12 cpu computer - should I buy it?

[cakin]

I had someone make me a offer Friday. They just bought a new server and are going to put their Evergreen 12 cpu server up for sale. It has 12 P2-233's with onboard video, memory and ethernet, and comes with hard drives. I can't find Evergreen on the net (must have had too many margarita's already today). So, my question is: for crunching Seti is 12 233's worth $500?

 

[BurntKooshie]

It certainly costs less than buying the crunching power in separate parts (or boxes/crackracks). It probably should crunch through a good number of WU's a day.

Worst case scenerio: each CPU only does a WU/day...then you'd get 12WU's/day from it. I'd say you should do it

 

[JWMiddleton]

cakin, Hmmm...that would be interesting! BK is giving a good estimate of what you might expect. There could be a day each week that it might spit out 16, or so WU. Depends on how much less than 24 hours it take for 1 WU. Keep us posted!

 

[gogeeta13]

Think of it this way:
Say it does spit out 12wu a day. If you were to spend $500 soley on the bare esentials for a cracking machine, you could throw a 1.4 ghz athlonmp system together, it would hit about 6 wu a day according to Insane3D'a measurements. So this thing spits out twice the wu's for the same price as an athlonmp. Other than the bragging rights, you have one helluva workhorse for cheap!

Buy it either way. I can think of about 4 people who would kill for that machine for $500!

 

[Adul]

go for it. Though i though the seti client wasn't very good at fully ultilizing smp. Would running OGR/rc5 help make use of unused cpus?

 

[BurntKooshie]

The Xeon series didn't come out at frequencies that low, so either that box uses 6 busses (that is, 6 "FSBs&quot because the P2 only has native support for 2-way SMP. I'm not 100% sure how many busses it would have, nor how much bandwidth it has. It sounds like a specialty box, which might have a different chipset, and perhaps more bandwidth.

But, I thought that the newest clients were more small-cache friendly than older ones. These chips each have 512Kb of L2 cache, so that should help due to main memory bandwidth contention. This is certainly not a box running 12CPUs fighting for main memory bandwidth in the same way that a 2-way SMP does. I'm not sure quite how it works...something to look into.

But Adul's right, in that you'll have to run 12 instances of the client. If you find that the CPUs are fighting for bandwidth too much, a couple could be thrown onto something that requires zilch for bandwidth, two options being RC5 and OGR

 

[RaySun2Be]

heh, I'd go for it!

The coolness factor alone is worth $500. That 12 cpu PC would beat out Networkmans 6 CPU ALR for sheer coolness!

 

[NT4Mike]

Maybe it's just got 12 of these.

Sounds like a hot box.

-Mike

 

[BurntKooshie]

and probably in performance too :Q

 

[cakin]

I was told that this box is simular to the ones that Cubix makes.
I don't think this is an SMP box, it is 12 SBCs (single board computers) in a box.
I am going to get with him on Monday since I still cant find a link to one of these.

He also said they have another one they will take out of service in a few weeks.

He goes to auctions in CA all the time, I also asked him to keep an eye open for one of those DEC alpha's. He said he seldom comes across Xeons.

 

[BurntKooshie]

If there are 12 mini-boards in one box, then you'll have no main memory bandwidth contention

 

[networkman]

If you don't end up taking the deal, let the seller know about me.. I'd be interested.

 

[Sukhoi]

I'd say go for it!

Does the machine run Windows? If so just load up SETI Driver and set the # of processes to 12 and it should work. Though won't you need Enterprise Server or something similar to work with 12 CPU's?

 

[Sukhoi]

Also, you might want to check and see how the CPU's are installed...I supposed it's *possible* you could put C533's in there, which would get you a ton of WU's/day.

 

[BurntKooshie]

And if not, throw in a ton of those PCI based ones, with 64Mb of ram, though that gets expensive kinda fast.

 

[RaySun2Be]

<If you don't end up taking the deal, let the seller know about me.. I'd be interested.>

Now why am I not surprised?

Hehe, I figured it would only be a matter of time, NWM!

 

[DarkMajiq]

Sounds like a good deal to me

 

[Russ]

I have no idea what I'd do with it, but I want it! I'm sick!

networkman,

Go away. You already have enough.

Russ, NCNE

 

[bot2600]

And if you decide you don't want it and network man gets it, and he gets another in a couple weeks and you don't want THAT one either, I would be interested in buying it.

Bot

 

[networkman]

Who says I wouldn't be interested in a 2nd one too? :Q

Seriously, I have an affinity for multi-cpu systems, so if I get the opportunity to pick up the 12-way system, I'd be selling off some of my single cpu boxes here.. most are in the Athlon 700 range.

 

[cakin]

If things don't work out and I decide not to buy it, I have already had several offers for the system. I will only let it go to a TeAm member. I wouldn't dare let it crunch for some other team.

I have been wanting to buy/build a real solid server and I had a deal fall through on one of the Gateway 6400's. So when I mentioned this one to my wife this afternoon she said forget buying this 12 cpu unit and order a new Gateway and wait. I then told her I thought this would be a better deal for crunching.

Thanks to all of your comments, I think this is going to be my late fathers day gift. I wouldnt let her buy me anything until I started my new job. Its nice how some of things work out. How many guys can say they got a 12 cpu box for fathers day, you gotta love a wife like that!

 

[networkman]

Has she got an un-married sister?

 

[toft-dk]

<< Has she got an un-married sister? >>



LOL Networkman

 

[cakin]

<< Has she got an un-married sister? >>

She does, she's over 50 and doesn't like computers! And sour!
She is one of those &quot;All men are idiots, and I married their king&quot; type of person.

 

[Robor]

12 CPU's? What OS would you run on that? I'm not sure but does Advanced Server even support 12 CPU's?

Rob