[dvd::rip] Cluster Mode System Requirements

[Phillip Geiger <phillip.geiger@xxxxxxxxx>]

How fast a computer do you really need to make a useful node in a
dvd::rip cluster?

I'm planning to use a PIII 866 fileserver I've got as the primary
workstation, host for the cluster control daemon, and NFS server. 
Most of the time I'll have one or two 1.7 GHz P4 laptop plugged in to
serve as a node.  But, I've also got about ten PII 333 MHz laptops
that are idle much of the time.

The cluster mode docs page says:
    "if the performance of your cluster nodes differs much you
     can decrease [chunk size] to prevent slow nodes from
     blocking the whole cluster with transcoding a huge chunk
     while the others are idle. But: decreasing the chunk size
     too much makes 2-pass encoding useless, because the
     material for analysis becomes too short."

So, I'd probably want to whack the chunk size way down so the 1.7 GHz
P4 doesn't sit idle while the slower machines chug along.  But, I
don't want to mess up the 2-pass encoding.  My question is this -
before I go to the trouble of setting up a whole bunch of underpowered
nodes, at what point is a machine just _too slow_ to be a useful node?
 Am I wasting my time with a bunch of 333 MHz dinosaurs?

Thanks.