If you were to build a small render farm for yourself how would you build it?

 

What specs would give you the most bang for the buck?

 

Would you put it inside a set of ikea of draws? helmer.sfe.se/

 

 

I heard these guys will build and test a set of standard computers for you for about $30. www.directron.com/hdz940xcgibox.html

 

Would you use deadline?

 

cheers

 

~M :)

I've read that article several times when designing my own farm.  While it get points for being dirt cheap it is lacking in several other areas:

- The motherboards are not grounded to the case.  This generates lots of noise which in turn can create errors.

- There is always a high chance of a short circuit because the motherboards are not insulated from the case properly.

- Any and all drilling you do into the case produces metal shards, another object that can produce short circuits.

- Leaving the back of a case open is just asking for trouble (bugs, dust, etc.)

- Cardboard backing = fire hazard AND it will adsorb moisture from the air.

- If you are going to build a render box, don't use the stock heat sinks.  Your board will eventually fry.

- Building a rack like case can be a great space saver, unless you need to move it...By building several computers you can easily move the farm around or reconfigure the height.

- 1 fan per motherboard is not enough

You also have to consider that they bought most of their parts as bulk orders so if you tried to replicate this normally it would quickly become expensive.

 

In the past 3 months I built a render farm based on the following hardware:

Case

Heatsink

Thermalpaste (Enough for several computers)

Motherboard

Harddrive

CPU

Memory (Enough for two computers)

 

To build a server to store the files simply replace the small hard drive with a larger one, the quad core with a dual core, and use only one stick of ram.  Lastly, the network backbone:

Gigabit Switch

Ethernet cables (preferably Category 6 class)

 

Oh and Drqueue does not work very well in my experience, especially with more recent software and operating systems.  I am currently working on a Python based render farm which while still in development can run maya renders fairly well (KEYWORD: development).  Check it out sometime, and feel free to modify.  I hope this points you in the right direction.  Good luck!

If I were to build my own I'd probably find a big ass motherboard

and strap on as many processors I could. I'd probably fire up some intel zeons too.My friend built a dream computer like this

for like 10 grand and it utilized bluray players and burners and stuff. I think he did

four quadcores on a board which is enough to do anything I'd imagine. The cabinet isn't a good idea unless you can get it out of the same metal they make for high end computer cases now and days. the metal has special temperature properties I know. All in all I'd probably end up using something that looks like a regular computer but causes neighborhood blackouts when you plug it in.

If you're building one on a shoestring, then it really doesn't matter about specs. Just get any old PCs you can, im talking old 900Mhz dead machines, it won't matter.

 

Can always go around your local academic institutions for these - you can pick up like 10 old computers they'd otherwise throw out for $50-$100 or so if you're lucky.

 

Hooking them all up takes a lot of room, but ultimately, render farms do have a good argument for quantity as well as quality.

 

 

Failing that, if you're part of a university or similar, many of these have massive computer systems set up. If you're lucky, they have a shared processing system (mine does for example, potentially i could utilise a few hundred idle computers - if i could persuade them to let me :P).

Dude.. all hardware is great, however I belive the most important part for a renderfram is the software and the schedular for rendering...

 

that's Y i prefer Linux over windows...

 

 

ProFx...

Best route is do have is have as many quadcores per 100mbps you can get. Its a balance between network pull and write and cheap ram/network ports.
Best dollar value I have found to date is AMD Phenom 9950s or 9750s (II's I haven't priced out yet) with 8GB ram all running Vista business 64bit and the most solid render controller you can find. Yes, you could run linux, but in the end, do you want to spend the time administering linux? Besides, if you are getting the boxes built by some local "gamer vendor" the OEM discs and system if you build them yourself will be incredibly cheap. Don't over look it.
Match them to the cheapest cases with gigabyte mother boards with 10/100/1000 connection and reasonable onboard video.
Last time out (last summer) I built 10 systems using the phenom 9950 quadcores, 8GB ram, etc with vista 64bit business edition and each system cost 700 - 725 CND with tax each in British Columbia, so take 14.5% off that and convert to US dollars for those of you down south. Not bad at all. Worked like a charm for LW, Fusion and Ozone Renders.
the idea is though that your server can send that farm the data without choking, The rule is generally 4 systems per 100mbps on a 1000gbps switched network before you have to get funky.

K.

Dual quadcore xeon motherboards packed into some kind of case.
One big powersupply.
Push some cold air thru it.

Noise? Size? Variables to troubleshoot when problems occur. TIME.

I'm can't wait for GPU based renders to become the norm. Last night I saw a presentation from StudioGPU and I think we were all impressed by the results, though it may only be applicable for fully animated 3D projects. If it's been awhile since you looked at GPU rendering (i.e. Gelato), I'd highly recommend taking a look at this:

http://www.studiogpu.com

It's real, it worked and (amazingly) it didn't crash during the demo. ;)