Yo, I and a cohort developed a business plan around a render farm business just before the dotbomb (thus, why we didn't actually go after funding). We have a substantial amount of research done, although the stuff is three years old now. If you want any of this info, just let me know. Email me at ryan(at)suydams.com
Just a quick note, a massive array of disposable nodes, connected by simple ethernet (GigE) is plenty for most rendering jobs. You gain little by having a massively parallel system image, but the cost goes up tremendously. As the rendering batch jobs are naturally threaded (i.e., each frame of the animation can be rendered as it's own work-unit), you will find just a simple LAN will be plenty sufficient for your needs.
Finally, check out www.boxxtech.com as they have some awesome rendernodes already built (on Xeon or Opteron platforms).
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Yo, I and a cohort developed a business plan around a render farm business just before the dotbomb (thus, why we didn't actually go after funding). We have a substantial amount of research done, although the stuff is three years old now. If you want any of this info, just let me know. Email me at ryan(at)suydams.com Just a quick note, a massive array of disposable nodes, connected by simple ethernet (GigE) is plenty for most rendering jobs. You gain little by having a massively parallel system image, but the cost goes up tremendously. As the rendering batch jobs are naturally threaded (i.e., each frame of the animation can be rendered as it's own work-unit), you will find just a simple LAN will be plenty sufficient for your needs. Finally, check out www.boxxtech.com as they have some awesome rendernodes already built (on Xeon or Opteron platforms).