intel tax...

[plonk420]

so i had one of those moments (or 30) of hardware daydreaming after seeing this pic:



and wondered at the price of doing that with i7s... and here is what i came up with:

(price: price @ 24)

mobo msi x58m:            170: 4080
cpu i7-920                280: 6720
crucial 3x1gb ddr3         46: 1104
pc power & cooling 420     50: 1200
sparkle 7200gs          23.50:  564 freeship
recert: 40gb ide hdd       20:  480
-------
$14,148

now, considering you don't OC, <controversial question>would you consider 32 phenom ii 945s similar (or greater) in performance compared to 24 i7s?</question> if yes, here's what i found:

(price : price @ 32)
mobo biostar 760g openbox   47: 2144
cpu phenom ii 945 95watt   170: 5440 freeship
2x2gb ddr2                  46: 1472
pcp&c 370:                  40: 1280
recert: 40gb ide hdd        20:  640
----
$10,976

note: i chose 3/4gb because of projects like BURP, who seem to have an upcoming project that wants 750mb/core, it seems. and there's that other one that's 2gb/core. otoh, enigma@home uses like 850K/core

also, it seems ram prices have started to go up... very few tasty rebates, anymore.

if you went with an Elitegroup 8100 ($53 pre $18 rebate) for a new mobo, just add $192. still $4,000 less.

i guess that's the price you pay for intel... (and fewer computer cases)

as for i7 vs phenom ii, i'm curious as to overall non-OC'd DCing performance... it absolutely wipes phenom ii at x264 video encoding: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=28 (note: pass 1 is nearly irrelevant as recent x264 builds do it many, many times faster than pass 2)

...however, other than that and 3d rendering, it seems to be all that the i7 is particularly good at... (oh, and boring server crap)

also i wasn't sure as to how much power the i7 might use. you could drop $240 off the i7 price if you went with the same PCP&C as the phenom (and as long as the i7 will even take a 4-pin connection on the 8-pin additional power connection)

[plonk420]

other variables:

+1 optical drive, +1 keyboard, (and for some) +1 mouse, +1 monitor. maybe higher quality hdd.

+$576 if you want to go with a new, more agreed-upon-to-be-reliable brand like Asus (760G) to go up against the MSI (still $2600 cheaper) and accompany the higher quality PSU.

on the 4pin topic, a friend has and 8pin Core2 mobo he ran on a 4pin power connection (by the manual's blessing), so it MIGHT be doable.

[Nflight]

So much work and have you seriously thought about just placing an order whereby you get a warranty if something would go wrong?
http://www.sun.com/servers/finder/

May be that was not the reply you were looking for, but in this day and age to assemble such a massive structure without thinking what if something would happen. I guess it is old age making me more concerned about real world dilemma's then just thinking about putting it together like he mentions... My 2 Cents

[Tamaster]

He he... while it is true that you can get a rack built for less by outfits that build clusters for a living, what fun is that? You lose the sense of accomplishment in the bargain and I, for one, build for the LOVE of it. Been doing it for a LONG time. Paid more than I had to. Don't give a damn, cause the process itself is what I crave.

Many a time, by the time I was complete, I was obsolete. Next...

But the real DC challenge these days is flops per milliwatt.

The old dual-core I'm running right now can pull just under 24,000 flops / milliwatt (288 watts in to a pcp&c silencer 750 to 3431 megaflops whetstone per core out).

I wish I could get both hd 2600 xt's crunching as well, but they only do 'short' math (32 bit float) and while they are overclocked a bit (5%) and run GDDR4@1161MHz neither require a +12v PCIe feeder (slot power only).

Intel's I7 is indeed a powerful platform, but I doubt very much that it could not be beat handily in a megaflops per milliwatt challenge by an appropriately configured (and clocked) Phenom II outfitted specifically for DC efficiency.

That is a challenge I would LOVE to take on if I had the time and money..

[plonk420]

that sun link looks a bit expensive for an admittedly neater looking rack setup... at BEST, 32 discrete i7 cores (or 40 @ 2.0ghz). in the $14k "ghetto cluster" setup, 96cores/192threads. 128 phenom ii cores.

i'd take more raw power (granted i lived in alaska or siberea, with my own nuclear power generator, heh) over the neater, cleaner rack setup. that photo is one of the cleaner setups i've actually seen! i'm heavily into point whoring, after all ;D. a WEE bit for the science. and definitely for harnessing the power of today's/recent unused tech as i can...

but alas, it's just an idle fantasy, at least at this point

currently, i just want DX11/Radeon 5000 series to arrive!

[NeoGen]

For purely DC crunching I would even eliminate the HDDs and have those rigs running OS and apps on usb sticks. Less clutter with sata/ide cables.

It might also lower the power consumption and heat a bit (and price), but still in the end of the day I wouldn't want to be in the same room as that industrial-size heater!

And instead of having network cables all over, one could get a wireless router and a bundle of usb wireless receivers to plug on each mobo. That on the other hand would increase the price but lower the cable clutter.

And I understand Tamaster's point of view... actually building a cluster like that would be something really cool. Wish I had the time and resources for it.

[AMDave]

Thank you plonk420 for bringing that photo to my screen.
It is a thing of beauty.
Very tidy indeed.

Taking a close look at that setup, I think you will find that it is in fact an LTSP cluster ... it all bootstraps and runs from 1 HDD
(I'd prefer 2 HDDs in a hot-swap RAID with a 3rd for regular physical swap-out)
That cuts a big chunk out of the cost.

They did a neat job with the reset buttons
(the fine green wires running to the press-switch arrays)

With that many PSUs, it is worth looking into implementing a DC power-rail (One big PSU with lots of power cables)

sigh ... yeah, if I had the dosh I crank up one of those PDQ.

[BlackAdder]

Geesh....I'd love to be able to afford much less run something like that !! All AMD of course