ULTRA high end workstation

[jdwclemson]

I am trying to build the best balanced system for a VERY robust program I am using, but my current system just is not up to par. The program can take hours if not DAYS to complete a single job, so I am trying to minimize that. I would like to aquire all of the information possible before going out and spending thousands of dollars on a system that has features that were not needed or lacks features that could have increased the speed without spending too much. The need for Dual Dual-core Opterons seems like it may be a necessity as the very best processing is needed, but the RAM requirements might be 8GB or higher. If anybody has any suggetions or experience in this area, please let me know.

 

[kcporsche959]

What program are you using?

 

[SVT Cobra]

I would suggest an I-weill board...

dual core opertons

and good ram

SCSI drives


its basically as much as you can afford...

sorry for the generatlity...pick out some products and well give you a yay or nay

 

[imported_Kensai]

Tyan Thunder K8QSD Pro
4 X AMD Opteron (865, 870 or 875 depending on your budget)
16GB Registered/Buffered PC3200 from Corsair, Kingston or OCZ
Four 74GB 15K SCSI drives from your favorite company in RAID 5
Four 400GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA drives in RAID 5.
Lian Li v2000B
PC P & C 850W or Silverstone 710W

 

[SrGuapo]

What program? Is it multithreaded?

Kensai's computer seems to be a beast!

 

[jdwclemson]

The programs are used for analyzing harddrives, with data sizes as high as 1TB. The extra storage can be handled in external arrays, but its important to make sure there is the fastest bandwidth between disk and RAM, as this kind of thing would require lots of movement. In the end the software we are working with will all be creating summaries of VERY large data sets that will come from harddrives. If you have experience with this kind of program, it would be helpful if you could help me find which hardware causes the greatest bottlenecking.

 

[kornphlake]

Honestly I doubt you'll get the best answer here, most of us only know home and office systems. It sounds like what you need is a true industrial worksation. My suggestion would be to contact he software vendor and see what they reccomend. You should be looking in to high end rack mount servers and such I'd think.

 

[jdwclemson]

Iweill? Is that another company, because we have an Iwill ZMAXdp to use for testing purposes. I notice that it runs as hot as any computer any of us have ever seen though since its a mini ATX.

 

[imported_Kensai]

If the files are up to 1TB, you'll want the full 32GB of ram. I myself only ran 16GB on that board. You'll want the 875s too for the extra power they've got.
74GB 15K SCSIs will have the best bandwidth possible that I know of.

 

[Mrvile]

Omg my brains...I can't even process that kind of computer in my mind...myself I'd just contact an industrial workstation vendor as suggested above and see if I can work out a rent or something on rackmounts etc.

 

[jdwclemson]

Files? Not the files, the Harddrives and total data sets being worked with are that large, and are you telling me that that ZMAXdp should be able to handle 32GB of RAM, how much would that even cost? We do have a budget, and a $20k workstation would be over the range we would like to stay within.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Not the ZMAX, the Tyan board I recommended.

 

[jdwclemson]

Are those the specs for a Tyan system or a self built system?

 

[ProviaFan]

If the software is more bandwidth than CPU limited, then eight cores of Opteron power might not get you as much as a smaller number of CPUs but more RAM. You really need to find out how many threads the software can run at once (how many CPUs it can benefit from), and other facts that would be helpful in putting together a system specification list.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Custom built, but based on a Tyan motherboard. You would want four sockets and CPUs to allow the 32GB maximum.

 

[Vegito]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Tyan Thunder K8QSD Pro
4 X AMD Opteron (865, 870 or 875 depending on your budget)
16GB Registered/Buffered PC3200 from Corsair, Kingston or OCZ
Four 74GB 15K SCSI drives from your favorite company in RAID 5
Four 400GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA drives in RAID 5.
Lian Li v2000B
PC P & C 850W or Silverstone 710W

I got a quote on a similar system like that...
4 opteron dual core = 8 cores..
same ram
146gb x15k x6 drives

came out like 18,000..

so im debating on that right now..

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: forcesho
I got a quote on a similar system like that...
4 opteron dual core = 8 cores..
same ram
146gb x15k x6 drives

came out like 18,000..

so im debating on that right now..

It's a pity that the Tyan quad Opteron board can't take a decent graphics card.

 

[jdwclemson]

Yeah, if you are doing multimedia work I know that the dual CPU/ dual core systems can be very useful, too bad most games are not scaled to take full advantage at this stage.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
If the software is more bandwidth than CPU limited, then eight cores of Opteron power might not get you as much as a smaller number of CPUs but more RAM. You really need to find out how many threads the software can run at once (how many CPUs it can benefit from), and other facts that would be helpful in putting together a system specification list.

exactly.

by the definition i've seen so far in the thread by the OPer, my guess would be, RAM and HD Thruput is more important than more processors.

this is the kind of computing that would seem to benefit from spreading the load out over many workstations.

mb get a blade server, wouldn't need more than a celeron processor in each. if the program can divide the load over many pc's. i'd guess a blade encasement with like 8 blades, each with it's own memory, HD and HD controller would get you better results.



edit

a DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING model. that's the term i was looking for.

 

[jdwclemson]

You say the Tyan cannot take a decent graphics card? They have boards with a PCI express slot, shouldn't those be able to handle a QUAD-DVI graphics card? Its a hassel, but those are likely to be essential to what we need.

 

[jdwclemson]

RAM is important, but I am having a hard time finding the best kind to get. I looked on newegg, but I am not 100% sure waht kind of RAM is best for the TYAN boards. Does anybody have any advice on that?

 

[Sixtyfour]

forget this post

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: jdwclemson
RAM is important, but I am having a hard time finding the best kind to get. I looked on newegg, but I am not 100% sure waht kind of RAM is best for the TYAN boards. Does anybody have any advice on that?

ECC Registered, PC3200 DDR-RAM.

 

[jdwclemson]

I'd found some corsair, and I know they are a good brand since I use that kind in my home computer, but I was just wondering if they would stand up for a workstation as well or if there were other brands that offered a little more for ultra high end performance.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: jdwclemson
I'd found some corsair, and I know they are a good brand since I use that kind in my home computer, but I was just wondering if they would stand up for a workstation as well or if there were other brands that offered a little more for ultra high end performance.

The overclocking brands (OCZ, etc.) make little sense in a server designed for stability. Instead of picking something out at random, check out Tyan's approved list of RAM modules for your board; others may work, but if you pick something from the list, you are pretty much guaranteed to have it function properly (unless it's broken to start with, and needs RMA ; ).

BTW, we were talking about quad Opteron boards when I said no way to connect decent graphics cards (save the Matrox Parhelias that come in PCI-X flavor). If you can show me a quad Opteron board shipping now that has a PCI-E 16x connection, then... I will start drooling profusely.