I'm a new member to this list, but the research group that I work for has had a working cluster for many years. I am now looking at upgrading our current configuration.
Go for a new cluster any time. Upgrading is fraught with pitfalls – keep that old cluster running till it dies, but look at a fresh new machine. Nehalem is around now, and you can get a lot of power in a single node, not to mention GPUs. Mixing modern multi-core hardware with an older OS release which worked with those old disk drivers and Ethernet drivers will be a nightmare. I was wondering if anyone has actual experience with running more than one node from a single power supply. Even just two boards on one PSU would be nice. We will be using barely 200W per node for 50 nodes and it just seems like a big waste to buy 50 power supply units. I have read the old posts but did not see any reports of success. Look at the Supermicro twin systems, they have two motherboards in 1U or four motherboards in 2U. I believe HP have similar. Or of course any of the blade chassis – Supermicro, HP, Sun and dare I say it SGI. On a smaller scale you could look at the ‘personal supercomputers’ from Cray and SGI. The contents of this email are confidential and for the exclusive use of the intended recipient. If you receive this email in error you should not copy it, retransmit it, use it or disclose its contents but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy.
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