Want to build render farm for my company

[digilogs]

hi guys ,
I have company with 8 PCs working on 3D Max and i want to minimize the rendering time coz some animation rendering with 10min take 10days to render it ,
i need to make sarver that can use for rendering as farm for them so i dont know what best brand or hardware to use i have 10000$ estmated budget for it .
i want to minimize thos 10 days to 1day or less .
i found boxxtech but they are high in price .
i need to know also is GPU make different or ill just go to CPU ways ?
also can i use the pcs i have now with the server as big or share to minimize rendering time ?

 

[kanewolf]

I don't have a specific suggestion for 3DMax, but I will make a few observations about shared resources... Don't put all the money into a single host. If it is unavailable, for whatever reason, the entire thing is down. Try to spread your funds into three or four hosts.
Some of your $$$ may have to go into network hardware to connect these new resources.
You need to understand your workload and how that workload maps to hardware. What I mean... If you are rendering 4K frames, that is a different workload than rendering 1080p frames. More memory, more I/O bandwidth required.
You also need to know which type of hardware benefits your software. It might be GPU and a 980ti graphics card would be beneficial. It might be CPU and a dual socket Xeon motherboard would be best. I don't use 3DMax so I can't comment on this aspect.
Rack mount can maximize space usage, but rack mount devices are usually noisy. You would need an environment intended for computers to do rack mount.
You will need a fair amount of power. Standard office 120VAC isn't optimal. 208 - 250VAC is preferred. Get hardware with redundant power supplies since that is the most likely to fail part.
Don't forget about software costs. You need an OS and may need application licenses for these new hosts.
Don't forget about admin costs. Your boss needs to realize that new (and specialized) hosts are being added to the network. They need to be cared for.

 

[digilogs]

thank you for your information ,
im planning to make also NAS server for storage and backup and will be controlled by this server so i need more about software i can use for sharing and backup and i think best configuration will be raid 1 or 4 .
also is there software can let me check about hardware performance before i start buy it and install it ?
and if there software i can calculate the time for frame rendering for the new hardware so i can make compare about
about have many host the one host server is ok coz it'll be internal network there's low chance to get it down not cloud network

 

[digilogs]

Up and refresh

 

[bambiboom]

hi guys ,
I have company with 8 PCs working on 3D Max and i want to minimize the rendering time coz some animation rendering with 10min take 10days to render it ,
i need to make sarver that can use for rendering as farm for them so i dont know what best brand or hardware to use i have 10000$ estmated budget for it .
i want to minimize thos 10 days to 1day or less .
i found boxxtech but they are high in price .
i need to know also is GPU make different or ill just go to CPU ways ?
also can i use the pcs i have now with the server as big or share to minimize rendering time ?

digilogs,

I had the same situation with rendering taking all the time on the modeling computer. Just for reference I'm going to first suggest something unconventional.

To solve my situation I bought an obsolete Dell Precision and upgraded it. As compared to my HP z420 4-core E5-1620 3180 X 2140 Renderings (Vray /Sketch, AutoCad Arch, Solidworks native) typically went from 1 hour to about 12 minutes.

Purchased for $190 including shipping:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Original): Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1333 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

And after spending approximately $850:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011)(Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3505 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)

And the turbo clock speed is actual fast enough for 3D modeling as well. Very fast rendering for $1,100. With $10,000 you could buy 8 of these- one dedicated to each modeling station. That would equal a total of 8X 12 cores / 24 threads for total of 96 Cores / 192 threads @ 3.47GHz.

A more modern version: For your application, with $10,000 you could buy and upgrade three or possible four Dell Precision T7610's by buying "barebones" systems for about $600-700 each. Then add dual Xeon E5-2600 v2 8-cores, perhaps the E5-2680 v2 which is 8-cores / 16 threads @ 2.9 /3.6Ghz. These are used about $700 each. Then you would have a total of 3X 16 core / 32 thread systems for a total of 48 cores / 96 threads dedicated rendering. If you upgrade 4 systems,that means also a generous distribution of a rendering system for every two of the 8- 3ds modeling nodes on the network. The rendering queue time would be very short. And having redundant systems means that t or three systems would be still available if there was a problem.

If however, the idea of used components does not appeal:

BambiBoom PixelCannon Animarendergrapharific iWork TurboSignature Extreme RenderBlaster 9900 ®©$$™®£™©™ _ 2.3.16

Case /Motherboard /Power supply/ CPU coolers : Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-7038A-I Dual LGA2011 / Suprmicro X10DA / 900W Mid-Tower Workstation Barebone System (Black) > $720

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/tower/7038/SYS-7038A-i.cfm
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SY-7038AI

CPU: (2) Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 Haswell 2.6 /3.5GHz 12-core / 12 x 256KB L2 Cache 30 MB L3 Cache LGA 2011-3 135W BX80644E52690V3 Server Processor > $4,300 ($2,150 each)

http://ark.intel.com/products/81713/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2690-v3-30M-Cache-2_60-GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117474&cm_re=E5-2690-v3-_-19-117-474-_-Product

Memory: 128GB (8x 16GB) Samsung DDR4-2133 8GB/1Gx72 ECC/REG CL15 Server Memory > $1,600 ($200ea.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5EM3KB7224&cm_re=Samsung_DDR4-2133_unbuffered-_-9SIA5EM3KB7224-_-Product

GPU: PNY Quadro K2200 VCQK2200-PB 4GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Plug-in Card Workstation Video Card > $430

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133559&cm_re=quadro_K2200-_-14-133-559-_-Product

RAID Controller : LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 9260-4i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 w/ 512MB onboard memory RAID Controller Card, Kit--Avago Technologies > $280

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118107&cm_re=LSI_megaraid-_-16-118-107-_-Product

Disk 1: Intel 750 Series HHHL (CEM2.0) 400GB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDPEDMW400G4R5 > $320.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167300&cm_re=intel_750_nvme-_-20-167-300-_-Product

Disks 2, 3, and 4: Seagate Constellation ES.3 ST4000NM0033 4TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive > $630 ($210 ea.) (RAID 5)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W021H6289&cm_re=Seagate_Constellation_ES.3-_-22-178-307-_-Product

Optical Disk: SAMSUNG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-224DB/BEBE - OEM > $18

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151266

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit English (1-Pack), OEM > $139.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MSFQC08289
_______________________________________

TOTAL = $8117

Of course, the specification can be increased, a GPU having more CUDA cores as co-processors- I recommend a Quadro M4000 (8GB) and refined disk configuration, for example using the 1.2TB Intel 750, but I believe this is the basis of a system that can produce renderings at a satisfactory performance.

Cheers,

BambiBoom


Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Pending upgrade: HP /LSI 9212-4i PCIe SAS /SATA HBA RAID controller, 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB (RAID 1)

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)

 

[bambiboom]

Digilogs,

Thank you for the additional information. Follows is the revise concept for the dedicated rendering platform.

This is based on the Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-7048A-T which has 8 ht swap drive bays, a 1200W power supply, and higher volume cooling. the CPU's are changed to 2X Xeon E5-2690 v3 Haswell 2.6 /3.5GHz 12-core.

The other innovation is to change the conventional workstation Quadro to a Tesla K10 GPU computing co-processor which has 2X GK104 processors and 3,072 processor cores. When properly configured these co-preocessors are said to speed up rendering 5-10 times. The Supermicro SYS-7048A-T is designed to use up to three of these. There is the K20 model with much higher double precision, and it would require some additional research to determine the better choice for rendering/processing. I think the K20 is probably more scientifically-oriented and I lik ethe dual procesors in the K`0 and increased number of cores.

BambiBoom PixelCannon Animarendergrapharific iWork TurboSignature Extreme RenderBlaster 10000 ®©$$™®£™©™ _ Revised 2.6.16

Case / Motherboard /Power supply/ CPU coolers: Supermicro SuperWorkstation SYS-7048A-T Dual LGA2011 1200W 4U Rackmount/Tower Workstation Barebone System (Black)> $1,020

http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4U/7048/SYS-7048A-T.cfm

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DAi.cfm

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=SY-748AT

CPU: (2) Intel Xeon E5-2690 v3 Haswell 2.6 /3.5GHz 12-core / 12 x 256KB L2 Cache 30 MB L3 Cache LGA 2011-3 135W BX80644E52690V3 Server Processor > $4,300 ($2,150 each)

http://ark.intel.com/products/81713/Intel-Xeon-Processo...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CPU OPT.: (2) Intel Xeon E5-2697 v3 Haswell 2.6 GHz 35MB L3 Cache LGA 2011-3 145W BX80644E52697V3 Server Processor > $5,540 ($2,770 each)

http://ark.intel.com/products/81059/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2697-v3-35M-Cache-2_60-GHz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117470&cm_re=e5-2697_v3-_-19-117-470-_-Product

Memory: 128GB (8x 16GB) Samsung DDR4-2133 8GB/1Gx72 ECC/REG CL15 Server Memory > $1,600 ($200ea.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5EM...

GPU: nVidia Tesla K10 8GB GDDR5 PCI-E x16 Computing Accelerator Processing Unit With Dual GK104 Kepler GPUs> $2,450

http://www.amazon.com/nVidia-Computing-Accelerator-Processing-Kepler/dp/B008X8Z95W

RAID Controller : LSI 9300 MegaRAID SAS 9361-4i (LSI00415) PCI-Express 3.0 x8 SATA / SAS High Performance Four-Port 12Gb/s RAID Controller (Single Pack)--Avago Technologies> $339

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118228&cm_re=lsi-_-16-118-228-_-Product

Disk 1: Intel 750 Series AIC 1.2TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDPEDMW012T4X1 > $1,067

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167363

Disks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: Seagate Constellation ES.3 ST4000NM0023 4TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SAS 6Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive > $1,150 ($230 ea.) (Input to RAID 0 / Output to RAID 1 / Output to server RAID 5)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W021H6292&cm_re=Seagate_Constellation_ES.3_SAS-_-22-178-306-_-Product

Optical Disk: ASUS Black 16X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-16D1HT> $84

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135306&cm_re=blu_ray_drive-_-27-135-306-_-Product

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit English (1-Pack), OEM > $139.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MSFQC08289
_______________________________________

TOTAL = $12,049 or $13,289 with E3-2697 v3

This should be among the fastest rendering systems possible without an extreme investment.

The computational speed may be calculated according to Amdahl's Law. This is a good introduction:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Estimating-CPU-Performance-using-Amdahls-Law-619/

Amdahl's Law

S=\frac{T(1)}{T}=\frac{T(1)}{T(1)(B+\frac{1}{n}(1-B)}

S is the theoretical speedup
T is the time an algorithm takes to finish when running n threads
B is the fraction of the algorithm that is strictly serial (so 1-B is how much of the program can be run in parallel)

Unless you deal with complex equations regularly, this may be a bit daunting of an equation. However, since we are primarily concerned with the maximum speedup that can be achieved by increasing the number of CPU cores, this equation can simplified a bit into the following:

Parallelization Formula:

S=\frac{1}{(1-P)+\frac{P}{n}}

S is the theoretical speedup
P is the fraction of the algorithm that can be made parallel
n is the number of CPU threads

So, this may demonstrate the theoretical performance of the system, as it derives coefficient that integrate the co-processing cores to the parallelization equations. The parallelization is not linear scaling but close and the Tesla K10 would be adding very substantial processing power. This could give a fair idea of the above system in relation to your goal of 250% of the current system performance. I predict that the system will exceed that by quite a bit.

I would be very interested to know the results.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[digilogs]

thank you too much for all your helps BambiBoom just now i need to know if Backburner can use the GPU in rendering or it's only V-RAY ? coz i dont need to get in VRay Cost if ill go for 8 or 9 PCs + server to share the rendering it'll cost like 3000$ for lic , when backburne is free with 3ds max and for sure i have to install 3ds max on this render server so i can use it for rendering .

2nd question about Iray can work with Backburner or only Vray and do i have to buy and install it on all nodes or Vray can do better than it ?

3rd question is about what software i can use as 3rd Party to controal sharing and backup Raid 1 or Raid 5 .

 

[digilogs]

One more question Is Vray RT and octane use CP and GP or only work on GPU ? and is there render software can use both of GPU and CPU and also can be network rendering ?