Greetings! We're putting together a new 36-node cluster, and are seeking recommendations on a few points. Our chosen motherboard is an Intel 1333 Mhz FSB/Core2 Duo 2.66Ghz/800 Mhz DDR2 (2 Gb)
1) There is an onboard Gigabit NIC which pushes the computational load onto the CPU. Our vendor states that a server card in the PCIExpress slot would have better latency. True? Significant? 2) We're considering either a Layer 2 or Layer 3 Netgear 48 port switch. The backplane bandwiths are 96Gb and 196Gb respectively, and the latencies are 20us and 2us. I don't understand how the additional bandwidth can be used, but the latency gain seems reason enough for the Layer 3. Is it worth an extra $3k? We are network latency bound on our existing 16 node cluster, but I do not know how much latency is due to the switch, nor how to find out. Thanks so much for any recommendations in advance. Take care, -- Camm Maguire [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================================================================== "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." -- Baha'u'llah _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
