CCL:Origin300, Linux Cluster (fwd)

[ulairi at ulairi.org]

Quoting "Robert G. Brown" <rgb at phy.duke.edu>:

> On Thu, 4 Jul 2002, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> 
> > 
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 12:04:07 -0400
> > From: Jianhui Wu <wujih at BRI.NRC.CA>
> > To: chemistry at ccl.net
> > Cc: amber at heimdal.compchem.ucsf.edu
> > Subject: CCL:Origin300, Linux Cluster
> > 
> > Dear Colleagues,
> > 
> > I have a budget around $40k CN to shop for a new computer system, which
> > will be used for MD simulation, virtual screening and some bioinformative
> > stuff. Currently, I am looking at two options: Origin 300 (2 cpu) or PC
> > Linux Cluster. I would like to hear your experience with these systems and
> > spend the limited budget right.
> > 
> > (1) An Origin 300 2cpu 500MHZ cost around $35k. Are you using this kind of
> > system? Do you have benchmark of MD simulation (such as Amber) for this
> > system? Do you regret your purchase?
> 
> I cannot help you with the Origin side, but unless it delivers a
> stupendous number of floats per clock or has some other parameter
> (memory size or speed) that enables critical pathways for MD code, this
> is a pretty insane option.  See below.
> 

The only reason you'd get an SGI box is if you need to visualize insane amounts 
of data. SGI still excells at being able to drive their visualization 
environment with a LOT of data without skipping a beat. That being said, your 
raw computational power requirement would be much better fullfilled by a 
Beowulf or Myrinet-style cluster. 

-- 
Pavel
SGI SysAdmin
C.S.U. Northridge/Northridge Computational Centre

"My other computer is your windows box."