Just a quick note to anyone out there looking to buy some renderfarm hardware, the BOXX RenderBOXX solution is now on sale.
If you’ve never used the RenderBOXX, it’s an impressively dense solution that can pack 10 computers (each renderBOXX has 2 computers in it) into a 4U space, each one capable of dual hex-core processors.
Get the full specs here.
BOXX has announced their newest product, the “renderPRO” system (for Personal Rendering Option”). It’s a smallish box designed to sit on top of your existing workstation and provide remote rendering services.
renderPRO makes rendering personal. You don’t need a server room, IT personnel, or budget approval. Forget waiting on your workstation or standing in line for time on the studio render farm. renderPRO is quiet, compact, and fits on top of your workstation, at your desk, or anywhere with a network connection, so now you can render the images you’ve created right at your desk. renderPRO puts dedicated rendering at your fingertips and puts rendering decisions back in your hands.
For independent graphics artists, this might be a useful solution. Any larger user would go straight for the RenderBOXX solution and build a rack. The lowest configuration (the Pro4 with dual quad cores and 6G ram) is $2k, but the highest end (Pro12) runs all the way up to $10k.
An interesting option, for sure, but is it really useful? Would you rather buy one of these, or a full computer?
BOXX technologies has just made a leap in compute density with their new “renderBOXX 10400″ system that features Intel’s Xeon 5600 6-core processor.
Previous generation 10300 five-module render farms featured 80 processing cores in a 4 rack unit space. The new 10400 increases the amount to 120 cores in that same space. renderBOXX 10400 also carries the distinction of being the first dedicated rendering solution to feature solid state drives for increased R/W performance, greater efficiency, and stability. In terms of throughput, the 24 core renderBOXX delivers an astonishing 222 MB per second.
So now you can pack 120 cores in a 4U space, or 1200 in a 42U rack, with a bit of space left over. From the specs they show, I believe this is a small 4-processor box (4 processors * 6 cores = 24 cores) that you can pack 5 into a 4U space (similar to a blade design), making 5 boxes * 24 cores = 120 cores in a 4U space. Their website seems a bit slow at the moment, so you can view the Spec Sheet here (download PDF).
via New BOXX Rendering System Features Six Core Processors and Solid State Drives.
Users of the popular SolidWorks CAD Suite can now look forward to official support and service of their issues when using the 3DBOXX 4850 workstation.
“A large segment of BOXX customers have been reliably running SolidWorks for years, so certification and partner status are a perfect fit,” said Shoaib Mohammad, Director of Marketing and Business Development at BOXX. “As SolidWorks users ourselves, we understand the value of this product and the workstation configurations needed to ensure maximum productivity for designers and engineers.”
via BOXX Partners With SolidWorks to Offer Certified 3D CAD Solutions.
BOXX Technologies, provider of graphics design workstations worldwide, has just rev’ed their entire product line with support for Windows7, adding improved performance and higher-powered machines.
Windows 7 will be available with all BOXX workstations, including the 3DBOXX 4850 Extreme (the fastest Intel® Core(TM) i7 based workstation on the market), 3DBOXX 8500 (featuring Intel® Xeon® processor options resulting in 16 virtual cores for multitasking), and GoBOXX (the industry’s fastest mobile workstation), which allows digital artists to create outside of studio confines without sacrificing professional workstation performance.
You can see all of the BOXX products on their website.
via BOXX Solutions With New Windows 7 Offer Real Benefits for Digital Artists | .NET Developer’s Journal.
BOXXLabs, the research division of BOXX technologies, lead technologist Adam Glick has a good writeup on what he predicts will be the big focuses at SIGGRAPH this year. He opens with an interesting discussion of why the “shrinking” of SIGGRAPH is a good thing.
Attending SIGGRAPH provides stellar opportunities to see first hand, the emerging technologies and academic research projects that will shape the future of the computer graphics world. With less people in attendance, those of us that do show up hopefully won’t have to wait in line as long to watch demos, or to get “hands on” time with demo systems and technology prototypes. I personally love to see the new stuff up close -to me it’s easily the most interesting and inspiring part of SIGRAPH.
He then moves on to predictions. His picks:
via BOXXtalk – The BOXXlabs Tech Review: Ready or not- here comes the BOXXlabs SIGGRAPH 2009 preview.
BOXX is breaking ground again with their new 3DBOXX8500, a new workstation based on the ‘Nehalem’ Xeon processor from Intel.
Capable of reaching 3.46 GHz using Intel Turbo Boost Technology, the 3DBOXX 8500 provides digital artists with 16 virtual cores of high-powered, multitasking performance for 3D design, animation, rendering, and visualization applications, as well as VFX compositing, video editing and digital intermediate workflows. Designed to accommodate multi-threading, multiple applications, and complex production pipelines, the 8500 features six Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series options, up to 192GB advanced DDR3 ECC memory, 12 terabytes of storage, and up to six hard drives.
Time to upgrade?
BOXX Technologies has just announced a new workstation named the 4850 that (they claim) is the most powerful single-processor workstation ever designed, and several reviewers are showin it several thousand dollars below all the competition.
Now, in addition to those stellar performance numbers, BOXX detailed cost analysis reveals that, in terms of price, the 4850 Extreme also bests these same Apple, Dell, and HP systems. Extreme is priced nearly $2000 below Dell’s model, nearly $3000 below Apple, and $3400 below HP.
The benchmarks they’re showing are pretty impressive as well:
More information about the Boxx 4850 can be found on BOXX’s website.
via PR-CANADA.net – BOXX Technologies “Extreme” Workstation Priced Thousands Below Competition.
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