[Beowulf] Re: Building new cluster - estimate (Ivan Oleynik)

[Maurice Hilarius]

"Ivan Oleynik" <iioleynik at gmail.com> wrote:
> Subject: [Beowulf] Building new cluster - estimate
> To: beowulf at beowulf.org
> ..
> I am in process of upgrading computational facilities of my lab and
> considering of building/purchasing 40 node cluster. Before contacting
> vendors I would like to get some understanding how much would it cost. The
> major considerations/requirements:
>
> 1. newest Intel quad-core CPUs (Opteron quad-core cpus are out of question
> due to ridiculous pricing), good balance of price/performance
>   
Hmm, what is "ridiculous about Opteron pricing?

In HPC work one generally needs a XEON clocked about 20% to 25% faster 
than an Opteron for equivalent performance.
Mainly due to the limitations of memory bandwidth of the XEONs.
Current CPU pricing comparison:

BX80574E5410A    Intel Quad-Core Xeon E5410 / 2.33 GHz ( 1333 MHz ) - 
LGA771 Socket - L2 12 MB ( 2 x 6MB ) - Box     $322.00
BX80574E5420A    Intel Quad-Core Xeon E5420 / 2.5 GHz ( 1333 MHz ) - 
LGA771 Socket - L2 12 MB ( 2 x 6MB ) - Box     $393.00
OS2350WAL4BGHWOF    AMD Third-Generation Opteron 2350 / 2 GHz - Socket F 
(1207) - L3 2 MB - PIB/WOF     $292.00
OS2352WAL4BGHWOF    AMD Third-Generation Opteron 2352 / 2.1 GHz - Socket 
F (1207) - L3 2 MB - PIB/WOF     $366.00


BX80574E5430A    Intel Quad-Core Xeon E5430 / 2.66 GHz ( 1333 MHz ) - 
LGA771 Socket - L2 12 MB ( 2 x 6MB ) - Box     $557.00
BX80574E5440A    Intel Quad-Core Xeon E5440 / 2.83 GHz ( 1333 MHz ) - 
LGA771 Socket - L2 12 MB ( 2 x 6MB ) - Box     $833.00
OS2354WAL4BGHWOF    AMD Third-Generation Opteron 2354 / 2.2 GHz - Socket 
F (1207) - L3 2 MB - PIB/WOF     $525.00
OS2356WAL4BGHWOF    AMD Third-Generation Opteron 2356 / 2.3 GHz - Socket 
F (1207) - L3 2 MB - PIB/WOF     $796.00

> 2. reasonably fast interconnect (IB SDR 10Gb/s would suffice our
> computational needs (running LAMMPs molecular dynamics and VASP DFT codes)
>   
Or Myrinet. Bandwidth is usually unimportant, but latency usually is.
So called "memfree" IB cards are rarely any kind of bargain for this use.


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With our best regards,

//Maurice W. Hilarius         Telephone: 01-780-456-9771/
/Hard Data Ltd.                FAX:          01-780-456-9772/
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