Render Farms / Beowulf Clusters (in Off-topic)


QBPixel Sage June 17 2006 2:53 AM EDT

Hey guys. I'd like to know if anyone is familiar with building render farms and such, mainly for rendering high-end 3D graphics. All I know is that processor number beats processor power. For example, nine 1ghz comps can render faster than three 3ghz comps.

Right now all I have is my trusty 700mhz iMac, which has grown obsolete (as do all comps within 6 months). Is there a nice cheap way for me to build a render farm? It'll become rather crucial for me later on as I do more work for Project Aqua. Our funding comes from our own pockets (and hopefully in the future from donations), so we don't have any big bucks to spend. I may sell off some CB later to see if I can rake up money to support this thing.

For those who don't know what Project Aqua is, its a full-fledged RPG I'm working on as an art director. For more info, check out our fresh new website:

http://www.pixelsage.com/projectaqua

(Soon to be www.projectaqua.net)

QBPixel Sage June 17 2006 2:06 PM EDT

Yes, I'm Ernest Liu on the crew page. In case any of you were wondering (like Shade ;))

AdminQBnovice [Cult of the Valaraukar] June 17 2006 2:07 PM EDT

I could lend a hand with unix questions, but I've not had specific render farm experience. However I do know a guy...

QBPixel Sage June 17 2006 2:10 PM EDT

I think one low-cost possibility is to gather a bunch of G3 imacs (around 400mhz, they go for around $50 a piece now). But then, that would still run out of our budget... meh.

Check out what I was working on yesterday! Clikey!

AdminQBnovice [Cult of the Valaraukar] June 17 2006 2:16 PM EDT

free anything should work, considering there's a version on *nix that'll run on it

A buddy of mine scored a g3 400 iMac with 768 megs of ram for $10 the other day at the last chance...I was so green

QBPixel Sage June 17 2006 2:18 PM EDT

Wow... I'd be jealous too, that's such a good deal... heck, it has more RAM than my G4!
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