Best system hardware for Qube!?

[JRC_DGJ]

I'm currently in one of those fantastic positions that I get to rebuild a renderfarm from scratch, no limitations, just "make it work the first time"!
Having said that, what hardware combinations have you found to be the most compatible with Qube! software. I am initially envisioning an HP server due to my ignorance with Mac OS X Server, but would prefer Mac. Any issues with render nodes/clients running Bootcamp?

I realize there are going to be some strong opinions - please divulge!

Many thanks, and I look forward to all the input. I'll be posting questions regularly to your input.

[joshua.bretag]

Hi
supervisor recommended specifications:

< 10 workers:
4-core
4GB of ram

10 ->30 workers:
8-core
8GB RAM

30 -> 150 workers:
8-core
8GB RAM minimum, 12GB recommended

150 -> 250 workers:
8-core
12 GB RAM minimum, 12GB recommended

there is a great Whitepaper on tuning for performance with regard to the supervisor

http://www.pipelinefx.com/support-docs/Qube_TuningForHighPerformance.pdf

as for rendernodes/workers

depending on the demand you wish to throw at it

some of our client use there workstations which kick onto the farm of a night

2d requires far less grunt and more network throughput

3d requires far more CPU and RAM

there are many good 2u servers that have multiple procs and highly expandable ram

Qube! is 100% cross compatible so it works equally on all hardware

Kind regards

Josh 

[dmeyer]

We currently run Supervisor on a 2009 Xserve under OSX Server.  It has been solid.  It is the 8 core 2.66 GHz Nehalem with 24 GB RAM.  Has been more than enough with about 75 workers.  We tend to run only one subjob per machine though as our renderers scale well.

Workers are all Windows machines, predominantly Dell M610's but some others mixed in.

Artists mostly run OSX on Mac Pro, but when their workstations are upgraded, the old Mac Pro's get Bootcamp'd and join the farm.

The artist workstations also run bootcamp on a secondary hard drive, and during peak demand times will be rebooted into Windows overnight to help out.

I've never had any issues rendering via Bootcamp, though I'd not recommend it via VMware or Parallels within OSX.