New MacMini for R3D renderfarm??

[Thomas Mathai]

So I'm at the Apple Store in Santa Monica, checking out the new Mac Mini.

Wondering if the NVIDIA GForce 9400 would be good enough for R3D to Quicktime/DPX in RedCine or RedAlert.

I know Mac Minis were used as a render farm for Zodiac, so this new update should be even better.

Has anyone used a new Macbook with RedCine or RedAlert yet?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

That would be an expensive render node... It's essentially the same guts as a Macbook. The nVidia 9400M is an OK mobile GPU, but hardly the best one out there from nVidia or others. It will run REDCINE just fine. RED Alert, redline, red rushes do not use the GPU for any processing anyway. REDCINE uses the GPU for playback and color operations I think. I don't know how much it uses it for render to output. Either way, the GPU is not the bottleneck in these systems for REDCINE or similar apps. It's the bandwidth of other components such as the hard drives, memory and CPU bus, etc.. It has Firewire 800 and USB2.. So you can expect a bottleneck in working with your R3D footage just base on that along with the internal drive.

 

[Thomas Mathai]

Well it's no Xserve, and I'm sure I can probably hobble together some Hackintoshes that could be cheaper.

I was more curious how the Minis would work with the Red software. I was planning to use one or two with Compressor.

 

[Olivier Madar]

That would be an expensive render node... It's essentially the same guts as a Macbook. The nVidia 9400M is an OK mobile GPU, but hardly the best one out there from nVidia or others. It will run REDCINE just fine. RED Alert, redline, red rushes do not use the GPU for any processing anyway. REDCINE uses the GPU for playback and color operations I think. I don't know how much it uses it for render to output. Either way, the GPU is not the bottleneck in these systems for REDCINE or similar apps. It's the bandwidth of other components such as the hard drives, memory and CPU bus, etc.. It has Firewire 800 and USB2.. So you can expect a bottleneck in working with your R3D footage just base on that along with the internal drive.

I just get my MacbookPro, and made some tests with it :

Esata Harddrive are nearly as quick on the macbook than on the big Mac. I use a 1,5T in Raid 1 connected in esata for recordinghours of 720P50 ProResHQ without any drop frame. So, yes firewire 400 and 800 and USB2 are very slow, but with a 30 $ little expresscard you can can get a very fast computer.

 

[Cail Young]

Wondering if the NVIDIA GForce 9400 would be good enough for R3D to Quicktime/DPX in RedCine or RedAlert.

Redalert has nothing to do with the GPU - it's CPU/storage bound for performance. FW800 drives will help.

 

[Gabriele Turchi]

How is possible to use multiple Mac Mini as single render farm?

Taanks

G

 

[Thomas Mathai]

For Shake and Compressor, using Qmaster.

For After Effects using watch folders or Qmaster (generic render).

 

[Gabriele Turchi]

Ok,
Qmaster is need,
but how should i connect the mac mini together ?


thanks!

G

 

[Thomas Mathai]

Ethernet to a Gigabit Switch.
Set IP Addresses.

Use KVM switch to cycle between the Minis. VPN software could be used to log in, to save a few $$.

Make sure the OS updates are identical. The render node versions of the software are identical with all 3rd party plug ins.

I've had issues in the past where one box was off a version on something and the renders were bad because a number of frames would be rendered slightly different.

If you're rendering media files instead of frames, it won't get split up, at least in After Effects. I think Compressor can do that on certain codecs.

There's a lot of tutorials online for setting up networks, and some specifically for render farms.

 

[Gabriele Turchi]

Thanks!
I swear that I have google it "how setup a render farm" etc...

And actually I found almost nothing...

If you have a couple of address please post it..

Would be helpful..

Thanks

G

 

[Karl Gustav H.]

Ethernet to a Gigabit Switch.
Set IP Addresses.

Use KVM switch to cycle between the Minis. VPN software could be used to log in, to save a few $$.

Make sure the OS updates are identical. The render node versions of the software are identical with all 3rd party plug ins.

I've had issues in the past where one box was off a version on something and the renders were bad because a number of frames would be rendered slightly different.

If you're rendering media files instead of frames, it won't get split up, at least in After Effects. I think Compressor can do that on certain codecs.

There's a lot of tutorials online for setting up networks, and some specifically for render farms.

It's always a good idea to have a spare render node running as a standalone test rig so you can check updates for stability. Once you are happy with it; clone the HDD to the 'active' render nodes.