Render server for daz

cdreid1

Im planning on making some games. The first will use daz then daz+poser+ue. I'm a programmer, not an artist.. and i'm relearning 3d graphics from 10+ years ago.... (wow the time sync). Some of my scenes include complex landscapes and multiple daz models and im running a gtx 1060 3gb so.. cpu rendering. Im thinking of buying a used Poweredge r815 server just to offload the scene renders (and maybe some animations). This should cost me about $500. Is this a bad/good idea? The plan is to install windows 8.1 on the server (its stable), maybe physically modify the box and put a gtx 750 in it.. install daz and blender on it and use it to render. It will have 32 or 64 cores at about 2.3 ghz. I can get a higher ghz server but with FAR fewer cores for that. Is this a good plan or am i wasting money. This server will only be turned on when im rendering (it's very power intensive). The last time i was doing any real rendering was  you bought 3dsmax on a cd and it cost less than my graphics card........ Any advice? is this a bad idea? I see a lot of reccomendations about buying Much slower used 8  core servers and render stations but it seems ridiculous to buy a render station that's not even as fast as my pc and im not willing to put out the 2-3k minimum to build a passable ryzen pc that probably still wont render as fast as this server

kenshaw011267

You'd be far better off getting a better graphics card. That $500 could get you a used 1080 which will definitely outperform that server in iRay rendering.

kyoto kid

...I'd invest the 500$ in Octane4 as it supports Out of Core memory which means if the render process exceeds the GPU VRAM it then uses physical memory from the MB wiith out dumping the entire procedure to the CPU like Iray does. 

Artini

Out of Core memory in Octane 4 is even in free version of it - no need to purchase the license.

I would better invest the $500 in the hardware, as well.

 

jestmart

The OP said they make big complicated scenes so graphics card is not the way to go as the scenes would likely excede the cards memory.

kenshaw011267

If by big he means over 11 Gb then that server will take weeks to render the scene of it doesn't simply ctd. But what he actually wrote was "complex landscapes and multiple characters" which is certainly within a 1080ti's capabilities. The power cost to run the proposed server to do the same renders would be prohibitive.

Artini

Not to mention, how noisy the server could be, while rendering...

 

cdreid1

I checked out octane. It looks sweet , if you're a pro. But $400 for software that may not help is nuts and the trial won't save renders or the project.Theres actually a video of Linus (Linus tech tips) running a poweredge r815 against a 16 or 32 core threadripper and >at rendering and only at rendering< it came in a close second. Though he rigged a 1080ti into it to even the playing field and im not sure how much of that waqs the 1080 and how much was all the cores. At Everything else the server was a joke..

But anyway i read all the fantastic advice (and it really was fantastic thanks) and.. after deciding to buy a funky new cooling system for my fx system.. managed to crunch my processor with the horrific mounts. So.. i just ordered the parts for a ryzen 1700x system w 16gb ram  off ebay for.. get this.. about $350. I paid more for my excellent but second hand FX system in 2015. And the motherboard supports 3 gpus so ill drop my gtx 1060 and 750 and see how it does. Who knows maybe toss a 1080ti in there in 6 months??? Though i dont think iray idiotically uses the lowest ram whatever. Open to any suggestions to improving this system. it will run off a 128ish gb  ssd with a 60gigish ssd for cache and whatever my hard drive is. Im thinking add another 16gb ram.