From: "Chris Zwar" <chris@chriszwar.com>
To: "After Effects Mail List" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>
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Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:18:20 +0000
Subject: Re:  [AE] Semi OT: Yet another mac mini render farm thread
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We have a decent render farm running Deadline (for everything, Max, Maya,=
 C4D, AE).  The guys here have done a few tests with Mac Minis and basica=
lly concluded that they work, provided they have enough ram - but that's =
normal.  They didn't run into any specific issues related to Mac Mini.

They're planning on building a portable mac-mini Deadline render farm in =
a flight case.  The cost of shipping Mac Pros is prohibitive when you hav=
e a lot of them - something like the Helmer render farm but using a fligh=
t case and not the IKEA cabinet would be much cheaper to transport than e=
ven a few Mac Pros, yet much much more powerful.

I was just reading the Ars Technica review of the latest Mac Mini and was=
 disappointed to see they've dropped the option of a discrete graphics ca=
rd.  This means it's not possible to drop in something that would boost C=
uda performance, and in the long term this seriously diminishes their app=
eal as rendering and desktop graphics machines.  The new iMacs, for examp=
le, have a high-end graphics card option which is quite capable - but the=
 minis are stuck with Intels crappy integrated graphics.  Not so much a p=
roblem for After Effects prior to CS6, but a big problem for anything 3D =
and anything that takes advantage of Cuda etc etc.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/review-the-mac-mini-takes-the-ivy-br=
idge-to-fusion-town/

-Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Shipley [mailto:nshipley@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 04:53 AM
To: 'After Effects Mail List'
Subject: Re: [AE] Semi OT: Yet another mac mini render farm thread

Hey Tony -

Pondering this myself.  Just curious if you ever collected any useful
answers or found some relevant information about a render farm with the
latest Minis.  Anything?

Thanks!
 - Nathan

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Tony Romain
<tonyr-aelist@trancedesigns.com>wrote:

> So this has come up in the past, wanted to get opinions from the
> technorati out there (I'm looking in your direction Tim Sassoon, I thin=
k
> you built one a few years back, yes?)
>
> Have been toying with building a mac mini render farm, mostly for cinem=
a
> 4d.  With the just released i7 quad core mac minis=85 thinking it could=
 be a
> pretty great option.  I know you can probably get more bang for your bu=
ck
> building a PC based version from scratch.  But one of my concerns, bein=
g in
> a relatively small studio space is power consumption and heat, which I
> think makes a mac mini a good option.
>
> Just not sure how stable they are for sustained multi hour usage on the=

> processors=85.
>
>
> Any thoughts?
>
>
>
> --
> *tony romain* *|* *principal/creative director*
>
> *trance*
> *motion graphic animation and design*
> 323 651 1114
> www.trancedesigns.com
>