To be honest, how much are they paying you to take it? Can you sell it for 
scrap?

X5550 has 4 cores, so 32 dual CPU nodes is 256 cores. The X5550 was released 
January 2009... computers have moved on a bit.

To compare, two dual CPU servers with Skylake Gold 6148 - that is 40 cores - 
will probably beat the whole lot even if you could keep the cluster going. And 
keeping clusters busy is a time consuming challenge... I know!

When the load is low, the new servers will be even more attractive...

Then there are the running costs and support challenges... where will spares 
come from?

If they are 250W servers, then you are looking at £8000 per year to power and 
cool it. The two modern servers will be more like £1500 per year to run. And 
the servers will only cost about £6000... the economics and planet don't stack 
up!

Just my two penn'th worth



--

Dr Robert Esnouf 

University Research Lecturer, 
Director of Research Computing BDI, 
Head of Research Computing Core WHG, 
NDM Research Computing Strategy Officer 

Main office: 
Room 10/028, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, 
Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK 

Emails: 
rob...@strubi.ox.ac.uk / rob...@well.ox.ac.uk / robert.esn...@bdi.ox.ac.uk 

Tel:   (+44)-1865-287783 (WHG); (+44)-1865-743689 (BDI)
 
-----Original Message----- 
> From: "V F" <veronicapfiorent...@gmail.com> 
> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK 
> Date: 23/11/18 13:11 
> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] buying a cluster 
> 
> Hello Peter
> Thanks for quick replies.
> 
> > (1) a single large machine with 32 cpus, or:
> 
> No
> >
> > (2) a system with 32 separate computers linked together in a network?
> >
> Yes
> Each node has HP ProLainat that contains 2x Intel Xeon Processor X5550
> (quad-core, 2.66 GHz.
> 
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