Setting up a Rendering Farm

Ender · 2 Oct 2006 at 22:26

Hey there, not sure if this is the right place to put this but here goes (move if not please)

I use Blender to render images and animations, however at the moment i find that my computer cannot render these fast enough. Looking into setting up a rendering farm and was wondering if anyone has any experience in this?

What would i need to effectively do this ? (I read up on the managing software) but would i just need computers linked on lan (probably running a version of linux) with a accessible network drive?

Also is there any places that often have old computers for sale cheaply as i am on a tight budget.

Thanks for any Help
Oli

Ender · 2 Oct 2006 at 22:45

yea, Blender is a open source 3d rendering linux/windows- rendering farms have been set up for it using Dr Queue, but from the sites i looked at it didnt go into great detail about hardware/configurations used.
Il be using linux mainly as it has a faster render time in that app then for windows and its also free

Ender · 3 Oct 2006 at 16:59

mines currently a 3ghz pentium 4 (not brilliant by any standards i know

) -do you think one new computer would be better then a farm of cheaper older ones?

Ender · 3 Oct 2006 at 18:25

Wasnt looking to spend lots of money on this project in theory i have £500+, though i wasnt going to spend this till after chirstmas on a new computer. However if you think that building a render farm would be a waste of money and that it would be more efficent to wait and build a powerful dual core computer i will go that route?

Ender · 3 Oct 2006 at 23:00

so bascially look to maybe get 6600/wait for quad core - and also upgrade to a 805 dual core or so? Using that as a second machine would it speed up renders or would i be better of selling that rig (not sure how much id get for it) and then using that to help fund a better single rig.

Ender · 4 Oct 2006 at 16:40

Space isn't at premium as such, though constraints are still realistic. I read the article you linked to me (thanks nightwish) and think i might be giving it a go. All in all it will be an experience whether or not it works so its worth a try

I guess the easiest way to control them would be with a version of VNC ?

Noise might however be a problem- i could try setting up a oil pc render farm ?

Ender · 4 Oct 2006 at 17:01

what secure shell? yea i could do that- not tryed it before though. Is it fast/reliable?

Ender · 4 Oct 2006 at 17:15

ill do that then, thanks - Now i just need to get all those computers

Ender · 5 Oct 2006 at 23:10

the ssh would only be used for managing the computers such as updating software etc, dr queue would be used to manage the render farms .blend files