[K12OSN] Cheap Cluster Server

[Robert Arkiletian]

I think David meant to send his reply to the list.

David H. Barr wrote:

> I would actually recommend AGAINST the Sempron's for anything 
> high-performance.  The benchmarks I've seen 
> (http://anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2139) seem to suggest that 
> for most tasks you'd be better off with a Barton core AthlonXP... I 
> see a 2800+ with SATA and 1000bt for about $190.
>
>  
>
I read the link about the Sempron and I agree the socket A Semprons are 
not worth it. But the 3100+ is actually a Athlon64 with X86-64 disabled 
and 256kb cache. The article you mention actually promotes the 3100+ 
model because it has a built in memory controller like the Athlon64. 
It's a 754 pin cpu. The socket A Barton does have double the L2 cache 
but much slower main memory latency. Check out the performace graphs. 
Only the athlon64 beats the sempron 3100+.

> With the RAM, you can often find 1 stick of 1GP DDR 333/400 for about 
> $100 or so, whereas 2 512's offers less performance for more cost: 
> http://www.pricewatch.com/h/prc.aspx?i=33&a=5025&f=1; if you elect to 
> utilize a Barton core XP, you won't need 400 anyway (operates at 333 
> FSB).  The Barton's are especially nice for their 512k cache.
>  
>
Wow good price on RAM. Okay 2Gb per node for $230/node. That's 12Gb 
total for the cluster!!! Could serve 120  thin clients. That's 4 full 
labs of 30. Enough for an entire high school.

> For the HardDrive, I see 200GB SATA drives for about $100... You'd 
> probably want some sort of RAID to increase throughput and 
> reliability; 3 drives in RAID5 seems to be the defacto standard... 
> however, you wouldn't need 400 GB of space on all the servers, just on 
> the one which would hold the /homes I would think.
>  
>
Good point.

> 350 Watts may not be enough for what you want, but you could easily up 
> it to 420 without a noticable increase in cost.
>  
>
I overestimated on the cost of the case and PS so $100 could still get a 
400W PS and case.

> All in all, I guess I'm saying you're right on in that it would be 
> MUCH cheaper than the dual Xeon rig; perhaps even moreso than you think!
>
> My calculations on these different parts (some of which I just bought 
> recently) seem to indicate that your estimate is over by over $100 per 
> machine, which ends up costing you about one machine less, overall.  I 
> think you could probably put this setup together for not more than 
> $3600, plus a $150 GBe switch (again, Pricewatch) for a total cost of 
> about $3750.
>
>  
>
Imagine one MONSTER LTSP cluster like this for around $4,000 providing 
the computing needs for a 1600 student school. That's $2.50/student plus 
networking gear. Providing you have the thin clients.(which most schools 
already do)

> And yes, this idea COULD work.  Building the cluster itself is fairly 
> straightforward; it's getting the workloads to properly migrate 
> between machines that's tricky.  But overall, I'd say yes, your 
> excitement is COMPLETELY justified; it might even be a bit "under the 
> top" :)
>  
>
Anyone know how to build a linux cluster????

Robert Arkiletian
Eric Hamber Secondary School