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Home: Video University Forums: Mac Video:
Mac Mini for render farm

GmElliott
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May 22, 2008, 11:06 AM

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Mac Mini for render farm	Can't Post

Picking up a Mac Mini today to be used as a dedicated capture machine/render farm. I have two questions:

1) Upgrading the Mini; I want to upgrade it's diminutive 120gig HD and upgrade the ram to 2 gigs. I know plenty of people have done ram upgrades on their own but how about upgrading the internal HD? It doesn't utilize any sort of proprietary connection does it?

I'm assuming it uses a 2.5" laptop drive. What's the biggest/fastest 2.5" laptop drive available right now- the WD 320gig?

Is there a reason Apple doesn't have this as an available HD upgrade for the Mini (ie heat?).

2) Setting up a render farm; I know it requires two serial #'s for FCP but what are the steps to set up the Mini to handle rendering tasks. Can it be done seamlessly in the background while I continue to edit?

Glen Elliott
http://www.GmElliottVideo.com

Joel
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May 22, 2008, 12:47 PM

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Re: [GmElliott] Mac Mini for render farm [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Glen,

I researched this when distributed encoding became available but came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the time it would take to get it up and running and trouble shooting it. I'll be interested to see how your system works.

This was some good reading and I think most of it is still relevant:

http://www.eventdv.net/...aspx?ArticleID=37923

As for the drive:

http://soledadpenades.com/...nis-hard-disk-drive/

And the biggest drive right now is the Hitachi 500gb but I couldn't find any specs for it and its not in stock anywhere. The WD is a the next largest:

http://www.newegg.com/...;name=SATA+3.0Gb%2fs

Joel

"Think of this business as a room with a huge table and a bunch of chairs around the table. There is a big pie on the table. Your mission is to take your place at the table, pick up your fork, and eat your pie. Do not look to the left and do not look to the right. Just eat your pie. There is plenty of pie for everyone."

starting | perfectionists

(This post was edited by Joel on May 22, 2008, 12:48 PM)

GmElliott
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May 22, 2008, 1:31 PM

Post #3 of 3 (401 views)
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Re: [Joel] Mac Mini for render farm [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hey Joel thanks for taking the time to reply, it's much appreciated. I was a little foggy about distributed encoding but that article does indeed make it sound a bit daunting. I'm going to experiment with different things and continue doing more online research on this subject. Even if the standard distributed network encoding isn't utilized I'll look to find a way the Mini can be a little helper. Mabye even utilize screen sharing so I don't necessarily have to have it connected to it's own display. Tongue

I'm also looking forward to cracking it open and blowing my warranty out the door. The 320gig WD sounds sweet! Along with 2 gigs of ram. It'll be more powerful (sans athe video card) than my last first gen Mac Book Pro, and that ran FCP flawlessly.

Glen Elliott
http://www.GmElliottVideo.com