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$6500.00 3d animation Studio

Yeh I know I said I wouldn't get ahead of myself and start configuring hardware before the script is locked BUT since I have no producer or anybody else to figure out the budget etc I have to do that and its always best to plan ahead....AND I LOVE TO GEEK OUT!! FUCK YEAH FRIDAY NIGHT AND I'M CONFIGURING WORKSTATIONS AND RENDER FARMS YES YES YES! I know the exciting life of an independent feature animation filmmaker....sigh...haha...

So yeh all it costs is $6500.00 to buy all the hardware needed for a 3d animation micro studio.... that includes boring things like UPS's, Gigabit switches, monitors and all that.... So here's some of the geek stats....Here's what you can get for $6500.00

Workstation+ $2500.00
(This is a DIY system gotta put it together but its cheaper that way)

Intel Q6600 Quadcore at 3ghz(Oc'd on air)
8gb Ram
1tb sata hd
8800 gt 512mb gfx card
20x DVD burner
Keyboard+mouse
750 VA UPS
2 x 24" LCD monitors

The computer itself is < $1500...the monitors and UPS add the extra $ but like you need those...

4 node Render Farm

Intel Q6600 Quadcore at 3ghz(Oc'd on air)
4gb Ram
Minimal Hd
7600gt gfx card x1
24" Lcd x 1
8 port KVM switch
16 port gigabit switch
1300 VA UPS

Are you wondering why I included one graphics card and such a big monitor just for render nodes? Well you pop the gfx card in one of the nodes and it acts as your secondary workstation so one other person can work with you if you are so lucky... It uses the same processor as your workstation and a single 24" Lcd is pretty nice to work with...might throw in another 20" for good measure ^ ^ So for $6500.00 you get 2 workstations and a 4 node render farm with 16 3ghz CPU's...The 16 port gig switch and 8 port KVM give you room to grow as well...

As I was writing this I realized there's also two other things you need...a file server and a render server....it can be the same computer if its fast enough... I'll use my old file server in the new studio space when it's set up so I don't have to put one in the budget...but its just an old PC with a SATA card in it and a bunch of big drives and a gigabit card.... The CPU is too slow to run the render server software on it so I guess I'll use one of my old render boxes as the render server in the new studio space...

I think its pretty amazing that you can get so much power and flexibility for under $10,000....the real exciting thing is that when the time comes and I really NEED to buy this stuff in 4-6 months it will be more powerful and cheaper by then!!!

Its 5am now I should probably end my exciting CPU filled Friday night lolZ... I was editing the 2nd draft of my script earlier and I did a 2 hour talkshow so it wasn't all tech geek tonight....whatever I has teh no shame in my love of hardware as I, sys admin/tech of M dot Strange studios muahahahahaa!!!

Me: Hey M dot
Sys admin: Yes M dot
Me: BSOD on node #3
Sys admin: I'm on it
Me: Hey check out this shot I just finished!
Sys admin: I can't I'm working...
Me: Forget you then! I'll just create another personality! I'll call him the Yes-man muahahaha
Yes-man: Wow thats amazing! Your so great!
Me: Yeh I know...now only if that sys-admin would hurry and fix node #3
Sys-admin: Ah c'mon we're only 75 people in one?!
Me: Shut up
Yes-man: Yeh shut up

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