airthimble
n00b
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2012
- Messages
- 61
I'll be finishing my Ph.D. in this next year and afterwards won't have access to a valuable cluster resource(10,000+ cores, etc...). I'd like to explore the option of putting together a small home cluster(I'm thinking something around 4-5 nodes, 16 cores per node). I'm looking for some guidance from those of you with some experience with old server hardware.
1. I'm planning that each node will have 2 E5-2670 chips, unless there is something else with better value out there?
2. Would I be better off buying mobo, PS, cpus and ram off ebay and stuffing them in a rack mount case, or is it way more economical to find complete servers?
3. I'm not very familiar with server hardware, and notice that there are a lot of proprietary parts. How difficult is it to gather up parts that are compatible with each other? For example, does supermicro change the size/pinout of their PSUs once every ten years or every 6 months? If I pick up a supermicro mobo and psu that work together, can I purchase a generic rack mount case and stuff them in, or am I limited to housing them in a specific supermicro chassis? I guess the general question here is, are parts so proprietary and varying within each brand that its a huge pain the ass to find everything individually?
4. If its reasonable to start hunting for parts, I'd like some recommendations on motherboards to keep a lookut for on ebay. Something simple should be fine, I'd like the option to add infiniband cards to each node in the future, and support for two E5-2670, otherwise focus is on keeping costs down.
Thanks!
1. I'm planning that each node will have 2 E5-2670 chips, unless there is something else with better value out there?
2. Would I be better off buying mobo, PS, cpus and ram off ebay and stuffing them in a rack mount case, or is it way more economical to find complete servers?
3. I'm not very familiar with server hardware, and notice that there are a lot of proprietary parts. How difficult is it to gather up parts that are compatible with each other? For example, does supermicro change the size/pinout of their PSUs once every ten years or every 6 months? If I pick up a supermicro mobo and psu that work together, can I purchase a generic rack mount case and stuff them in, or am I limited to housing them in a specific supermicro chassis? I guess the general question here is, are parts so proprietary and varying within each brand that its a huge pain the ass to find everything individually?
4. If its reasonable to start hunting for parts, I'd like some recommendations on motherboards to keep a lookut for on ebay. Something simple should be fine, I'd like the option to add infiniband cards to each node in the future, and support for two E5-2670, otherwise focus is on keeping costs down.
Thanks!