My CEO suggested that we get a dedicated machine just for rendering. Our IT guy asked me to post a query on recommendations for machine, configuration, etc. He is not a graphics person, so he knows nothing about the "special" requirements for doing 3D rendering and any special considerations for either Bryce and Poser. I was thinking PC with 2 fast processors, 2 gigs of memory, and super fast video card. But he is talking about the possibility of a machine that supports 4 processors (or more) and 4 gigs or more of memory. He even mentioned a RISC processor (of course our CEO may not have been thinking about being that extravagant). Any suggestions (bearing in mind that either or both Poser and Bryce need to be able to take advantage of beefed up processing and memory). I have no idea what limits there are, if any, on Poser and Bryce (and Vue4 for that matter). And I do know that Poser does not support network rendering (only via Vue4).

Ok, for bryce, you do not need a great video card if you are just using the machine as a render whore. For the Processor (even though I love AMD's) Pentium 4's own render times... So anything P4 is good. Now, you can either set up a multiproc machine with 2 gigs, or a few single proc machines with a gig each, then use bryce lightening. As always, you don't need fancy features when rendering, you need raw power. IE the higher the actual clock speed of the processor the faster it will render. Even though in games an athlon 3000+ will beat a pentium 4 3.06 ghz... It only actually has 2.16 ghz, and will fall far behind in the rendering industry. (for nearly the same price). Just my 2 cents. Hope it helped.

I'd make the dedicated server just run Lightning if I were you, that way you just need enough memory for the OS(bout a gig).

But I need to take into account that I am going to be using the Poser renderer which can be REALLY slow also and also there is a possibility that I will also use the Vue 4 renderer. Does that matter? Also, I have had bad experiences with ATHLON chips. I had a motherboard go bad after only 1 year and the shop I brought it to told me that they have had many problems with ATHLON boards and virtually none with the Pentium4-based motherboards.

I'm having a problem with my AMD consistently running hot if I render much in Bryce. I rebuilt my tower to stand the North Carolina heat but so far it's not working. I have 5 case fans in it with all rounded cabling and a duct with all my other wires going through it...still runs hot. The case itself is aluminum with a windowed side. I have a thermometer inside and it's consistently running in the mid 90s to 100 degrees farenheit when I'm doing Bryce work...the processor itself runs in the 140s F (which is 60s Celcius IIRC.) I think it's my CPU fan that really blows (no pun intended), and haven't had the time or money (definitely not the money) to stick into it right now. Plus when I DO get cash, it's going for more RAM. Anyhow, when I do much rendering in Bryce, I gotta put my 20 inch box fan beside the doorway and turn it on high. How sad. MD PS...I love my AMD...but geez...what kind of CPU fan does it take to keep this damn thing cool?!?

Maddog if you are having that much trouble you may want to look into watercooling systems. I'm not sure about Poser's or Vue's render requirements. Bryce is pure CPU power. It won't use both processors in a dual system but I have heard that running Lightning on the same system as the host will use both processors. I'm not sure Poser has a network render but Vue and Bryce do, Hypervue and Lightning respectively. With these a renderfarm would probably be more effective if the budget allows. Now as far as Pentiums outdoing AMD's I'd have to disagree but I don't have the benchmarks to prove either way. I use an AOpen motherboard with an Athlon XP 2000+ chip and haven't had any problems at all. AMD's do run hotter thus require better ventilation and cooling. (I have to run mine in the summer with the case open and a box fan blowing into it. run about 45-50 C that way).

Mad dog, I just bought a Thermaltake Volcano 11, get one of those man... I mean, I have my athlon 2000+ WAY overclocked, but it runs at a nice cool temp of 113 even after a long day of rendering in 90 degree weather, ( I need an air conditioner... ) 30$ could have saved you a lot of money on expensive case modding =P.

Personal opinion here, your best bet would be dual Intel Xeon DP processors, they will be coming down in price quite a bit in the next 2 weeks ( I believe ). Intel makes a top notch workstation board, they sell it as a server board, however, this board has an 8x agp slot, this is the same board that I understand IBM is using. The Intel board is SE7505VB2. Unless you are rendering something really hugh, you should be able to get by with 1 gig of memory. The video card is not real important if all your are going to do is render. If memory serves me correctly, you can get the above combo for less that 1100 dollars, at least from the vendor that I use. Any questions, feel free to email or IM me. skydiver

Ornlu...thanks for the tip on the CPU fan. I may have to look into that one soon. I did the case modding too because I wanted my computer to look cool. ;) But it too was meant to reduce heat...which it HAS...but it's a lot warmer and humid here than what I anticipated. (I love heat and humidity...thrive in it...but my computer doesn't.) I'm too cheap to run AC too so that doesn't help. But I will look into that fan, I know Thermaltakes are awesome. MD

The problem with the fan probably explains why my AMD went over the edge. My computer room at home is cooled by the air conditioner in the next room. The temp in the computer room is never anywhere near as cool as the other room. And during the day when I am at work, the air conditioner stays off. My computer room was orginally a breezeway between my studio and the rest of the house with sliding glass doors on one side and a bank of three very tall windows which covers pretty much the other side. It gets pretty hot in there during the day even with the air conditioner in the other room on high. PLUS, it sits next to another tower computer. Gee, I guess I had better leave the air conditioning on when I go to work... As far as multiple processors, I am a little unclear how to take advantage of them for Bryce renders. When you speak about Bryce Lightning, as I understand it, you are referring to the program inside Bryce 5 that handles network rendering, not a separate product. If Bryce does not support multiple processors, then the only way to speed up rendering (other than by a super-fast CPU and 1 GIG of memory max) is using multiple machines set up as a render farm (again, using Bryce's internal network rendering software). I am correct in this assumption? Our IT guy told me that the usually the operating system handles the dual processing function and that would not depend on Bryce internally supporting multi-processing in its code. I would like to believe this, but I am skeptical. Taking his view to its extreme would lead one to believe that four or even eight processors on the motherboard would make a difference in rendering time.

Lightning is a seperate little program that you put on the other computers to set-up a network render, it comes with Bryce. You run Bryce on the main computer and lightning on the others and enter the other computer IP addresses in the main Bryce program by selecting "render animation". You can do a zero frame animation render for stills. I don't have a dual processor system but from people who have (you can search the forum) they said Bryce only uses 1 processor but if you run Bryce and lightning on the same machine it uses both processors. I'd suggest finiding a dual processor machine to test this out. Otherwise a renderfarm is the way to go except I don't think Poser network renders.

Didn't AgentSmith post this a while back? http://www.rendercube.com

8 AMDs...I'd hate to pay for the cooling on that thing. MD