. But I just haven’t had a chance to get proper Windows for them yet. They arn’t used that much anyway, just whenever I get a job that requires extensive rendering.
A couple are set up for After Effects, but generally I just render on my chunga system anyway as it’s massively faster.
I was going to go Phenom X6 processors, but was persuaded by a friend and went the spec below.
Gigabyte Radeon HD4350 512MB Overclocked
Intel Core i5 750
Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB ST3500418AS
GeIL GV34GB1600C9DC 8GB DDR3 (4x2GB)
I just dropped these into cheap and nasty cases with PSU’s that I purchased locally.
I am thinking that I will just subscribe to http://technet.microsoft.com/subscriptions and reap the benefits of having access to Microsoft software for my render systems. I think you’re not meant to use the subscription for production environments, but I’ve heard it’s a bit of a grey area, so I’m going to look into it before I commit.