Am wanting to build a 2nd PC (and maybe more) with plans to upgrade from V6 Infinite to V8 Complete and am wondering what considerations to take into account.  I'm thinking of going with AMD Phenom II 6 core with 8GB RAM to start with, and Win7 64.  Currently I'm just rendering stills, not animations.  I would use Vue as my primary 3D app, though I have Bryce 7 Pro, and Carrara 6.2 as well.  And of course Daz Studio which I definitely use on occasion.  My goals are to increase system stability (slightly higher priority), and increase render speed - especially in scene development and to a lessor extent in rendering the final image.  Questions I have:

With V8 Complete I would get 5 nodes.  Is it better to build 1 render monster (high specs in CPU and RAM) or does having a little brother PC (or 3) used as cows really help?

When using Win7 (haven't had any experience with it yet), is home version perfectly fine to use?  Are there any benefits in system stability, render speed etc. that would be worth spending the extra bucks on a better version?  Is there any need or benefit to having all systems using the same OS?  My current one and only PC is running Vista 32 Home (gag me - not very efficient, compatible, or stable in my experience e.g. V6I crashes quite often).

Currently I have a dual monitor setup.  Is it easy to switch my I/O (monitors and keyboard & mouse from one PC to another?  Would I use a KVM switch which supports up to 4 PC's?  I would think that would be the way to do that.  I would save money and space by not buying extra monitors.

Any useful feedback would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

I love my i7 computer.  It renders so much faster than my old 32 bit system. 
Whatever processor you get, get lots of memory and a good video card.  Avoid ATI and get a Nividia card with at least 1GB of memory. 

I suggest getting Windows 7 Pro.  It has the Virtual PC, so if you have an older program that won't even install in Windows 7, you can still use it. 

I am right there with Peggy on the i7 chips. Mine uses all 8 threads. I do however use ATI with no problems, and LOTS of RAM,

AMD fanboy here! Haven't gotten to the X6 just yet (next hardware upgrade), but the Phenom II X4 (the 65 watt chip) has been glorious. The performance is nigh onto perfect, and from a cost standpoint, you can build up to 3 quad core AMD systems for rendernodes for the price of one i7 chip (unless you go with the cheapy one....which pretty much defeats the purpose of -having- an i7, as the general clock speed is far lower).

From the standpoint of uber system vs distributed rendering, it depends. If you are doing -massive- (like poster sized) stills, or highly detailed stills, then it can be a coin toss as to wether a render network is worthwhile. If you plan on animating, then build the rendergarden, no two questions, and make your plans so that you can expand it with minimal fuss.

While you -can- use mixed OS's  with the Rendercow and rendernodes (at least with the higher end Vue packages; check and see which is the lowest one that does this) you will start to run into bottleneck issues.  And if you are going to have your main system as a 64 bit, then go ahead and make sure your render boxes are also 64 bit. This will make things more stable. Also keep in mind that the closer your renderboxes are in basic stats to your main box, the less likely you will be to run into the problem of the renderbox having to hit the swapfile hard, as the main box has 8 gig of ram and it only has 4, and the scene exceeds that 4 gig size. It works just fine...but you lose some efficiency when the rendercow has to keep writing to, and accessing, the swapfile, as HDD access times are the current major bottleneck in computer performance.

A KVM switch is cool; but you won't find one that does dual monitor switching, nor do you need it. If the renderboxes are dedicated to just that, you will only need quick access to turn them on and off, or restart a crashed rendercow or node. If you think you will want more than 4 nodes, go online and you will find 8 and 16 port KVM rackmount capable switches for a reasonable amount. There are also software alternatives, like remote desktop, WinVNC, and several more that allow you to remote access other computers. Another little trick is using WLAN, or Wake on LAN.....which basically is making sure your motherboard and network connector support WLAN. Then all you have to do is send a specific command, known as the 'magic packet' to a specified computer, and it will start up....allowing you to leave your renderfarm in a very low power mode until needed, started when you want from your control computer, and any tweaks can be done through remote desktop or WinVNC.

This is my current renderfarm, currently in the closet you see behind and to the left. The power is wired, and I have the keystone jacks in place there for gigabit ethernet, and am currently wiring the house for same. If you plan on long term usage, a rack setup might be worth the extra investment, as its one of those things you can add to as you can afford to. The cases with the blue light on front are 3u rackmount cases from Case Depot, the actual rack is from starcase.com. That is an 8 port KVM switch, and a Netgear 24 port 10/100 switch (which will be exchanged for a gigabit switch in the future). The cases are a bit pricey (the 3u's at case depot start at around $160, but that also includes a 300 watt power supply, which is more than enough to run a renderbox), but they also make it easy to replace internal components and keep going with the same case. This is also the result of several years of one piece at a time, and by staying with industry standard components, you never have to worry about running into a Dell or HP 'Oh, we're sorry, you have to buy 'OUR' part at a 300% markup'

It really all depends on your budget and what you want to do with your computer. Personally, I am getting ready to build a high-end custom computer that was featured in the Sept 2010 Maximum PC issue. My Mac Pro will be made part of my render farm for me to use with other programs like Vue, C4D, etc.

In regard to what version of Windows 7, you will need "Pro" or "Ultimate" if you want to run more than one CPU. Also, you are limited to 16GB of RAM with Home but not the others. Certainly you want to be 64 bit all the way.

Besides CPUs, a very good graphics card, you will want at least 10GB of RAM or more. Also, I would suggest maybe looking into an SSD for the programs and a good hard drive like the WD Carvier "Black" for speed and mass storage. Your read/write speeds are VERY important and a good hard drive or SSD will be great for performance.

Also, if doing a render farm, I recommend to go with full CAT 6 (NOT 5e) hard wired solution for all the nodes that are part of your network.

Most of the other advice I think has been covered pretty well by others. Good luck and happy rendering.

Wow, that's a lot to digest, especially Dale's input.  I will ponder on this advice for awhile.

Another AMD fan here..... If you have two machines, you might want to consider using the second as a dedicated rendering machine. It would be slower, but you wouldn't care as your primary machine is where you would be busy constructing your scenes.

I agree with Dale on a bunch of things - I have the same AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition cpu on three machines (coupled with ASUS Crosshair III Formula motherboards) and these are rock-solid systems, even when overclocked and performing at speeds just a little under the standard performance specs of the Intel i7. Dale is certainly correct about the things you could do with the money you would save by not purchasing an Intel i7. 

 If I were doing it again, I would go for the AMD 6 core and the newest ASUS Crosshair Formula mobo this time. The tech reviews are pretty positive.

One thing I've learned the hard way over the years - make sure your power supply is much more than you think you'll need. Two of my rigs are AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Editions, with 6 GB of RAM, the ASUS Crosshair Formula Boards, NVidia 250 (but could be the NVidia 460 video cards), and two sets of RAID drives on each (four total hard drives per machine). I'm using Thermaltake 850 watt modular power supplies on these guys. Over the years, I learned that if the power supply is a lot more than technically needed (150 to 200 watts more than the estimated requirement) , your motherboard and cpu will last a heck of a lot longer, and you can overclock for rendering purposes without giving it another thought. (Personally, I don't overclock very much - wanted the ASUS mobos more for longterm stability than anything else. But, overclocking this particular rig to cut rendering times in half is a snap.))

If you can have only a single machine, an Intel i7 makes sense because your rendering needs are more demanding than your Vue scene creation needs. But if you are able to expand up from an older box, you really should consider an AMD rig.  And, he's surely right about going to a cow system if you are rendering animations, but just using a second rendering computer if you are mostly concerned with rendering stills.

I do disagree with Dale on one little piece. I have a KVM switch that handles two DVI-connector-type monitors and four computers just fine! (A little bit of excessive hardware, perhaps, but I'm making my living with these guys.) My KVM box is a bit high-end and expensive - it is the MiniView Dual View Dual Link DVI (GCS1644) from IOGear. It is supporting two DVI monitors, the four computers, plus a radio mouse and a bluetooth keyboard. (Not to mention multiple  sound systems.)  

Plus, I have an IO Gear4-Port USB Sharing Switch that sits on top of the KVM switch. This little cheap guy hosts a 4 GB Patriot USB memory stick, and one USB connection to each of the four computers. I can copy files from any machine to the USB stick and then just press one of the switches to transfer the files to another one of the four machines. Easy, fast and cheap!

You would not need such a fancy (nor expensive) KVM Switch, but there are several that handle dual monitors, especially if your monitors are standard 15-pin type, and not HMDI or DVI. Just take a look at those produced by IOGear on their website. In a KVM Switch, you get what you pay for. (However, if you go with a KVM Switch, particularly with a good one, try Amazon for the actual purchase, as it is a cheaper source.)

Thanks for the correction, Sharon! I don't have a dual monitor setup (yet), so I must have truncated my own search to what I needed. And that is a neat trick on the shared USB; avoids all sorts of issues when you try to configure computers for network sharing. 

Oh, two more things to consider; heat and noise. My original rendergarden was desktop cases stacked on a printer stand, to the right of my desk. The room temperature when an animation was cooking could get stuffy (although it's nice in winter, if you have cold winters), and you have to be very careful about ceiling fans. Computer cases are designed around the concept of negative pressure cooling; the power supply fan exhausts air from the back, and the drop in pressure brings cooler room air into the case. Extra fans helps that along, but most people wind up with the exhaust still being only from the power supply. Place a computer against a wall, and turn on a ceiling fan blowing downward, and you can create enough pressure between wall and computer that the exhaust fan  is useless. I found that out the hard way when a box overheated, and I couldn't understand how two functioning fans weren't up to the job. You have to make sure your renderboxes have adequate airflow that can't be interfered with.

I think I'll start with building one Phenom II box dedicated for development and rendering, and use my current PC for all the boring stuff (surfing, finances etc).  I built it 2 years ago, it is a Phenom with 4GB RAM but using Vista Home 32 bit (ick).  I could upgrade to Win7 64 on this system and likely see better performance (+ add 4GB RAM more) but I'd have to uninstall and reinstall EVERYTHING.  What a pain!!  I will investigate KVM switches however.  I like the idea of a USB sharing device.  Flash RAM is cheaper than top soil and avoiding setting up a network may have benefits.  Anyone played with the new solid state drives yet?  Any benefit to installing a second copy of software there and running it?  Or perhaps using it for the swap file or readyboost or something?

Attached Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817111709&cm_re=IOGear_USB_Sharing_Switch-_-17-111-709-_-Product

Here's a source for my file sharing switch....

Make sure that you get a reasonably fast USB Memory stick. I like Patriot, these days.

I'm planning on getting an SSD to experiment with in the near future. 3DNeo's idea of using it for apps should work well. But you need to keep a couple of things in mind;

1. These are still -new- technology, and haven't withstood the test of time and user stupidity yet, so a little caution is called for.

2. These are based on NAND gate technology, like any other kind of current flash memory. And like flash, they have a limited life span. You can only write/overwrite so many times before physics takes its toll and causes a gate to fail. (that's one of the things I want to use an SSD for; put it into a renderbox and see how long it lasts with the OS doing its thing, and a rendercow hitting the swapfile constantly). If the errror correcting software in the OS can handle a bit killing a byte, you're fine.....but remember how laggy software is at taking advantage of new hardware. At this point you do -not- want to even think of storing valuable data on one. Use a traditional hard drive for that.