Farms, Names, Pictures, Projects and Paper Trays

[S. Starbuck]

A few days ago I get a letter from the student loans company, with final details of my loan to get me through university this year. Naturally, I have spent much of it on my computers :)

So I now have nearly all the parts for my nice new boinc farm in the post, which should arrive over the course of this week.

The farm in it's initial state will consist of 5 crunchers, all identical. Stats are as follows:

Motherboard: Asus M2A-MX
CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+
RAM: 1GB Crucial DDR2-667
Storage: 2GB Compact Flash (via IDE converter)

PSUs are not ordered yet - The plan is to measure the power usage of one of the nodes using the PSU for my main computer, so I can see just how much each of them uses.

Now as for storing these things. I first looked at getting cases for each of them, but I came to the conclusion not only would this cost a fair amount of money, it would mean they use up more space than needed. I needed to come up with an idea, which thanks to the empty paper tray on my desk I came to quickly.

I have now in the post 5 paper trays with standoffs. Each of these trays measure 260x345mm. a uATX board measures 244x244mm, so plenty of room.

Now these trays stack on top of each other, so hey presto - an instant computer rack.

So that's the hardware basically sorted, and I'm already planning on using linux on them all, so where does that leave us?

Well, names.

I always give my computers names, but I'm also always rubbish at it.
So I'm opening it up to everyone here at AMDUsers - come up with a name for each of the nodes! I also would like a name for the whole stack in general, if any of you are up to the challenge!

Now I don't mind what sort of names you come up with, but if you can provide a reason and/or background for the name that would be great. There is no lottery or anything, just post your ideas and I'll pick the 5 I like best :icon_lol:

That's not the end of it either. While it's nice to have my head in the sky, running seti@home looking for ET, I also understand the arguably greater importance of doing work that will benefit mankind much more directly - thinks like medical research.

As such, I'm opening these 5 nodes up to 5 different projects - one project per node. (I will be actively monitoring them, so if a project goes down I can switch the node to something else quickly.)

Again, I have no preference as to which projects these are. So, I'm opening this up to AMDUsers as well!

If you have a favourite project, make a short argument for it, and I'll pick 5 of them.

Bonus points if you choose a project and name a node after something related to that project!

You basically have until the farm is fully up and running, which I estimate will be in about 2 weeks time.

And as promised, here is a picture for you all (don't worry, lots of pictures will come as the farm is built).

http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/power_meter.jpg

Good luck!

[Frederic Brillouet]

I'd call at least 1 of them crunchy :icon_lol:

[vaughan]

I usually name mine after the CPU and/or the motherboard I use. Something imaginative like Opteron165. :)

Seeing as you will have 5 the same that calls for a different nomenclature. Maybe where they are in the stacked rack?

Perhaps this: Idle, below normal, normal, above normal and high. Leaves room for Real Time when you build the next rig. :icon_wink:

[Danish Dynamite]

i am thinking PT1 PT2 PT3 PT4 PT5, PT = Paper Tray or T1 T2 T3 T4 T5, T = Tier OR Tray
with naming your comps as long as naming makes sense to you thats all that really matters

from your the cpu you choose, i am guessing you do not pay for power that you use, and wouldn't it be cheaper to get a phenom 9550 and one mobo, it would do much more work then 5 sempron's

as for your psu's i would get 450w (over time psu's caps loss effect thus psu not working as well as they are rated)

these a program out there called BoincView (http://boincview.amanheis.de/) apparently you will need to run WINE on linux to get it to work but makes it very simple to monitor your different comps

as for projects i really like nano-hive but currently they have no work (for at least a year now and doesnt appear that will change in the near future)

[S. Starbuck]

as for projects i really like nano-hive but currently they have no work (for at least a year now and doesnt appear that will change in the near future)

You must have not seen the news:



Please note:
I'm no longer maintaining NanoHive-1 nor NanoHive@Home. If you would like to take over either or both of the projects please contact me and I can help you (or at minimum hand over the keys.) --Brian.

Questions/Answers
RealSanta, founder of Team SETI.Germany-NH writes:
> As I read at the nh-homepage the project is "dead"?
Yes, sad to say the project is effectively dead. I no longer work at Nanorex, and they have no interest in keeping NHAH alive. I'm open to another team taking over the platform though.

[S. Starbuck]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I won't give any hints away as to my current favourites though!

Seeing as I had my camera to hand I've taken a picture of my desk as it looks currently, where you can see quite clearly the inspiration for the rack.
(This isn't how the desk normally looks - I quickly threw all the junk on the floor behind the camera!)

http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/desk_before_stack.jpg

[Danish Dynamite]

You must have not seen the news:

oh thats sad, wasn't like that last week :sad5:

[Danish Dynamite]

where you can see quite clearly the inspiration for the rack.

is that the 16 port switch ? lol

[sentient_life]

Ah shucks, I was waiting to join Nano Hive for the longest time, and then they go and shut down for good!:new_2gunsfiring_v1:

EDIT: I apologize for going off subject, but I'm wondering how much longer APS@Home will be available. The admin seems to be too tied up with outside endeavors to generate more work. Another long dormant project, Proteins@Home, announced that they should have more work in December. And Predictor@Home has been taking a long time getting acclimated to the Univ of Michigan.

[mitchellds]

yup I gave up on Nano Hive long ago.. I never got to make it to a Million. Anyhow, ABC, Milkyway, and Yoyo are good projects. Cosmo used to be good, but has had some lapses. Want to give some of these a whirl ?

[S. Starbuck]

these a program out there called BoincView (http://boincview.amanheis.de/) apparently you will need to run WINE on linux to get it to work but makes it very simple to monitor your different comps

Yes I had stumbled across that, however I probably will not be using it - wherever possible I avoid closed source programs - and the boinc manager itself can happily connect (although one at a time) to different nodes.


is that the 16 port switch ? lol

hehe, that's something I had left over from a project a few years back, but still works perfectly well.

And if you are wondering why I have it under the monitor. Well, it's so I can watch all those little lights flashing away at me :icon_wink:

[S. Starbuck]

Got a parcel today, so more pictures!

First, the parcel itself:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/big_red_box.jpg

Opening it up, this is what we find:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/inside_red_box.jpg

The full contents:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/contents_red_box.jpg

Nice can of compressed air there - that's what got me my free shipping on the order :icon_mrgreen:

The black things in bags are standoffs - They let me add an extra 50mm to the depth of each tray.

Finally the trays looking proud atop my computer:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/stacked_trays.jpg

EDIT:
WOOHOO! Another THREE parcels just arrived in the post! (First one was via a courier)

Sadly I've got lectures now, but once I get back later today expect loads more pictures!

EDIT2:
Sadly, one of those parcels is infact not mine - it's for somone else in my house (which I share with 6 people) - nice of the postman letting me know that before I signed for all three..

[S. Starbuck]

So as I mentioned in the edit, here are the two other parcels that came today that were mine:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/more_parcels.jpg

One of them turned out not to be as interesting as it could be:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/thats_no_computer.jpg

One of the many books that I'll get in the next few days for my uni course.

Moving on though, the second parcel was a bit better:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/many_cpus.jpg

After many attempts I just about got a picture of one of them you can make out:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/sempron_3000.jpg

Now what do all CPUs come with? Stickers of course!
So here are those stickers applied to the trays. Note also I've got the standoffs on them now.
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/tray_stack_stickers.jpg

That's it for today! Hopfully the motherboards will turn up tomorrow.

[mitchellds]

Very ambitious S. Starbuck !

Looks like your going to have some fun soon. :icon_wink:

[S. Starbuck]

Going to have fun? I'm already enjoying this! :icon_mrgreen:

Power supplies is the big hurdle I've got though. I can get a PSU for each board, be it a mini one or a standard, or I've been suggested to look at using one PSU to power multiple boards.

One such link I was sent:
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/112866-how-use-one-power-supply-power.html

I'm not over keen on that idea personally, but I need to get some feedback from people that have done it. (If anyone here has, feedback would be great!)

[Danish Dynamite]

well it does make sense from what i have read just don't forget to factor in the fact that psu do loss efficiency over time, i forget the % but i think it was in the range of 5 to 10% per year

[S. Starbuck]

Today is a good day, as you are about to see.

Firstly this package came in the normal post:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/another_package.jpg

And inside, many network cables:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/network_cables.jpg

Then about 5 minutes ago, this parcel arrived:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/big_parcel.jpg

And then a smile when I opened it up:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/big_parcel_contents.jpg

woohoo! lots of nice motherboards:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/motherboards.jpg

Inside each of those boxes:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/motherboard_box_contents.jpg

The full contents spread out. Not massive of stuff, but as it's a cheap board that is to be expected.
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/motherboard_and_extras.jpg

Closeup of the motherboard:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/motherboard_close.jpg

And finally, one of the motherboards in the rack, checking they do indeed fit:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/motherboard_in_rack.jpg

Annoyingly I got an email today saying the RAM and Compact Flash cards for them are going to be delayed - by how long I don't know. Still, I've got enough to start getting things sorted.

[AMDave]

This is turning into quite an event, S. Starbuck.

generally I name my nodes with 2 digits dn01 etc.. because I believe in expansion and I don't see myself running more than 99 boxen. I am up to dn07 now. Not that it really matters what you call them. Have a crack at the constellations (it is still World Space Week :D )

I have a firm belief in your dream and I know it's going to work.
For projects, I'd be as bold to say, kick the tyres on the 10K challenge - 10K in all projects that are running well at the time you try them, then hell-bent on your absolute favourite. (heh - catch me if you can - I think you might)

Now that you have the major components the memory delay might seem to take forever, but I recommend you spend some time planning how you are going to implement the software side.

eg building a working cruncher on one machine and cloning the drive to the others will produce problems with machine id's on projects so you'dd need to detach from all BOINC projects before cloning the disk, you'd also have to boot each individually to change the host name (and the IP if you don't use DHCP) etc.

You have some time to plan it out now which will save you time in the long run.

BTW, I am getting as green as this website ;)
(offtopic - Ototero would be nervous of that comment. Oh, for the mad old days! LOL)

[Nflight]

I have similar interests in this developing farm equation. I like the fact your very serious about reducing the electricity needs. I also like the tray like vessels for holding each motherboard. I am fascinated with your developing situation and your awareness in using uncommon subjects for your installations.
Have you thought about using a SSD for a HDD? This would reduce the constant current flow needed for those old constantly rotating disks of Yor!

For my treasured idea I was going to mount my systems on a 4 ft x 4 ft 3/4 inch piece of plywood. Then hang the board from the ceiling with the backside of the plywood away from the wall surface by just a 1/2 inch or so to conserve space. I was planning on using the on-board Video only as a back up. Since these were to be my crunchers I was going to access everything from DOS/Command Line and install Linux to handle all operations. Least amount of confusion, also less instruction paths to accomplish the same goals; crunching.

Sorry I have not posted sooner, I am kinda overly busy at the moment.

[Jeff]

**Sticky**

[S. Starbuck]

Yet more pictures!

First thing we need to do is get the CPU into place:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/cpu_in_place.jpg

And then something to cool it. For now I'm simply using the reference HSFs that came with each of the Semprons.
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/hsf_in_place.jpg

With those applied the motherboards can now go into their trays. You might also notice the new stickers on each of them - each of the motherboards came with it's own sticker, so of course that had to go on. You'll also notice there are only four trays shown below. That's because I've decided that I'm going to use the fifth motherboard as a replacement for the faulty one in my main computer, at least for now.
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/the_stack_nearly_there.jpg

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I think I did mention this, but all of the boards will have a 2GB Compact Flash card connected to them, via an IDE adaptor. I'm then going to be installing Linux onto each of these. (Most likely Arch Linux, as it's what I use on my main computer, so know most of the ins and outs of it.) They will all run headless, managed via SSH from my main computer.

[mitchellds]

Hey Starbuck,

Here's another idea that I use. Plastic Cutting boards. Simple stuff.

http://members.cox.net/dmitchell/boards.jpg

[S. Starbuck]

That looks quite impressive mitchellds, especially like the watercooling.

The idea of mounting them on boards like that did cross my time, as did a few other ideas.

I started by looking at some examples of farms from the link below, to get an idea of how other people stacked them up.
http://bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/staff/seti/farms.htm

I even did some very brief research at "proper" computer racks, but quickly turned back once I started seeing prices!

I'm happy with what I've come up with though, still yet to find any other examples like it :)

I have got some more pictures ready, but I havn't got them uploaded yet, and I think you guys deserve a break for a few hours at least - I am aware I'm taking photos of just about everything. (Do you really want to see a picture of another cardboard box?)

[mitchellds]

yup I remember seeing that link years ago when I first ran SETI. Proper computer racks can get real expensive no doubt. As you can see, I don't own those either.:icon_rolleyes:

[vaughan]

Sorry to rain on the parade but I've never had any long term success with these "out of box" setups. Computers are dust magnets and I've found you need a case with some descent fans that direct the airflow inside the case and some dust filters for the intake air. Easier to maintain the filters than go cleaning the HSF every month or two.

[mitchellds]

Its worked for me for a couple of years. I call that long term in computer years. Maintenance is simple. Of course my oldest computer is prob no more than 2 years old. I'm always changing things. It helps a lot to have things in a sealed room with good air turnover and filters on the AC.

[Brucifer]

Sorry to rain on the parade but I've never had any long term success with these "out of box" setups. Computers are dust magnets and I've found you need a case with some descent fans that direct the airflow inside the case and some dust filters for the intake air. Easier to maintain the filters than go cleaning the HSF every month or two.

I've found over the years that it really doesn't matter how you set them up cause you end up having to clean them out no matter what anyway.

[S. Starbuck]

Well it's been a few days since I've given an update, so here goes.

Still waiting on things like RAM and PSUs, and it's slowly driving me mad.

In the meantime though I have tested each of the mothboards, and thankfully, they all work:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/it_works.jpg

That's great, but the BIOS is very out of date, so that needs updating. One problem though. These boards only provide two ways of doing this. You can either use a floppy, or update them from within windows.

Sadly, floppy means floppy - a usb memory stick does not work, despite my best efforts. I have a USB floppy drive, but that wasn't detected either. So, I was forced to go with the second option.
I have an XP disc from an old laptop, so I installed this onto a spare hardrive. The BIOS update went fine, and thankfully the same install of XP ran without a problem on all 5 of the motherboards - by simply plugging the drive and some RAM from my main pc (and the PSU) into each board I was able to update them all without any problems:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/bios_update.jpg

Finally, I decided to move the trays off the top of my computer and place them on the side. So here is what my desk now looks like:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/trays_on_desk.jpg

As for the comments about having the computers open-air. Yes, dust will be a problem over time, but that's why I've got my compressed air can, to help clean them out every week / month, depending on how bad they get.

And off topic: Do you like my slowly growing collection of Relentless tins? :icon_lol:

[mitchellds]

Nice Starbuck.

Here are some of my Relentless tins I've been toying with recently. :icon_mrgreen:
pardon the flash :icon_rolleyes:

http://members.cox.net/dmitchell/blades-small.jpg

[Nflight]

Nice Tins Mitchellds are those V-4100's?

You went dumpster diving didn't you? :icon_mrgreen:

[mitchellds]

heh heh, yeah occasionally I find a good dumpster to dive into.

X4150's 8 cores each, 4gb memory, raid, yum, a tasty treat.

[S. Starbuck]

Some real nice stuff you've got there mitchellds!

A few updates for today.

Firstly, the company I ordered the last parts for have continued to mess around with my order, giving excuses, and so on. So today I simply told them to cancel it.

I've now re-ordered the stuff from elsewhere, which should, provided there are no more issues, arrive by the end of this week.

But I did get another packages today!

This one came all the way from Hong Kong:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/hongkong_package.jpg

And this is what it contained:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/little_hongkong_packages.jpg

Not sure what they are? Here is one of them in place on the motherboard:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/ide_to_flash.jpg

Yup, these are my IDE to Compact Flash adaptors. Now I just need the actual Compact Flash to arrive...

[S. Starbuck]

Well isn't this an interesting day...

PT1-Crunchy (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=924279)

PT2-RealTime (http://abcathome.com/show_host_detail.php?hostid=63196)

Yup.. Two nodes up and running!!!!! :qgreenjumpers:


Sadly not quite everything came today - The splitters to allow me to use one PSU on two motherboards are still not here - hence why it's just the two nodes, and not all four.

But lets see how we got to this stage, shall we?

Packages that came today:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/thats_nearly_all.jpg

Lets open the smaller package first:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/crucial_boxes.jpg

And inside these:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/crucial_ram.jpg

In total there are 6 sticks of 1GB DDR2-1066 RAM. Although I can't make use of this speed with my current CPUs, it saves me having to upgrade the RAM later when I upgrade the CPUs.

So let's open the big parcel now!
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/psus_and_bubbles.jpg

Those PSUs are rated at 425W - More than enough to run two of those nodes.

Here is all the bits and bobs the PSUs came with:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/psu_stuff.jpg

Next, opening up (and popping much of) the bubble wrap, we find these:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/compact_flash.jpg

The nice 2GB Compact Flash cards (rated at x133 speed.)

Popping those and the RAM into the motherboards:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/flash_ram_inplace.jpg

So with them all wired up I could install the OS (Arch again). I have however moved them somewhere else... Here's a pic of me installing Arch:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/newhome.jpg

As you can see, they are now in the bookshelf!

Here's a closer view:
http://theownerfreelibrary.org/images/boinc_farm/newhome_closer.jpg

And so there we have it. As soon as the extra cables come I'll get the other two online.

Now I am still looking for ideas for names. I decided having a simple numbering system would be a good idea, so they will all start with PTx (where X is the node number), but then each one gets a proper name as well.

So my thanks to Frederic Brillouet for the name Crunchy, vaughan for RealTime (not quite what you had in mind, but I liked it), and Danish Dynamite for the PTx idea.

As for projects, I'm liking AMDave's 10K idea, so I might go with that.

Anyhow, I'm rather happy at the moment :icon_mrgreen:

[Danish Dynamite]

the way you have it set up now i guess it might be better to call them BCS3L1, BCS3L2 BCS3R1 and BCS3R2 for bookcase shelf 3 left# and right# or book cruncher shelf 3 left# and right# lol

Edit i don't understand why 6 sticks of ram ? i can understand 4 or 8 stick

[S. Starbuck]

Edit i don't understand why 6 sticks of ram ? i can understand 4 or 8 stick

Oops, I should have mentioned - As it was cheaper to buy the RAM in pairs that's what I did. I then replaced my pair of 512MB sticks in my main pc with the extra pair of 1GB sticks, to give me that big extra ooomph :)

[spikey_richie]

How about names of Greek gods, of mythological creatures?

[S. Starbuck]

Well I have actually just given names to the other two nodes (although they are not online yet) spikey_richie:

PT3-Cassiopeia
PT4-Element117

So yeah, I already looked to the greeks for inspiration, as well as looking at constellations after AMDave's suggestion.

[spikey_richie]

It's an interesting topic. Whilst I was sat on the beach last week I was thinking about what I'd call my servers if I were a domain admin. I started off with the names of the 4 elephapnts holding up the turtle which in turn holds up the Discworld (Terry Pratchett...) but there's only 4 of them. Then I thought about characters from HHGTTG but there's not that many names, and most of them have been used for apps. already (Trillian is a good example).

I did eventually come up with a list that gave me a good 15-20 servers, but my mind is blank as to what they were... it's in there somewhere.

P.S. Are you in the UK? Oh, and have you checked out this site before? http://www.mini-itx.com

[S. Starbuck]

P.S. Are you in the UK? Oh, and have you checked out this site before? http://www.mini-itx.com

Yes to both questions.

And indeed, all the names I can think of are either dull or unimaginative. (Except for Element117 which I did name myself, and I think isn't bad. (Look up the elements if you don't know about it.), and so that's why I get other people to name them for me :icon_wink:

[spikey_richie]

Ununseptium - http://www.radiochemistry.org/periodictable/elements/117.html

Sounds heavy!

[S. Starbuck]

That's a bad link, see why here:
http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/118-retraction.html

The element has infact not yet been observed, and that's why I chose the name. It's a missing element, just like that node (being offline) is at the moment.

So more links about it:
http://www.apsidium.com/elements/117.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununseptium

[Murray]

Hi S. Starbuck!

Man, all I can say is that u have a really nice little farm going there...just a quick question...How do you secure your motherboards to the trays or are they unsecured?

Regards,
Murray

[S. Starbuck]

Currently all the motherboards are simply resting in the trays, with no securing.

I may yet however drill a few holes in the trays so as to be able to screw in some standoffs, and then fix the boards in place.

On a side note, if any of you have been looking you will have noticed none of the nodes have been crunching for a while. This is because I've been having a few unrelated problems recently, and simply haven't had the time to get the running. Plus they are rather noisy (seeing as I have to sleep in the same room as them), so I am looking to replace the stock coolers with much quieter ones.

[plonk420]

have you considered something like this for HDD? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609350

i've been TOLD that they should work "just like a HDD" ..

or possibly the MLC versions of these... http://www.supertalent.com/products/flash-module.php?type=IDE .. those seem pretty affordable

if i saw correctly, you're using CF drives, right? if so, how are you minimizing reads/writes to them? and what OS are you using?

[S. Starbuck]

Those look interesting plonk420, I haven't seen those before.
Yes I'm currently using CF drives. They each have Arch Linux installed on them.

All I've really done is disable some logging. The drives seem to be holding up well so far, but I can see them wearing out before too long, so switching to something similar to what you linked could be a good idea.

[plonk420]

ah, after some research (not from first hand users), it seems like you would need a miniPCI-E adapter to get the first device to work. CF or cheap SSDs would be a better idea...

[S. Starbuck]

Well time for an update.

I've got money again!! :icon_mrgreen:

So this means I can replace these semprons. Now I have a few choices, but this is what I've come up with so far:

My motherboards are all AM2+, but limited to 95W CPUs - so the top end Phenoms and both current Phenom II's are out of the question.
I also do need to be aware of power usage, being in the shared house with other students.

What I've come up with so far is the Phenom X4 9350e (HD9350DGHBOX):
http://wheretobuy.amd.com/prodinfo/1147819.html?info_tab

2GHz, 4 Cores, but just 65W.

Eeach Semrpon is 62W, at 1.6GHz (and just the one core.), so replacing all four with one of those 9350e's will give me increased performance for much less power.

My normal computer store has them for £140.29 - more expensive than the top end 9950BE at £140.08. (but no good as it's at 140W)

The fastest clocked one I could fit looks like the 9750, at 95W, 2.4GHz (£123.81 from the same site).

So that would work out an extra 0.4GHz / core compared to the 9350e, but at the cost of an extra 30W.

Your thoughts?

[plonk420]

server naming awesomeness:
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/02/2228254

[Beerknurd]

Our Unix Servers at work are all bird names... lol

[plonk420]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/02/sandisk-finally-ships-pssd-drives-for-netbook-sector/ <-maybe 1 step closer to cheap SSD drives
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.19384 <-found this while looking for a $90 multi-microSD drive...

[S. Starbuck]

I know I've not been around recently, and I'm also aware all my pictures in this thread are broken. I'll upload them to a new server in the next few days for your viewing pleasure!

[Nflight]

I know I've not been around recently, and I'm also aware all my pictures in this thread are broken. I'll upload them to a new server in the next few days for your viewing pleasure!

Just to let you know there is a way to upload the pictures to the server of this forum. It makes not having to host the pictures somewhere else!

Click on the 'Paperclip drop down box' on the first line of the message box.

[plonk420]

here's a fraction of the bitcoin miners @ bitcoinforum (this is up thru June 2011)

http://plonk420.minus.com/mbzhercskgMJIt

[Terry1953]

Even here I wouldn't want your power bill. My son is amazed at your creativity in your builds! As am I great job. Ryan is wondering why none are in Pizza boxes.

[plonk420]

i think a couple were in motherboard boxes, but i think the hardware itself wasn't well displayed so i didn't save it.

someone DID post this ~ page 6:

http://i.imgur.com/Tt7T9.png

[AMDave]

here's a fraction of the bitcoin miners @ bitcoinforum (this is up thru June 2011)

http://plonk420.minus.com/mbzhercskgMJIt
Wow.
hefty investments there and extensive use of PCIe extender cables.
I have never actually laid eyes on one, let alone used one 'in anger'.
There's some craftsmanship, art and patience in setting up some of those rigs I see.

[Dirk Broer]

Pizza box data center:
http://kipandgary.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/pizza-box-server-1024x791(pp_w894_h690).jpg

[NerdLifeAMD]

very cool! but whats up with the semprons? AM2 ssockets right? i have a 2 athlon64s AM2 you can have as if its not too late to send two of those back for your cash they are about 30 bucks if im not mistaken the sempron 3000+

[drezha]

Here's my "cluster" I've been playing with.

http://i.imgur.com/j7twLFZ.jpg

I've called it SARS - Small Array of Raspberry piS.

It's two Raspberry Pi's and a Cubox (http://cubox-i.com/) as the Storage Node. Set it up to learn about MPI, clusters and parrallel computing. I could have maybe used a multi core machine but that didn't seem as fun. Besides, the low cost of the Pi's meant I could buy one a month to add to the cluster without a noticeable effect on my budget. Largest expense was the Cubox - this is because I aslo intend to add my 3TB external to this as a NAS device (when a replacement 1TB external arrives for my Mac that I can use as my Steam library). Whole rig thing is about 10W of power (3.5W + 3.5W + 3W) for the devices, slightly more as I have the USB hub + router for the devices. Bonus - whole thing is silent.

When I'm not using an MPI task, the Pi's run RC5-72 (Dnet) and the Cubox is idle (I want that to last a while and be stable - it's going to be my NAS and has Bittorrent Sync running. Which doesn't take up to many CPU cycles but I want it clear). Might investigate the ability to convert video over MPI.

EDIT: With the cables attached, the Cubox is back heavy, hence it's location. Need to find the blue tack to stick it to the desk!