Rendering Speed

[sceech]

Hi guys,

Is the rendering speed of an Anime file determined more by the program's ability to render at a certain rate (thus it has a max), or more by your computer's ability to process (iMac)?

I'm building a series and rendering times are slow, thus I'm considering adding a new computer to the mix if a bigger, faster machine on top of what I have is the way to speed rendering. I'd use that computer only for rending, no internet or other software on it at all, if this is a good solution.

I often render something, then spot something that need fixing, so re-rendering at slow speeds is painful...
Granted, some of my files have very complex layer structures and a lot of details within the drawings at times, so I'm just wondering how you the pros who are getting paid for this keep your rendering humming along, or if there are merely limits to how fast Anime renders no matter what you do. How do I optimize?

Thanks!

[synthsin75]

Rendering to an image sequence that you can then import into a video editor would help you save time rendering fixes (where you only have to rerender the edited frames) and speed up the render to the final output (as video editors don't have to calculate everything being done in an AS project as it renders). Aside from that, number of cores (up to four) and processor speeds are the only other limiting factors.

[sceech]

Thanks for the input, do you think there's a fast four-core machine (Imac) under $2500, or is that fantsyland? If so, what would be the optimum spec for such a machine (Mac)? Any ideas for "best configuration"?

As as work-around, I tried just taking files on a flash drive and rendering on my girl's computer (brand new Imac), a duo processor, which was pretty fast, so I can work with that for the time being, if necessary, if the "super computer" ends up out of my price range for now.

Thanks again!

[synthsin75]

Windows guy here. I know virtually nothing about Macs.

[slowtiger]

I got my last 4core MacPro for about 600$ - of course from eBay. Unfortunately it had a bug in thepower supply and shut down for good after not even 2 years. The replacement costs me about 400$ - from a friend.

So, it's possible to get a fast machine quite cheap, but stay away from the very first generation MacPro since it's a known bug.