Rendering Machine

[BodyBagger]

Hello all,
I am thinking of buying a seat of Hypershot from Bunkspeed and was wondering what would be the ideal machine build for just doing renderings (no animations needed)? The machine would not need to run SW.
Thanks for any input.
Drake

 

[rockguy]

Quad core minimun, fastest processor you can afford. I'd go 64 bit as well. HyperShot does not require an earth shattering computer to be effiecent. It runs very well on your average machine.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.axiscadsolutions.com

http://www.robrodriguez.com

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/

Eastern Region SWUGN Representative

http://www.swugn.org

http://www.nvtswug.com

SW 2007 SP 2.0

 

[BodyBagger]

ROCKGUY - Does the speed of the processor trump the type of processor (XEON, Core2Duo, Core2Extreme, AMD, etc).
Thanks,
Drake

 

[Theophilus]

I'd say so--but you probably want something with fast individual cores, since adding up all your cores isn't going to be quite as fast as a single core times the number of your cores (not quite that efficient).

Check into something with a fast front-side bus (FSB) as well.

By the way, what made you go with Hypershot? (Difficult PhotoWorks interface, material selection, ease of scene set-up, fast render times, photorealism, etc.?)



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[BodyBagger]

I only have the demo at this point, but I can make good quality renderings in a very short amount of time. The user interface is very straight forward and it works outside of SW.

 

[Theophilus]

Yeah, a client of mine just picked it up and loves it. I can still make more convincing renderings with PhotoWorks, but then I've used PWorks for years--and my client just invested less than an hour into his rendering. So for most work, Hypershot would probably work best anyway (time/output).

By the way, check into the new Core 2 Duo chip--e8400--cheap and fast and able to be overclocked (I hope). Just bought one.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[BodyBagger]

I will do that, thanks much.

 

[BodyBagger]

I just spoke with the people at Bunkspeed about thier recommendations for the right pc to render with and this is what they told me.

Minimum - Dual Core (the more cores the better)

Processor - Fast as possible

***Video Card*** - Does not matter as Hypershot does all rendering via the CPU! This is good so you do not need to invest in an expensive VC.

 

[Theophilus]

Do you intend to use the computer for anything other than rendering? If not, more slower cores might be a good way to go. Or, get a main board that can handle two faster dual-core chips (cheaper AND faster). I do a lot of rendering, but I do even more modeling--so I opted for the faster dual-core, since the slower quad core would not save me as much time as the faster dual-core--unless I rendered more than modeled.

Plus, look into the degree to which you can overclock your chips. Might get further with dual or quad--not sure.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[BodyBagger]

I am planning to use this machine just for rendering. I am planning on using the renderings to send to prospective customers and for marketing materials.

I understand your point about the processors, thanks. I will have to do a little research into the different options to see what will be the most effective.

 

[rockguy]

I'd go with a dual quad core set up. BunkSpeed is very fast on my curent 2.4ghz quad core machine.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.axiscadsolutions.com

http://www.robrodriguez.com

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/

Eastern Region SWUGN Representative

http://www.swugn.org

http://www.nvtswug.com

SW 2007 SP 2.0

 

[Theophilus]

Eight cores! Yeah, that ought to do it. Especially for a dedicated render machine. Yikes.

Of course if you can get four cores (two chips) pushing nearly 16GHz of processing (overclocked to 4GHz per core)--at half the price each of a quad core--you're looking at nearly the same (maybe more) rendering performance at half the price. Tough call. Not sure what you can overclock a quad to, but it may be more limited because of heat dissipation (and other) issues.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine