I'm thinking back to the original thread about a small-form cluster that someone built.
A linux cluster in a IKEA Helmer cabinet.
I remember reading that about this a year ago. It was nice to revisit though. I see he has been keeping people informed with updates.
One thing I noticed, that I didn't notice before. Lots of wires. Looks like he's been keeping it in the closet, looking at the one photo.
Judging by the photo, it looks like a wireing nightmare.
I think that this guy is onto a second-generation project now, so it might be worth your while to get in touch with him and see what he can tell you about building a cost-effective cluster, both in initial outlay, and in terms of ongoing running costs. I think that his system was low-energy, small form-factor but with the computing power needed and at a moderate cost.
The story of Helmer II
I think that would be a little bit premature right now. I'm still trying to make up my mind, weather to go with Intel or AMD.
I still have a gut feeling that something is going to happen between now and Christmas.
Some of the links he provides on Nvidia Gelato, and ATi's Render monkey was very interesting.
I noticed the requirements for render monkey, was Windows. There was no mention of Linux.
Home Page of SFE - Svensk Film Effekt
My understanding about the GPU is that it confines itself to the display, so it is not going to have all that much effect on the ability of the system to do rendering, which would be entirely a CPU function. It would help by not making demands on the CPU for the display, but that would be all, I think. Of course, I could be quite wrong on that, and reading about Helmer II seems to give a different impression ...
You might benefit from taking a look at Dynebolic, too, as it has special tools for setting up and using a cluster of all computers on a LAN. It is also geared towards creative stuff, such as films or broadcasting, etc. I think the main base of users come from countries where they don't have access to lots of money, so they are geared towards using the lowest cost solutions.
Here is their how-to : --
Cluster computer farms
Not that theirs is the only way to set up a cluster, but it may be one of the easier ways to begin with
Thanks for the links, but clustering is way in the future yet. Last time I tried clustering, I wound up with serious migraines.
To many if's, and's, or but's.
When I'm ready to start clustering, I think Dynebolic will be the way to go.
I'm just trying to concentrate on a good workstation. Preferably, something that utilizes the GPU.
Clustering will be down the road, but for now I just want to concentrate on the workstation.
And intuition tells me, Wait!
and thank you for your appreciation! I ain't really amazing, I am just a reporter of what others have done and discovered.
And Thank You! I am very appreciative of your efforts. You have found a lot of information.
PPPPPS Looks as if I was completely wrong about GPUs. These apparently allow much denser clusters than CPU-only based clusters.
The Tesla, was when I started looking more closely at the GPU. From what I read about the Tesla, it's more for scientific computation. The more I read about it, it seemed to be overkill for rendering.
