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Help me build a super simulator!

S

Sydous

Junior Member
Well actually two kinds. Cost is important, but not for the suggestions so don't let that limit you. I am looking for a starting point to work from. I have come up with a few systems, but since i have no formal training in IT. HDD is not an important feature as it is doing a limited amount of reads and very few if any writes. There are dedicated file servers with a secondary gigabit network exclusively for file sharing between machines. Two gigabite network ports is a must. All systems run either RHEL 4.x or CENTOS 4.x.

1. Im looking to build a multicpu simulation server running multiple sims taking between 10 minutes - 2 hours. One simulation per thread. Intead of building quad core machines with HT and 12gb of ram. I have been looking at the new opterons and new xeons.

2. The second server I need to build is for performance. The software is currently able to handle multicore, but i am not sure what the limit is. I need one godly number cruncher that is able to handle large volumes of matrices. Every percentage counts on this as these sims currently take just over a week to run on the current hardware. I wont need much more than 48gbs of ram in the machine.

Any help with this would be appreciated.
 
Your post is a bit vague... It would be helpful to know how many cores you need for your apps. For example, some programs might do better fewer fast cores vs. many slower cores.

i.e. a dual Xeon 5560 2.8Ghz system (8 cores + hyperthreading) might run about the same price as a dual Opteron 6172 2.1Ghz system (24 cores)

Do you want these systems to be desktops or rackmounts?
 
These are going to be desktop systems. As for your cores question the first server doesn't need fast cores and can be made up of many (the software only sees a single thread and i jsut want to laod it down with a bunch of jobs at once). The second server will probably benefit from fewer faster cores (though I do not know the software limitation).

Thanks
 
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Maximum number of cores with a 2 socket motherboard:

2xAMD Opteron 6172 Magny-Cours 2.1GHz = $2200
Tyan S8230GM4NR (not quite out yet?) = ~$500
8x4GB DDR3-1333 Registered (8 empty slots) = $1100
Antec Titan 650 w/ 650W psu = $200
1TB SATA HD, DVD-R, extra fans = ~$200

Total: $4200 for 24 cores + 32GB of ram
...add another 32GB of ram for another $1100

edit: oh yeah add another $100 for heatsinks ... I wonder what heatsinks are socket G34 compatible
 
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