Need Build Advice

[danb4026]

Hello, new member here. I am thinking about building a PC to act as additional render engine to my main machine. I use a program called 3ds Max and Vray to create my 3d images and files. Then Vray is used to render these images.

My current machine is a Falcon NW Mach V with a Intel quad core extreme processor, Nvidia Quatro 4600 graphics card, and Nvidia 680 SLI motherboard with Vista 64 bit and 8gb Ram.

A high res single frame image could take many hours to render from my single machine. While doing the actual render, the machine is basically unusable for any other functions, so I am stuck.

I would like to get a second machine to distribute the rendering functions to (called Distributed Rendering) and thus cut the rendering time down and increase my efficiency. This is my work, so it is important.

Cost is a major factor now because I am just starting out, but I need the most bang for the buck.

I have a new Nvidia Quatro 1700 sitting in a box right now that I can use.

Could anyone advise as to what I should look into putting into this machine? My understanding is that it should have similar power as to current machine.

I do not know where to start, but think buying the parts and building myself will save me much needed $$. Thanks!

[shyster]

First off with a card like that just lying around it seems like you are in a good place. I am neither a professional nor even skilled at it, but our resident, semi-pro?, Chunky says that quadros are the top of the line.

From there it really will depend on your budget and to some extent personal taste for things like the case, both style and size, as well as weight and lighting.

Just some general suggestions to get you going though would look like this:

CPU: Q6700 the recent price drop on these make them more affordable than in the past, and the best of the old series of quads. After that you could consider the two new Quads the Q9300 and the Q9450. The Q9450 being the best within a reasonable price range, but still on the upper edges of the price limit.

Motherboard: Both the Abit IP35 Pro and the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L are the boards with high recommendations around here. I believe that both would work with the quadro, but I have never used that card before so hopefully another person will chime in here.

RAM: Corsair XMS2 and G-skill again very high recommendations around here, and for the Abit especially the G-skill is very supported on their own forums. As a note I do not know that there is much of a point in having more than 4gbs of RAM even if you are using a 64 bit system, but if I am wrong someone please tell me so.

Case: As I mentioned this is very much a personal choice, I personally, as well as many others have the antec 900. The Sonata III is a good choice for a more bland computer, if you do not want it to stand out or attract unnecessary attention.

PSU: The Corsair 520HX is the way to go here, but if you feel you might need more power, especially if you look into the things I will briefly mention later you might need a little more power so you could step up to the 620HX instead.

I think that covers most of the parts you will need. It should be enough to at least get you started and give you a general idea on what the prices are.

The last thing I will note, since you are doing 3d rendering, is that there are now motherboards that support running dual CPU's. Since you already have an awesome video card that should be able to handle it, this may actually be something for you to consider. It is not unlike having one computer do the work of two machines. The downside with this is that it is a considerable jump in initial cost, but if it helps make your work easier in the long run it may be worth it.

I unfortunately cannot advise you on this, either on the parts or the way to go about building one, although it should be pretty much the same, just a mother board that has two CPU slots instead of one. But hopefully WM will chime in or perhaps someone else with experience in these.

[danb4026]

Thanks for the advice and info. Heres what I bought so far:

Item List from Newegg.com

HD 750G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD7500AAKS - OEM (Qty=1, Price=$129.99)
(Shipped from Edison, NJ)
DVD BURN LITE-ON|DH-20A4H-08 BK RT - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$29.99)
(Shipped from Edison, NJ)
MB ASUS P5N32-E SLI NF680I 775 - OEM (Qty=1, Price=$149.99)
(Shipped from Whittier, CA)
CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$219.99)
(Shipped from Edison, NJ)
CPU COOLER ZALMAN|CNPS 9500 AM2 RTL - Retail (Qty=1, Price=$49.99

Item List from Amazon:

2 of Sony MPF920-Z/CU1 Internal 3.5" Floppy Drive
1 of Antec Sonata III 500 Quiet Super Mini Tower ATX Case (Black

What do you think of the components? I am not really concerned about the looks of the case. This computer is going to be used mostly to distribute rendering work to. I have a Falcon NW Mach V as a main machine, and it is pretty good looking.

[The Wise Monkey]

You do realise that you have bought an AMD AM2 socket cooler for an Intel 775 socket CPU? XD

Looks pretty good, but why have you got two floppy drives?

[danb4026]

no i didnt realize that....not good. The stuff has already shipped out, so I will have to return and go pick up the right socket cooler.

Any suggestions?

I am clueless when it comes to the technical side of this.

[danb4026]

Sir Wise Monkey,

Do you think what I have bought would suffice for the function of being a render slave?

[The Wise Monkey]

Ok, so I've been doing some research into DR, and you want your current computer to be the render client and the new one is the render server, correct? As the data is transmitted by TCP/IP, you might want to get yourself a decent Cat 6 ethernet cable to connect the two computers, as this allows you to transfer at full 1Gb/s speeds.

Also, as this computer is going to be solely for rendering purposes, you might want to consider having a quad-core Xeon processor instead of the standard Q6XXX range, as the Xeons support true multi-threading, which most video editing applications provide. Unfortunately that would mean a major re-design of your system, which is not really possible since you have already ordered it all. XD

To be honest, it is something to think about for the future - Xeon CPUs are built for precisely this kind of thing, so it would have been a better idea to go for that. However, you do have to may more for the extra performance.

The components you have bought will do the job well enough, but you may like to think about using a different setup if you ever decide to add more render servers to your setup.

[danb4026]

Thanks for the advice and taking the time to do the research! Should I exchange the quad core for the Xeon? If so, which Xeon should I get? And is that only change that needs to be made, except for the cooling unit?

[The Wise Monkey]

When I said major re-design, I wasn't kidding - you would need a new motherboard, new RAM, new CPU and a new cooler, so it really isn't worth the hassle.

[danb4026]

OK....I will hang in there with what I have. Thanks for all your help.

Dan

[The Wise Monkey]

No problem - as I said before, you will still have a very good and capable rendering slave, but if you decide to expand in the future, then Xeons are the way to go.

Good luck with the build - let us know if you have any problems. :)

[danb4026]

am I going to need any disks or software
other than a windows install cd to get the
computer up and running?

[The Wise Monkey]

You might need to install the network drivers using the disk that comes with the motherboard, but you should download the latest drivers from manufacturers' sites anyway.

[danb4026]

I have my newly built computer up and running! Is the Network Adaptor part of the motherboard?

I have my ethernet cable plugged in but cannot access the internet to download drivers. I am being told that I do not have a network adaptor installed. I have a router and a home network setup. I wired this computer directly into the router.

In Device Manager under "network adaptor" it shows the "1394 Net Adaptor", which seems to be working properly. Below that there is a question mark next to "Other Devices" and in that submenu there are question marks next to: "Other PCI Bridge Device" (2 times), "SM Bus Controller", and "Unknow Device".


Also, I wanted to install Vista 64, but that wasnt working out, so I temporarily installed XP Pro 32bit to try and get everything working properly.

I also ran an update to the BIOS using an update utility from Asus, thinking that my be the problem. None of my hardware except my Graphics card came with any setup disks.

What am I missing here?

OH and also, the system is only showing a drive size of 127GB, when it is really 750GB. During setting up the drive, there was a message regarding the fact that only 127 might show up and that I might have to configue it properly after windows is installed. But I dont know how to do that.

[The Wise Monkey]

Congrats on getting it working. :)

Your network adapter is basically where you plug your network cable in, but it does need drivers. You need to download the latest drivers from your motherboard manufacturer's website - just use another computer to download the drivers, then copy them across on a USB stick.

As for the drive size, you need to install XP SP2 - SP1 only supports up to 127GB. You'll have to download it on another computer or sort out the network drivers first though.

What was the problem with Vista 64?

[danb4026]

I got everything working including Vista 64. Originally I couldnt get Vista
to install because the drivers for the hard drive were not Vista compatible, so the drive wasnt accessable. I installed XP so I could format the drive, got all the drivers for Vista and then installed Vista, and everything works.

Now the computer has 2 Dive 0's. One is 127GB and the other is 500 and change. Should I combine the drives into one? Should I keep a partition setup? I dont really understand disk management or know what the best setup is.

[The Wise Monkey]

Hmm, it really depends. I like having separate partitions because it gives you more control over defragmenting, plus it allows you to organise your files as you see fit. Think of partitions as giant folders that you can store your files in.

[danb4026]

I am getting an error message when copying files from a network shared folder to my new hard drive on the slave machine :

"There is not enoughmemory to complete this operation"

Now this seems to only happen when I attempt to copy a folder with a large amount of data ie. 5GB+.

I have to reboot the machine and continue where I left off when this happpens. Any reason you can think of for this?

[danb4026]

I think I figured it out...No Paging file for new drive.