From owner-chemistry@ccl.net Wed May 12 09:17:00 2010 From: "Vincent Leroux vincent.leroux,+,loria.fr" To: CCL Subject: CCL: Hints for computer purchasing Message-Id: <-41843-100511145835-29116-jaRMt2Lxnfm0DFxJjsoppQ(0)server.ccl.net> X-Original-From: Vincent Leroux Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 20:58:23 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Sent to CCL by: Vincent Leroux [vincent.leroux[a]loria.fr] Hi Massimo, For $6000 I would personally go for a small cluster of 8 nodes, 1 4-core CPU each. Try to get entry-level motherboards from Asus or Gigabyte (reliable brands) with no fancy features and integrated graphic circuit, solid power supplies (I mean, reliable brand like Seasonic, Antec, Enermax, Fortron, and the ~400 W models, not the 800 W "made for gamers" ones), 4 GB memory per node, low capacity hard drive (or no hard drive at all for the nodes if you feel like you can install and use dedicated Linux distributions like PelicanHPC). A rough estimate (these are the prices you can get quite easily in France): 8 4-core CPUs (e.g. Intel Q8300) ~ 1200 € 8 motherboards (e.g. Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L) ~ 400 € 8 cases with included power supply (e.g. Antec NSK 6580 430W - avoid the "first price, no brand" ones *at all costs*) ~ 800 € 8 4 GB DDR2 RAM kits (2x2 GB) ~ 1000 € 8 hard drives (e.g. Seagate 7200.12 250 GB) ~ 400 € 1 16*Gigabit switch + cables ~ 100 € One or several good UPS devices, if the power sockets in the building are not protected already ~ 500 € I would also suggest backup spare parts, just in case: 2 hard drives, 2 power supplies, 2 12 cm fans, 1 motherboard, 1 RAM kit. Do not forget to make sure the cluster is placed in a well-cooled dedicated room, without the cases being stacked together: when such setups are pushed at full power, things can get really warm and noisy... Of course I assume you are not afraid of building your own computer setup from the spare parts! VL Le 11/05/10 14:17, Massimo Ottonelli massimo],[chimica.unige.it a ιcrit : > > Sent to CCL by: Massimo Ottonelli [massimo],[chimica.unige.it] > > Dear all, > maybe I am a little bit off-topic but I would like to have your > hints for the better purchasing > of a "workstation" focused on quantum chemical calulations with the > bugget of about 6000$. > > Regards, > Massimohttp://www.ccl.net/chemistry/sub_unsub.shtmlConferences: > http://server.ccl.net/chemistry/announcements/conferences/> > >