With all the talk of crack racks & clusters, plus actually having alot of free time of recent, I feel inspired to try my hand at one. Recently bought a couple setups from one of our members here when the idea hit me, but I think those will be used elsewhere. I've become facinated with putting together pcs & such of late, & this looks like something I can really be proud of when I look back on it.
I'm basically asking for your opinions/advice on what I can get me the best bang for my buck. To start off, there probably won't be many units in the system, I might start off with 3 or 4, & see how it goes from there. I want to try to conserve as much space as possible(because this will be at home), so I've been looking at some cheap rackmount server cases. Most likely 1u size, but if there's a good ratio of size:cost, I'll consider anything. Networking stuff is always available in the forums cheap, so I'll look there. I'll buy some riser cards, if they don't already come with them, but everything after barebones is going as cheap & effective as possible.
For the processors, I was looking along the lines of a mid range athlon(once again, best bang for $). On pricewatch, there's only a $6 difference between a xp1600 & a xp2200. I love pentiums, but I couldn't try this project on their prices. I was thinking about going real basic on this thing, with some celerons or old p3s, but there's not much savings either way, so I'll probably stick with the xps.
For the mbs, I really don't have much of an idea, I usually work with what fits. Uniformity would be great, but finding a good price on a batch of cpus & mbs, will be very difficult.
Ram will probably be generic, though again, if I find a great deal in bulk, I might use something decent.
Small 2-20gig hds I have laying around the house will most likely be used. I'm not sure If I want to, or am able to run all these off of one central hd. A nice possiblilty though.
For an os, I've seen pages listing possibilities, but what works easiest/most efficiant? I think I read somewhere, that windows server 2003 can pull this off, but I don't have connections with anyone who could lend me a license. So probably some freeware will do. I've used windows most of my life, but am not totally lost in something else.
So once again, asking for some input on my situation. People that have been there, I would love to hear from you. Anyone with ideas, thoughts, condolences, etc.; please speak your mind. I haven't gone to bed yet, because these thoughts have been floating around all night. If I'm in way over my head, tell me what I could do to be better prepared before I invest any money/time into this.
Thanks.
More in 04!
I'm basically asking for your opinions/advice on what I can get me the best bang for my buck. To start off, there probably won't be many units in the system, I might start off with 3 or 4, & see how it goes from there. I want to try to conserve as much space as possible(because this will be at home), so I've been looking at some cheap rackmount server cases. Most likely 1u size, but if there's a good ratio of size:cost, I'll consider anything. Networking stuff is always available in the forums cheap, so I'll look there. I'll buy some riser cards, if they don't already come with them, but everything after barebones is going as cheap & effective as possible.
For the processors, I was looking along the lines of a mid range athlon(once again, best bang for $). On pricewatch, there's only a $6 difference between a xp1600 & a xp2200. I love pentiums, but I couldn't try this project on their prices. I was thinking about going real basic on this thing, with some celerons or old p3s, but there's not much savings either way, so I'll probably stick with the xps.
For the mbs, I really don't have much of an idea, I usually work with what fits. Uniformity would be great, but finding a good price on a batch of cpus & mbs, will be very difficult.
Ram will probably be generic, though again, if I find a great deal in bulk, I might use something decent.
Small 2-20gig hds I have laying around the house will most likely be used. I'm not sure If I want to, or am able to run all these off of one central hd. A nice possiblilty though.
For an os, I've seen pages listing possibilities, but what works easiest/most efficiant? I think I read somewhere, that windows server 2003 can pull this off, but I don't have connections with anyone who could lend me a license. So probably some freeware will do. I've used windows most of my life, but am not totally lost in something else.
So once again, asking for some input on my situation. People that have been there, I would love to hear from you. Anyone with ideas, thoughts, condolences, etc.; please speak your mind. I haven't gone to bed yet, because these thoughts have been floating around all night. If I'm in way over my head, tell me what I could do to be better prepared before I invest any money/time into this.
Thanks.
More in 04!
