the nice thing about the animation/batch render settings is, you can set the starting frame, and every so much frames you want rendered.
For example, if you use 3 computers, you can set the first to start at frame 1, the second at frame 2 and the last on frame 3, and then you can tell them to all render every 3rd frame.
So pc 1 renders 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and so on.
Pc 2 renders 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17 and so on.
And pc 3 renders 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and so on.
That way you can already preview the first part of the anim before the batches are finished.