custom cluster cabinets (was Re: 1U P4 Systems)

[Bari Ari]

Velocet wrote:

> On Tue, May 22, 2001 at 05:47:52PM -0400, Robert G. Brown's all...
> 
> 
>>> 1) I don't want to spend $200 US ($300 CDN) or more on a case.
>> 
>> Martin, I'd have to echo this frustration.  Pretty much all the XU cases
>> I've found are more than $200, some quite a bit more.  Then you've got
>> to buy the rack.  Compared to $50-60 for a standard mid-tower case this
>> is painful beyond measure when buying in volume, especially when the
>> total node cost might only be $600-750 outside of the case.
> 
> 
> Anyone build custom cabinets for their clusters? I am wondering if
> there are any pointers for it. 

Look at using aluminum extrusions for side rails vs. sheet metal. They 
provide lots of strength and ridgidity plus the sheet metal panels slide 
right into the channels.

We've hooked up with a sheet metal/aluminum
> guy and he is going to be able to house our entire cluster of 40-50 machines
> for somewhere around $2000. Thats around $40/box ($CDN) which is quite
> cheap, in the same range as the cheapest cases, but in a much smaller
> space. (It may well even be cheaper, we've budgeted $2000).
> 
> Space is a concern for us, we need to keep things down to a very small
> footprint. Using commodity PC cases are just way too large, and
> 1U or 2U rackmounts are just way too expensive.
> 
> Seems everyone is building clusters out of full PCs (hardrives, cases,
> power supplies) - just wondering if anyone has gone and removed any
> of these items... ie diskless clusters, custom cabinet, and even more
> rare, custom power.
> 
> /kc

We don't do any cluster designs with full PCs, standard motherboards and 
power supplies. I enjoy reading this mail list about what people are 
doing with commodity PC parts and shelving from Home Depot. We design 
clusters down to the component level: multi-CPU motherboards, 
internetworking, cooling, power supplies, cabinets and LinuxBIOS.

There is no reason that a 16 node cluster should take up anymore space 
than a 2U and a 64 node box should fit under a desk. Single P-III and K7 
nodes have been built as small as 3.5" x 5" x 1.25" with a 20GB 2.5" HD, 
256MB SDRAM and 10/100 Ethernet ... SiS 635s make it easy.

Bari