understanding blades

[deadalvs]

hi !

i'd like to understand a "little" better how a blade system works and especially if there is a way to run multiple blades under ONE OS.

if we look at monsters like:
http://www.boxxtech.com/Produc...XX/apexx8_overview.asp
that hold up to 8 cpus running on win xp 2003 server, i'd like to know how the two 4-cpu boards inside are connected and how the OS detects that to be able to properly run all 8 cpus.

is there a way to connect normal blades that run under one OS ?

thanks for any input.

ps. the software i'd need to run is Maxwell (which is optimized for multi-cpu/multicore architecture):
--> http://www.maxwellrender.com/

 

[Modelworks]

I have used maxwell some, mainly I use vray.
Boxxtech is probably using two 4 cpu motherboards, probably from Tyan.
Something like this board:
http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=554

I suspect they are using the hyper transport connector .
http://www.hypertransport.org/tech/index.cfm

If you want to have a small renderfarm you can do it a lot cheaper than boxxtech.
You can build a quad core pc made just for rendering for as low as 800.00
Each render box would have:
160GB hard drive
8GB memory
Quad core 6600
Case+power supply

So for about 3200.00 you can have a 16 core render farm.

 

[deadalvs]

hey ! thanks for the reply.

hmm. yes, i have checked prices for render-slaves a lot and they indeed have a very good price/performance ratio... i am just interested in bigger machines because of secondary costs like administration / electric current / licenses, ...

you seem to have some experience with this too (i've been 3d hobbyist now for 16 years - i am 28). what do you think, which is better. more computers that are cheap or bigger computers. it certainly also depends on how many people have to render ... complex discussion ! ...