My son-in-law has a small successful CG busines and it is growing by leeps and bounds. (kid's got talent) My question is about 'rendering computers'; his business is growing so fast that he will in the very near future have to buy some more computers "just for rendering" and I would like to do that for him but I don't know exactly what the box should contain. I was thinking of getting 5 or so computers but I don't know what I need in the case. (don't want to pay for things that are not required by rendering computers).
Could you tell me what the ideal "rendering" computer should contain as far as cpu....hdd?.....ram? etc.

Thanks,
Widepart

Megalomaniac

First of all, get an apple. Find a qualified Apple Dealer and they'll easily be able to help you. Apple's are far superior for any type of multimedia design, from graphics, to video, to sound...

Generally with Apples, they come in models with a few customizable options. With graphical work and CG rendering, the main items to look at will be the CPU, the amount of RAM, the graphics card and the monitor. Most people forget about the monitor but it's a vital piece of graphical creations. You need to be able to get the highest possible resolution to fine-tune the small details that make the images really stand out.

For a good starting point, you can check out the Mac Pro at Apple - Mac Pro

8-core CPU will be beefy enough to handle just about any CG work you can throw at it and the graphic card options should all be more than sufficient.

widepart

Megalomaniac,
Thanks, but you really didn't answer the question I asked.
The computers I'm inquiring about are for "RENDERING ONLY".
They don't require monitors, sound cards, and alike, they just do computational work with regard to rendering CG animations and effects. I know what they don't need , I am trying to find out what they do need so I can purchase or have these units built to set up a small "rendering farm".

Thanks,
Widepart