[Klug-general] A question for Kevin

[Kevin Groves]

J D Freeman wrote:
> But, how much raw CPU grunt would you get from 10 EPIA ITX boards at say
> 1.2Ghz, vs a single dual, Dual Core, Opteron system, drawing only 500
> Watts, with a much larger memory capability?
>   
My existing cluster i four 1ghz plus one 3ghz. My benchmark gave me 
12-15ghz compute power equiv. For rendering  that works well as the job 
is split into lumps of frames for each processor to run. Two such jobs 
each at a time is good use of memory and runs well with a gig of memory 
for each machine. Disk IO is minimal as its just sheer CPU time. Data is 
dumped for each frame when ready.

Each machine was running 300w PSU plus 450w for my 3ghz. Thats a lot of 
power and the room heats up quite quickly with a lot of noise. All I 
would need is five or six machines and I'm done. Perhaps running at a 
total of 500w. Low noise and low heat.


> When you consider that there is a good chance of being able to get get a
> quad CPU, Quad core opteron server in the next 12 months, and it
> consuming under 1kw, you start to wonder what is the more cost effective
> system.*
>   
Its all parallel processing which is the key. Even a fast machine will 
run the frames one after the other. If I run my 3ghz machine to render 
the sequence my four other nodes will still render far quicker than the 
single machine.

There are few jobs a cluster is better at than a single machine and this 
is one of them.

> That and all this fits in 1U of space**.
>
>   
Well the plans I have is to fit the raw motherboards one on top of the 
other with just bars spacing each board. A basic box around with vents 
and a single fan to draw air. All passively cooled so no need for much 
cooling. There is something like the one I want to build on the 
www.mini-itx.com projects page.


> J
>
> *Based on some of the stuff dropping into my inbox from supermicro.
>
> ** Ok, so thats 1.75" high, but its 19" wide, and feck loads deep!
>
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>
>   


-- 
Kevin Groves                               VAT No: 776 2747 86
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