Render farm hardware

[garth100]

Good day all,
Just checking to see if we have anyone on the forum with experience building their own render farm.
Question;
1. What server work best
2. How does it impact power expense.
3. Render speed

I am currently watching hp proliant dl380 g6 but I am also wondering if I should just build a system that would allow me to add gpu for more flexibility seeing that Vray RT getting better.

Thank you all!

[AlexP]

really depends on your budget.
Ideally go for the most power you can get in a single box, whether its a rack or otherwise.

How much do you want to spend?

[biochemical_animations]

I just finished my second farm, gpu based. I went with motherboards that could handle 2 cards each. Went with regular PC cases, nothing fancy, i7 processors. PSU are 1000 watt in case I need it, but I only measure 550 watts on max render at the outlet.

Electircy is $0.40 per killowatt hour, so there is a small cost with that. I had to do some wiring in the building that runs the 5 nodes, 15 amp circuit for 2 boxes, and 20 amp circuit with 3 boxes.

Basically, I did a spreadsheet with options ahead of time to see what the end costs would be whether I went with a box with 4 GPUs or boxes with 2 GPUs...it was little cheaper with 2 GPUs per box...plus if anything fails, I'm not spending $300 for a MB, or $600 for a processor, its more like $100 and $330, respectively.

Just start thinking it out on a spreadsheet, and you'll be able to see what things cost.

[Morbid Angel]

I just finished my second farm, gpu based. I went with motherboards that could handle 2 cards each. Went with regular PC cases, nothing fancy, i7 processors. PSU are 1000 watt in case I need it, but I only measure 550 watts on max render at the outlet.

Electircy is $0.40 per killowatt hour, so there is a small cost with that. I had to do some wiring in the building that runs the 5 nodes, 15 amp circuit for 2 boxes, and 20 amp circuit with 3 boxes.

Basically, I did a spreadsheet with options ahead of time to see what the end costs would be whether I went with a box with 4 GPUs or boxes with 2 GPUs...it was little cheaper with 2 GPUs per box...plus if anything fails, I'm not spending $300 for a MB, or $600 for a processor, its more like $100 and $330, respectively.

Just start thinking it out on a spreadsheet, and you'll be able to see what things cost.

That's an excellent info! thanks for sharing. What kind of cards did you put into the machines?

[biochemical_animations]

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