Build or buy a cluster? at DVinfo.net

Nick Hiltgen · May 31st, 2008, 05:05 AM

I'm remarkably happy with my laptop it does all of the editing I currently need to do and it's portable the only I only run into issues when i'm trying to do any rendering or compressing. I've used to some success the compressor software with qmaster so I think I would like to try and setup my own cluster or render farm to take advantage of it.

I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to try and build a "hackintosh" render farm as it would be a waste it seems to get a whole bunch of macs with video cards etc to setup. With a very basic setup I think I could build 3 dual quadcore 2.33ghz machines and pop on qmaster giving me in effect 24 cores with which to work the obvious downside is that it would be a "hacked" product to run apple software and it would strictly exist only as a render farm (without adding to the cost)

For the same price I could buy a bottom of the line mac pro which has all of the benefits of being a plug and play mac. Also I suppose I would be able to take advantage of local processor intense applications like color. I would probably make that my editing computer though leaving my macbook pro to kinda go to waste (except of course for location stuff) the other downside would be 8 cores (though faster) as opposed to 24 I'm not 100% sure what the difference computing wise would be and if it would even be worthwhile to try and have 24 cores on the other hand it could mean 2-3x the speed of the render which would be awesome.

I'm just looking for any thoughts or suggestions? Has anyone tried something like this yet?

Glenn Chan · May 31st, 2008, 09:54 AM

Not all software support distributed rendering... e.g. FCP, as far as I know, doesn't support it.

Nick Hiltgen · May 31st, 2008, 05:54 PM

I think you're right so the only real advantage would be for compressor, in which case it would probably better to let FCP have the 8 core's instead...

Robert Lane · May 31st, 2008, 09:38 PM

Unfortunately FCP only allows for distributed processing for Compressor (ver 3) not for rendering individual segments in a timeline.

Nick Hiltgen · June 1st, 2008, 07:38 AM

Well that sort of decides it then I guess!
Thanks guys!

May 31st, 2008, 05:05 AM	#1
Nick Hiltgen Trustee Join Date: May 2003 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 1,427	Build or buy a cluster? I'm remarkably happy with my laptop it does all of the editing I currently need to do and it's portable the only I only run into issues when i'm trying to do any rendering or compressing. I've used to some success the compressor software with qmaster so I think I would like to try and setup my own cluster or render farm to take advantage of it. I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to try and build a "hackintosh" render farm as it would be a waste it seems to get a whole bunch of macs with video cards etc to setup. With a very basic setup I think I could build 3 dual quadcore 2.33ghz machines and pop on qmaster giving me in effect 24 cores with which to work the obvious downside is that it would be a "hacked" product to run apple software and it would strictly exist only as a render farm (without adding to the cost) For the same price I could buy a bottom of the line mac pro which has all of the benefits of being a plug and play mac. Also I suppose I would be able to take advantage of local processor intense applications like color. I would probably make that my editing computer though leaving my macbook pro to kinda go to waste (except of course for location stuff) the other downside would be 8 cores (though faster) as opposed to 24 I'm not 100% sure what the difference computing wise would be and if it would even be worthwhile to try and have 24 cores on the other hand it could mean 2-3x the speed of the render which would be awesome. I'm just looking for any thoughts or suggestions? Has anyone tried something like this yet? __________________ I have a dream that one day canon will release a 35mm ef to xl adapter and I'll have iris control and a 35mm dof of all my ef lenses, and it will be awesome...

May 31st, 2008, 05:54 PM	#3
Nick Hiltgen Trustee Join Date: May 2003 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 1,427	I think you're right so the only real advantage would be for compressor, in which case it would probably better to let FCP have the 8 core's instead... __________________ I have a dream that one day canon will release a 35mm ef to xl adapter and I'll have iris control and a 35mm dof of all my ef lenses, and it will be awesome...

June 1st, 2008, 07:38 AM	#5
Nick Hiltgen Trustee Join Date: May 2003 Location: Atlanta GA Posts: 1,427	Well that sort of decides it then I guess! Thanks guys! __________________ I have a dream that one day canon will release a 35mm ef to xl adapter and I'll have iris control and a 35mm dof of all my ef lenses, and it will be awesome...

May 31st, 2008, 09:54 AM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Not all software support distributed rendering... e.g. FCP, as far as I know, doesn't support it.

May 31st, 2008, 09:38 PM	#4
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,823 Images: 15	Unfortunately FCP only allows for distributed processing for Compressor (ver 3) not for rendering individual segments in a timeline.