I Just Wanted to Post an Image Thread

[seachnasaigh]

I will be looking for a new laptop, cousin. I don't spend enough time home to get myself a workstation. ... 7200 RPM hard drives now, which is good. Mine is still 5400.

One option to consider is to browse eBay for a *used* mobile workstation - that's basically a commercial-grade laptop. For the hard drives, I would get two SSDs. Granted they are wicked fast, but my reason is that they are impervious to bumps/knocks, which is important in a laptop. Hard drive speed is not important for rendering; core count is. Look for one with a H/T hex-core processor (some late models have a H/T octal). Get one with at least 16GB RAM; the units with 8GB usually are limited to 8 by their motherboard's main chip; often the same with 12GB units, so they cannot be upgraded later.

Nothing builds good lats, abs, and upper body strength like lugging around a HP Z-600 Dual Hex-Core workstation and monitor instead of a laptop

Urania is a HP z600 with dual H/T hex Xeons (X5660). She has 48GB RAM (her motherboard's max) and cost me $1,260. She's the one on which I do most of my modeling/mapping/material set up work. She sits at an art-deco diner booth table, taken from an old restaurant before it was demolished.

 

[Rokket]

Thanks! I have a good starting point to look now. I am limited to what they are carrying in Navy Exchanges, though. I can't order anything online because it has to go through the military postal service and it can't be tracked. It could arrive 6 months later in pieces. So I will keep your advise close when I go searching.

But I can order it to be shipped the the NEX and pick it up later. It can also be shipped between exchanges for a little extra cost.

 

[seachnasaigh]

I am limited to what they are carrying in Navy Exchanges, though.

OK. Then just look for laptops with a H/T hex-core or a H/T octal processor, and 16GB or more RAM.

 

[Rokket]

Got it!

 

[quietrob]

Heh heh. Most of my hardware is 2008 vintage, and I do alright. For 3D rendering, any of my workstations will outrun shiny new gaming and web surfing computers.
If you ever get the opportunity to get a "new" computer, ignore the web surfing Wal-Mart specials, and ignore the "high performance" gaming computers. Look on eBay for *used* workstations equipped with *two* Xeon processors.
Use the search term "2x X5690". That processor is the fastest of the Westmere series Xeons; they have six HyperThreaded cores each, so a pair gives you twenty four render threads. The specs on gaming computers are optimistic best case figures; Xeon specs are worst case scenario, guaranteed performance. Eir & Kara both have the ancient Harpertown (non-HyperThreaded, circa 2005) quad-core Xeons rated at 2.13GHz and memory rated at 600MHz, yet they always outran my 3.47GHz H/T quad core i7 with 1600MHz memory. Same number of threads (8).

These are the H/T hex-core Westmere series Xeon processors:

New, these workstations were breathtakingly expensive. But used, they sell for pennies on the dollar. Who has any use for obsolete industrial grade servers/workstations? (answer: 3D hobbyists!) The processors, motherboards, and registered memory are industrial grade stuff; I've never had any of it wear out. You *will* want to get a new hard drive, though.

Did you say pennies on the dollar? Really? I mean, just improving from AMD to Intel would be nice.

Cash is limited right now but this is definitely worth researching.

 

[seachnasaigh]

Dell C1110 server blade with dual X5650 Xeons (24 render threads!) and 36GB RAM: $25,000 new, $667 used. That's 2.67 pennies (used) for the dollar (new). The discrepancy is actually even greater, since the dollar has declined in value since those servers/workstations were new.
A dollar today is worth about 5.5 cents compared to the value of a dollar when it was actually a dollar weight of silver. And of course even less compared to a dollar weight of gold.

The reason for the cheap used prices is that industrial scale users bought massive numbers of servers, and few people know that this resource exists or how to use it. Server blades are the cheapest because few people can imagine what they would do with one.

3D hobbyists can use blades as render slaves, controlled by your workstation (or laptop).

 

[Dreamer]

@seachnasaigh I'm down in NZ and not sure how I could get my hands on one of these, do you have any ideas as it sounds like a good plan for my next build. Secondly other than harddrive is there any thing else that needs changing/adding, graphics card etc?

 

[Deleted member 325]

The reason for the cheap used prices is that industrial scale users bought massive numbers of servers, and few people know that this resource exists or how to use it. Server blades are the cheapest because few people can imagine what they would do with one.

I can imagine quite a bit... just rather short on funds and space.
Though, I am a hobbyist in technical sense only (limited by time and money).

 

[quietrob]

Dell C1110 server blade with dual X5650 Xeons (24 render threads!) and 36GB RAM: $25,000 new, $667 used. That's 2.67 pennies (used) for the dollar (new). The discrepancy is actually even greater, since the dollar has declined in value since those servers/workstations were new.
A dollar today is worth about 5.5 cents compared to the value of a dollar when it was actually a dollar weight of silver. And of course even less compared to a dollar weight of gold.

The reason for the cheap used prices is that industrial scale users bought massive numbers of servers, and few people know that this resource exists or how to use it. Server blades are the cheapest because few people can imagine what they would do with one.

3D hobbyists can use blades as render slaves, controlled by your workstation (or laptop).

Seachnasaigh, I'm with Kage Ryu on this. Everyone wants lightning quick renders of high quality. My only question is of the video card. Not just for speed but for colors. My old XPS laptop was a gaming laptop that had an incredible video card. The card was 600 dollars and combined with the chipset from 2007 was faster and produced more colors than my current computer which is kind to say is about midrange. I'm saving up for a better video card as I don't believe in CPU/GPU bottlenecks. Sooner or later the CPU will process everything thrown at it. Better to keep it cooking than have it sitting around waiting for triangles. I also don't believe in overclocking. Can I assume you have a kick butt video card to go with those 6 Intel cores? I'm currently on an AMD.

 

[seachnasaigh]

@seachnasaigh I'm down in NZ and not sure how I could get my hands on one of these, do you have any ideas as it sounds like a good plan for my next build. Secondly other than harddrive is there any thing else that needs changing/adding, graphics card etc?

• Check eBay, looking at the search filtering fields to see if you can specify New Zealand.
• If not, try an internet search for refurbished servers/workstations, New Zealand.
• If you have local computer shops, stop in and ask them if they know who deals in used enterprise grade equipment (server blades, professional workstations).

Workstations usually don't come with a Windows license. Figure on buying an OEM Win7Pro 64bit license. These are also available on eBay, Amazon, and many PC shops. They are less than half the cost of a retail license. The difference is that MicroSoft won't help you with the installation. But, the disc's setup program does the installation for you anyway, so MS is superfluous.

If the workstation comes with a graphics card, it will likely be one of nVidia's Quadro series; these are the professional GPUs and do well for 3D use. But if you want to GPU render, then you'll need to remove the Quadro driver, then install a GeForce driver and GeForce series GPU (Titan, 1080, GTX980Ti, etc). Quadro drivers and GeForce drivers interfere with each other. So if you change from Quadro to GeForce -or vice versa- you must remove the old driver, then install the new driver.
@quietrob : Quadros are powerful and accurate, but they aren't well suited to gaming. Urania, Cameron, and Galadriel have Quadros; TinkerBell has a Titan Z.

I usually fill a vacant PCI or PCIe slot with a USB3 controller.

Sorry for delayed answer; there was a fire down the road and the power went off here. I snipped these test renders before shutting down. They show the new bay windowseat of Miri's treehouse. There are candles on little shelves in the corners of the bay.

 

[Dreamer]

Thanks seachasaigh, I'll try those and see how I get on

 

[jvrenderer]

Meet Rumour...
My first Genesis 8 Render.
Rumor has it, G8F is a bit ugly and old looking out of the box.
Do you want to make her angry?

 

[seachnasaigh]

Thanks seachasaigh, I'll try those and see how I get on

If eBay does not operate in NZ, then surely somebody else handles used stuff.
Another possibility is a marketer of PCs or PC parts; Newegg.com here in the US mostly sells new parts, but they also buy/sell refurbished workstations. This may include dealers representing the big names (Dell, HP).

@jvrenderer : You got the defiant expression down pat!

 

[Miss B]

@jvrenderer : You got the defiant expression down pat!

That he did!

 

[Rokket]

Only a preview render. My laptop is on it's very last legs. But it's a scene from my screenplay. Shiera is telling Carter she will see him soon.

 

[Rokket]

I had to create almost everything in that scene other than Pauline and her clothes. And the ground and background...

 

[quietrob]

That should be fun when you decide to render the scene. Nice job on the wings. I can't wait to see what material you chose.

 

[seachnasaigh]

Superfly adaptation of the Eldar house cottage:

 

[Miss B]

Ohhh, now how did I miss seeing the Cottage before. I like.

 

[quietrob]

I love the balcony's and miniature glass arboretums. Makes for a nice place for the Elves to watch the moon.

And be on the lookout for Orcs.