On Tue, 2 Dec 2008, Lombard, David N wrote:
An acoustic concern. A 1U is quite a bit louder than the normal desktop as (1) they use itty-bitty fans and (b) there's no incentive to make them quiet, as nobody is expected to have to put up with their screaming...
A good point. I actually like Greg's suggestion best -- consider (fewer) 2U nodes instead -- quieter, more robust, cooler. Perhaps four, but that strongly depends on the kind of thing you are trying to do -- tell us what it is if you can do so without having to kill and we'll try to help you estimate your communications issues and likely bottlenecks. For some tasks you are best off getting as few actual boxes as possible with as many as possible CPU cores per box. For others, having more boxes and fewer cores per box will be right. The reason I like four nodes with at least a couple of cores each is that if you don't KNOW what you are likely to need, you can find out (probably) with this many nodes and then "fix" your design if/when you scale up into production. Otherwise you buy eight single core node (if they still make single cores:-) and then learn that you would have been much better off buying a single eight core node. Or vice versa. rgb
-- David N. Lombard, Intel, Irvine, CA I do not speak for Intel Corporation; all comments are strictly my own. _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
Robert G. Brown Phone(cell): 1-919-280-8443 Duke University Physics Dept, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Web: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb Book of Lilith Website: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Lilith/Lilith.php Lulu Bookstore: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=877977 _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
