i7 build coming soon

[HalifaxJ]

Greetings,

A friend and myself are looking to start an Architectural rendering company as a part time business that we eventually hope to grow and hire staff. We are both architecture school graduates and work in an office. Both have experience doing some large renderings but have grown frustrated with the lack of investment the company is making in hardware and software.

Ideally, we want two computers running in parallel. One will be the file server and the other 100% dedicated to processing. I'll be in charge of the hardware and am trying to come up with the best system for 3000$.

I'm torn between two 1500$ computers or one 3000$ computer. The i7 is a must as upgrading will be part of the process throughout the years.

Would it be possible to build a decent i7 rig for 1500$? It would require a good air cooling solution (vendetta 2 is what I have now and I'm happy with it). The video card doesn't need to be spectacular as rendering is mostly CPU.

Any thoughts or suggestions on how to set this up and what type of system would be best are appreciate,

Cheers!

Julien

[Dave510]

$1500 might be pushing it. Do you need a monitor as well? You can get a barebone computer with a i7 920, 6 GB memory and a P6T board for 800+ tax. Pick a case for around 150 and a graphics card for about $100. A 500GB or 640GB hard drive will set you back another 80-90, and the Vendetta 2 will require you to get the 1366 mounting bracket too, which will come up to about $50. A PSU will set you back another $100 atleast. The subtotal is about $1300 before taxes, monitor and OS.

But if one system's just going to be a file server, then is it necessary for the server to also have an i7?

[HalifaxJ]

Thanks,

Well to be honest I'm trying to get information about cluster rendering but not finding much. We will only purchase one license of 3dsmax but want to use 2 CPUs to render. I know it's done, but don't have the slightest clue how to do it. This is essentially what they call render farms.

So yes, the 2 CPUs do matter as they'll both be used to render. I'm not sure about the i7...I can get a Q9500 system for much cheaper...

J

[Dave510]

Sorry, I don't know anything about parallel rendering so I don't know how much (if any) improvement you can expect to get from an two i7 over two Q9500 for 3D rendering. But 1500 can be done, as long as you don't need a monitor as well.