Thoughts on small computing cluster

[tgrimley]

Doing some simulations for my graduate research and I am in need of a couple more machines to run it on. Currently running on a 3.2Ghz P4 w/ 3GB ram takes 18 hours. I need to be able to run faster than this and with multiple inputs.. so I need some extra computers. It's a single threaded app so a faster dual core is much better than a quad.

I can get some old optiplex for about 300 with 2.8ghz P4 in them but the problem is that I need at least 2GB ram to run properly. And with it being older ram it's about 100 bump it up to 2GB each node.

So with that I'm looking at $400/node. I think I can get a newer system from someone at that price point. I spec'ed out a Dell Inspiron 530N @ $429/node with E2140, 2GB DDR2 (and room to add more if I need) but it also has some things I feel could be trimmed (128MB GeForce 8300GS). These are all going to be run headless so I don't need monitor/keyboard/mouse/nice video card. Also don't need windows as I'm running going to be running a stripped down ubuntu.

Any suggestions on getting the price of the Dell down a bit or somewhere else to look?

I am looking at 4-8 nodes so I don't really have the time to build them myself.

 

[longblock454]

It's single threaded but you can cluster nodes?

 

[Dangman]

Don't go for the 2GB RAM upgrade from Dell. They're overcharging. So with $100 gone, now you only have $329 per PC with 1GB of RAM. Then buy a set of 2GB of RAM for $45 each and for a total of $374 per PC, you get a E2140 with 3GB of RAM. That's probably the best route for you since you're not planning on building your own PC.

 

[tgrimley]

It's single threaded but you can cluster nodes?

Sure, it's a single threaded app but I'm running parametric studies. It's inherited code so I don't have to time to fix everything...

Don't go for the 2GB RAM upgrade from Dell. They're overcharging. So with $100 gone, now you only have $329 per PC with 1GB of RAM. Then buy a set of 2GB of RAM for $45 each and for a total of $374 per PC, you get a E2140 with 3GB of RAM. That's probably the best route for you since you're not planning on building your own PC.

Yes, that's a much better plan.

Will the newer pentium 1.6ghz be faster than the older 2.8ghz p4? Since they are different generations it's hard to find benchmarks with the same versions, etc. I know the clock speed isn't a good comparision, but I think that the E2140 that the dell has is a low-end chip. Any thoughts?

 

[Dangman]

Will the newer pentium 1.6ghz be faster than the older 2.8ghz p4? Since they are different generations it's hard to find benchmarks with the same versions, etc. I know the clock speed isn't a good comparision, but I think that the E2140 that the dell has is a low-end chip. Any thoughts?

I think the E2140 is faster than the 2.8Ghz P4. Yes the E2140 is more of the low to mid end Intel Core 2 Duos. But it is faster than a 2.8Ghz P4 due to its better architecture and efficiency.

And it scores higher in the PC Mark 2005 than the P4:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=946&model2=884&chart=416
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2005.html?modelx=33&model1=238&chart=58&model2=227

Just ignore the AMD CPUs and look at the Intel Scores.

 

[Michael Daly]

It's inherited code so I don't have to time to fix everything...

Too bad, because you could get serious performance (assuming it's basically number crunching) at $400 per node with Playstation 3 - Cell processors are much faster than anything you could get from Intel. You'd have a complete rewrite to do, however.

I've been browsing for a similar solution - several low-power (wattage) MBs in a homemade case on a single big PSU, but nothing really stands out. If I could get some stripped down PS3 MBs (no Blu-ray and other crap) that would be neat, but no such thing exists.

A bunch of ITX MBs with lower-priced Pentium chips might do, but they will hog watts. Low wattage ITX are mostly low processing power - low end Celeron (1.33GHz Intel ITX MB at $120 each with a max of 1GB RAM). When you go up to Socket P ITX (laptop C2D CPU @ 2GHz), the price jumps to well over $500 w/ CPU and 2GB memory.