[Beowulf] Re: GPU boards and cluster servers.

[Gerry Creager]

At $6k US, and requiring me to get Vista, I'd rather build a system 
starting with, e.g., an Asus motherboard.  I save one-third the price 
and I don't have to file the environmental impact statement on the 
flawed OS.  I also get NICs I can easily set to accommodate Jumbo Frames.

gerry

andrew holway wrote:
> The new Dell R5400 Rackmount workstation is ideal for this. You can
> slip two Xeons, 16GB ram and two chunky graphics cards in there.
> 
> ta
> 
> Andy
> 
> On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 6:06 AM, Li, Bo <libo at buaa.edu.cn> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> It seems your platform is more suitable for a cluster. Great, and when are
>> the products available? And is there any software support from you?
>> Regards,
>> Li, Bo
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Maurice Hilarius
>> To: Li, Bo
>> Cc: kus at free.net ; i.kozin at dl.ac.uk ; Beowulf Mailing List
>> Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 9:36 AM
>> Subject: GPU boards and cluster servers.
>> Li, Bo wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>> Is it too expensive for the platform?
>> The easy solution is:
>> And X48 level motherboard with CF support, about $150
>> Q6600 Processor, about $170
>> Two 4870X2 $1,100
>> Two Seagate SATA Harddisk 500G for Raid1, about $140
>> 4*2G DDR2 RAM, about $150
>> PSU 1000W, about $200
>> A big box, about $100
>>
>> That's all, in total, $2,010.
>> Regards,
>> Li, Bo
>>
>> True, to a point.
>> Most people will not use a desktop board for a cluster.
>> Too I/O bound.
>> Finally the memory capacity of these desktop boards is pretty limiting.
>> Typically 8GB maximum.
>>
>>
>> Generally a XEON or Opteron chipset and CPUs will be the choice.
>>
>> Also, for most GPU/FPU performance work, the memory bandwidth bottleneck on
>> the Intel product is too much of a negative factor.
>>
>> Lastly, for clusters, most want a rackmount chassis.
>> We developed a 2U designed for a server board and 2 GPU boards.
>> The big challenge there is power.
>>
>> We use dual 600W PSUs. One for motherboard, and one for dual GPU boards.
>>
>>
>> --
>> With our best regards,
>>
>> Maurice W. Hilarius         Telephone: 01-780-456-9771
>> Hard Data Ltd.                FAX:          01-780-456-9772
>> 11060 - 166 Avenue         email:maurice at harddata.com
>> Edmonton, AB, Canada         http://www.harddata.com/
>>      T5X 1Y3
>>
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-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
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