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Knots per hour is actually acceleration (nautical miles per hour per hour) so yes they are deffo windier and windier! My brain is "of an age" -- it works in celcius, but miles, yards, (a metre is a yard an a bit, or about a yard!), feet, inches & fractions thereof, and (surprisingly) centimetres and millimetres. I have a good grasp of knots (from flying), miles per hour, but not Km/h (except for the "magic driving numbers" -- 50kmh=30mph, 100 kmh=60mph), pints, gallons (imperial, not US) and litres.
And I can still add up in old-style shillings and pence! (12 pennies in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound...)
Very little of which is directly useful to Carrara!
Oh and I always have trouble with US format dates, which is why I never get the day right for when my products are released!
beers aren't pints anymore, the pint is shrinking.
Hmm, so there's a Dell T5500 server coming to the end of its eBay auction in a little less than 3 hours from now that's currently bid at only $73.
It only has one X5550 Xeon installed and no hard drive, but I looked and anyone could get another X5550 to match on eBay for about $10, and hard drives aren't very expensive either (you don't need a big HDD for a render node anyway) and getting a 2nd heatsink for that thing would be around $15.
3 hours from now is past the close of the business day pretty much everywhere in the US, so I'd be surprised if there's a lot more bidding up in price, and this could be an excellent way for anyone who's interested in getting a dual-Xeon server on the cheap (although in only comes with one Xeon to begin with). I thought I would mention it if anyone might be interested (though surely Murphy's law will kick in and the price will get bid up at the last minute lol). It would take a little bit of TLC to bring it to dual-Xeon fruition, but I imagine it wouldn't be all that difficult. If the price tag stays below $100 or even just goes slightly over, I think that's a pretty decent deal for a dual-Xeon rig.
For my part, my Lenovo D20 came in today (well last night, but I only got around to working with it today) so I'm a little overwhelmed with dual-Xeon servers at the moment. The D20 is bigger than I thought. The z600 is about the size of an average desktop, maybe slightly bigger, but the D20 is taller and longer (and slightly wider) and heavier too. I think the guy who sold it to me was irked I got it at such a low price point, as the insides had been fiddled with slightly; the hard drive that came with it was connected to the wrong sata port type and so wasn't seen the first time I tried to install Windows. Finally figured out that it was connected wrong and corrected, and installed Windows 7pro, nice to bring another 16 render cores into the mix
the seller sabotaged the machine?
lol, probably not, but for a minute there I was thrown. Apparently there are 2 different types of SATA connections in the D20, the black ones are regular and the blue ones are for the onboard Marvell controller, not the HDD ((I have no idea what that is, but after a google search for 'I can't find my HDD on the D20' I found a forum that explained this). Once I switched it so the HDD was connected to one of the black SATA connections all was well and I was able to install Win7pro. From that point on it was smooth sailing, and I now have the D20 as part of the Carrara network and ready to go.
BTW, that t5500 I mentioned did get bid up a little, it ended up going for $102 (plus $45 or so shipping). Still a pretty sweet deal, but I researched a little and apparently to make it a dual Xeon you have to attach some sort of daughter card to it, it's not like the z600 or the D20 in that it comes default with seating for 2 CPUs. I looked it up and the daughter card isn't that much money, so it probably still was worth getting, and I think maybe I should have grabbed it myself, even if I'm not going to use it, for no other reason than to play with and rig it up to be a dual Xeon machine and then resell it.
i'm so nervous over the heatsink and powersupply plugs.
thinkin mebbe get a few cheap ebay parts to practice on, before messing with my perfectly working i5 lol
Or even just a cheap extra i7 machine to plat with? Look at the deals jon's been grabbing up! I'd hate to see you wreck a perfectly well-working machine.
Don't get me wrong, it's not hard to do this stuff... but it does have to be done right - or not at all. There are probably YouTube videos showing how to do it. Try searching "replace i5 with i7" on YouTube, see what comes up.
The first time I tried to do any 'operation' on my computer was when I swapped out a stock Intel heatsink for a gammax 400 I got on Newegg.
I was sweating bullets, and nothing seemed to go right. Super simple thing, but I must have spent nearly 2 hours on it, and since I didn't really understand how the plastic mounting pegs worked at first, I actually got it wrong and mounted the Gammax 400 so it was fully pressed down to the heatsink. I later saw that the temp of my cpu had actually climbed, went back in and re-did it right. Looking back it's super simple to do this once you know how, but even having watched several videos and understanding the concepts, there is definitely something different (and tricky) about the execution the first time
I do think the idea of getting an inexpensive 'practice' machine has great merit, you can definitely find an i7 out there for less than $200 (probably closer to $150 if you're willing to watch for it) and on top of the bonus that you won't be scared to death of wrecking it and losing your life savings investment
like you might be with your main computer, you'll also have a pretty terrific render node.
BTW I work for Cisco in my day job, sadly I have nothing to do with the Certifications dept, otherwise I'd offer to put in a good word for you on that CCNA exam you're thinking of studying for
And I'll keep watching the auctions (because I'm obsessed), whever I see anymore great potential deals I'll pop an update to this thread for anyone who might be interested but doesn't want to waste their life watcing ebay auctions like I am at the moment
As an example there are a couple of HP 8100 i7 desktops coming to an auction close tomorrow one for $81 and the other for $10 bid at the moment, both look like they have $49 shipping fee so you have to add that in, the one currently bid at $81 closes at noon tomorrow, so I kind of expect that to bid up higher, but the other one closes the auction at 7pm, which is after business hours, and since this is a computer type more likely to be sought by businesses, that could turn out to be a pretty good deal (although now that I've said so, it'll probably be jinxed and end up bidding sky high lol).
Though generally speaking I'm finding the best deals I've seen have gone at odd hours, later or very early hours on weekends, and Friday just after close of business when I guess everyone is in rush hour traffic but me (since I work from home).
do you need an intervention?
says she as she signs up for an ebay account.
I probably do need an intervention, but I need eBay more!!
BTW that HP Compaq 8100 Elite MT Intel Core i7 2.80ghz 4gb RAM I mentioned up thread is coming to auction close in about 2 hours from now and is only bid up to $42 currently. Because it's late on a Friday and past most business hours I think there's a decent chance that it can be had for a fair price and won't get bid up too high, on the other hand, since the 'i7' is right in the description and title, that is the kind of thing consumers search for (in many ways it's better/easier to get a good deal on a Xeon machine than an i7, simply because fewer people are searching for Xeons), so it might still get bit up too high. Shipping on this one is right at $50, so that's another factor to consider. It's always fascinating to me to see how these auctions end up pricing out, I could very well be completely wrong and this might bid up sky high at the last minute, but I think there's a fair chance this might end up going for a decently low price.
Looks like it went for $65, which with the shipping would be about $115 total, not bad at all for a full i7 desktop. Time of day/week really does matter for these things, and it becomes increasingly apparent that any Carrarist can assemble their own render farm pretty inexpensively. :)
could the render nodes run on free linux? that would be a treat, eh?
I think I saw a forum thread awhile back that someone had been able to get Carrara running on Linux, but I'm not sure. If the main app can run on Linux, then I don't see why a render node couldn't.
Thanks! I have so little time for... well... anything fun! (kidding... I love working with stone)
...and it might even work out being a great main machine, too!!! Never know!
I've never tried Linux... but if Carrara ran on it I'd love to give it a try - something more simple like Ubuntu or the like.
True. Me too. The sweating Bullets thing! Crazy!
That's one thing that vastly improved when I started building my own. Yeah... I was nervous the first time. But when my order arrived and I saw that nice huge Tower case, my nerves calmed. It's nice having plenty of room to work with!
Even with my new obsession I miss out on the good deals more often than I would like. Yesterday I was watching a Lenovo D20 that looked like it might be a great deal, but then get pulled away from my computer by real life. Came back to find out it sold for $96 (plus $40 shipping). In fairness, it only had one Xeon X5550 cpu, but the D20 can be dual-xeon and it would only cost $10 or so to pick up a 2nd X5550 and slap it in (throw in a few more dollars for a heat sink for the 2nd cpu too I guess). Would have been such a good deal I would have seriously considered buying it just to throw in another Xeon and then reselling it (most dual Xeon D20's don't go for less than $300, usually more). But alas, real life got in the way...
...all of which, one processor or two, are incredibly great deals! Eight good cores do a lot of rendering ... that's what I've been using for the last few years (since 2012, when I built my eight core) and I'm really happy with how fast it renders! Man, less than $200 for a D20 with a single Xeon is Crazy Awesome!!!
On a side note, I can't thank you enough for this (and your previous - leading to this) thread! So inspiring and just plain Fun!
Even to just dream about more new rendering cores is a very fun passtime! ;)
Thanks jonstark!
Here
I want it!
HP Z600 Workstation Xeon 2X E5640 2.67GHZ /16GB/1TB/ Quadro 2000 Here
$269
I see another one (amongst a bunch of them) for around the same "Buy Now" price which comes with 2 x 2TB HDD!!! That's almost worth the whole price right there!
I've also always wondered how well those Quadro video cards would work with Carrara's 3d view. That's really what they're made for, isn't it? Workstation-class OpenGL monsters - that's why they cost like two grand new. At least they used to.
Closer to 5 grand new, actually (depending on the processor up to 7 grand!)
Those are all good deals, but I've seen them go for even less in the bidding, just got to catch them at the right hour and day. In general z600's seem to sell for less money than the D20's and the Dell T5500's go for even less than the z600's (though with the Dell it's kind of a mess inside, not a huge fan of their design of putting the 2nd CPU on a daughtercard instead of built into the motherboard).
I do think that D20 I missed was probably the best deal of this weekend, and I wasn't going to buy it myself but I'm kind of kicking myself for not mentioning it here in the forums as the time counted down. Ah well, there will be even better deals to be had in the future. I'm all about making great deals for our Carrara. We are going to Make Carrara Great Again! lol
I've always been a fan of the Buy it Now button. Bidding gives me a headache! LOL
Wow!!! Just did some e-bay browsing... there are a LOT of excellent Workstations for sale! LOL
I'm gonna get one - but not a Dell. Nothing against those whom like them... truly. I just don't like their way of doing their builds - as Jonstark says.
Those Z600s look wonderful, so do the D20s! You have both... do you have a preference?
I think the z600 is built better/smarter. It's designed so you can take it apart and swap out any part using no tools, only your own hands. The D20 is physically bigger, so there's more space inside, and kinda 'looks cooler' if style points matter. The default heatsinks for the z600 look bigger/better in my opinion, while the default heatsinks on the D20 look like oversized Intel standard stock heatsinks. Which is probably fine, but nevertheless, I think in most respects the z600 wins it. And as the cherry on top: usually, I see the z600's selling for less expense than the D20's seem to. I have no idea whether that might be down to brand perception (maybe Lenovo's are considered sturdier or more dependable than HP's in the server world?)
Cool! I love the looks of the Z600, to tell the truth! Yes, the D20 is a beaut as well, but I love the beefy look of the HP!
I think that the Z600 might just be older, perhaps? Hmmm...
Thanks for the notes! All that considered, I'm really hoping to get either of them - first pick being the Z600 as soon as I can! I'm actually considering just using my eight-core then as the render node machine and make this workstation my workstation!
drool mebbe can get 1 in couple months
So I think there's a fair chance I've spotted another possible decent deal coming up during this week. A single seller has put up 3 different Lenovo D20's for auction, each is closing on a different day, and each of them is listed at a $95 price (although bear in mind shipping is another $87 dollars). One is coming to a close tonight, in a little over an hour from now, and the 2nd one is closing on Thursday night at 8pm Mountain time, and the 3rd is closing on Saturday night at 9pm. All of them are closing their auctions well after most businesses are closed, and I doubt many consumers will be searching for Xeon computer systems, so I think there will be relatively little bidding, and the one that closes on Wed night is a dual-Xeon system, so could turn out to be a pretty good deal (though again, bear in mind that $87 shipping fee, because that is pretty darn steep and changes the equation somewhat).
Just thought I would mention in case anyone is interested. :)
The D20 I mentioned above has two 6-core Xeons and Free shipping! ;)
It's a little more than the 95 + 87, but there's not need to wait for someone to up the bid in the last minute. Still, getting a D20 for less than that (by bidding) would be amazing!
Look what you started!!! LOL