On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 12:10:43AM +0000, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote: > What's interesting about this is system is that it is a good illustration > that there's a lot more expense and hassle than selecting the motherboard. > > While the RPI might only be $35, you also have to buy a SD card ($10-12) > power supplies, cables, boxes or mounting hardware, not to mention a network > switch, etc. When you are looking at rock bottom price points, small things > like the cost of the plug strip you plug it all into can be a significant > fraction of the total. If you're making a cluster out of $1000-2000 nodes in > a rack, you can ignore things like the network cable or power cord cost, > because they're in the $1-2 range, but if your computer costs $30, then a $1 > network cable is a 3% increase in price. > > All of that might actually equal or exceed the cost of the processor. > > You might be better off getting a stack of inexpensive netbooks or low end > PCs.. A bit of casual googling shows that there are quite a few netbooks out > there in the under $100 category (odd brands, it is true) (heck, I found one > place offering refurbished netbooks for $45 each.. ) Move up to the $150-200 > price range and there's literally hundreds of major brand units available.
For a "toy" Beowulf it might be worthwhile to wait for the Parallella Epiphany. P.S. SDK is already out, to a select audiience _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
