Custom Built Renderfarm

[animaguy]

EDITED: Maybe this topic should be moved to the Hardware Forum

I am interested in building a animation renderfarm for Blender based rendering.

I am new to this subject and I am still sorting out the issues.

My understanding is that powerful Renderfarms consist of multiple computers and building powerful Renderfarm can takes sometime to collect the right hardware and testing and benchmarking and documentation are important to figure out the most optimal configuration.

With that, I want to know if I could get any advice as to what CPUs I should I be looking to purchase for starters and what specs are optimal for Render farms?

 

[ShadowVVL]

it is extremely expensive. I dont know how big the projects you are rendering are but I would go with 4 intel i7 3930's for the start and see how it floats.

you would be better off getting 2 gpus rendering with cycles.

 

[animaguy]

ShadowVVL,

thanks for the response.

to be more specific, I have respectable desktop.

I am in the market to invest in another more powerful desktop

I want to purchase the next desktop as the basis for a competitive renderfarm

I am going to have plenty of opportunities to test projects with high end requirements and benchmark the performance of the current renderfarm setup

and the renderfarm will be constantly upgraded when their is money in the bank

so for now I am trying to develop a plan for which motherboard and cpu I should purchase for the next box

I will look at the cpus you recommended

I am interested in understanding how an 8 core i7 would be advantageous

and issues like ivy or sandy

but I have read a lot of great things about this website and building a renderfarm is why I registered

thanks for the suggestions

if my above comments give you more insight as to what you or any other member here could recommend I would appreciate further input

thks

 

[animaguy]

also i am not opposed to the idea that the latest and greatest may not be the obvious choice

I dont believe i will need a supercomputer to do what i need to do

 

[ShadowVVL]

well the i7 only goes as high as 6 cores 12 threads, the 8 cores 16 thread are xeons.
I dont know much about the 8 core xeons so I cant comment on them.

The i7 3930k is a 6 core and costs about $570.
as for motherboard if you are overclocking asus rampage IV LGA 2011 or the asrock extreme6 LGA 2011 are probably a good choice.

You may want to do some research on intel nics. I heard that is what they use in the big 200+ core farms.

you can also ask people in the blender artist forums some of them have a better knowledge of this then I do.

http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/

 

[animaguy]

I am a regular on blenderartists.

blenderartists is great for cgi and blender stuff.

But this website has an impeccable reputation when it comes to hardware benchmarking.

And your suggestions and the info about xeons and i7's are awesome.

Coincidentally there is a post somewhere that had to do with a zeon setup. i will have to looke that up.

The motherboards are also a solid starting point too.

I really appreciate the quick reply.

I already like reading the posts and the advice is really impression.

I have some homework to do with your responses.

Cheers

 

[jhu]

Tell us your budget. Then we can get into specifics.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Here's an old article from 2005 but, I like it for it's simplicity and readability. It may give you some ideas.

 

[aigomorla]

have a mod move your post here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15

What u want is the DC computing... as they are the F@H and Coin farmers, which is the route you probably want to head in.