[DCN-TechOps] Server Specs (Another Forward)

[Bill Broadley]

> >I often seen dual intels provide LESS performance than a single processor
> >because of memory contention issues, in this particular case you are
> >getting a memory system 2/3rds as fast as a cheap single cpu dell and
> >sharing it among 2 processors.
> 
> There are ways around this for our particular cycle/memory hog, Zope. We 
> can (with some effort) install it in a client/server architecture with 
> both clients and server on the same machine, bound to different processors.

That doesn't help the issue of a slow shared memory system.

> But, I think we'd be OK for some time with just one processor. So, the 
> issue of efficiently using two could be postponed.

$10k is plenty for 2 duals:
	http://cse.ucdavis.edu/bill/UCD092804.pdf

I just got a quote from Team HPC (a copy I've been buying compute
nodes from):
3U rackmount
dual 1.8 GHz opterons
2GB PC3200 ram (twice what you asked for)
200GB disk (sata)
DVD+CDRW (for backups)
dual gige
3 year warranty

For TWO of the above for $5,040, I could ask for a quote on a redundant
power supply, or maybe just a 3rd node as a spare?

I have 4 of these locally if anyone wants to touch one.

-- 
Bill Broadley
Computational Science and Engineering
UC Davis