From owner-nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov Fri Dec 17 04:24:37 2004 Received: from odyssey.emsl.pnl.gov (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by odyssey.emsl.pnl.gov (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id iBHCOb0h022961 for ; Fri, 17 Dec 2004 04:24:37 -0800 (PST) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by odyssey.emsl.pnl.gov (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) id iBHCObRX022960 for nwchem-users-outgoing; Fri, 17 Dec 2004 04:24:37 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 07:27:01 -0500 From: chandra Subject: Linux cluster design at FSU In-reply-to: To: "'Herbert Fruechtl'" , nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov Reply-to: chandra@eng.fsu.edu Message-id: <006e01c4e433$b625eba0$6602a8c0@chandralaptop> MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2616 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Importance: Normal X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-priority: Normal X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at eng.fsu.edu Sender: owner-nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov Precedence: bulk I am a faculty at FSU. We are also planning to use NWCHEM apart from our own MD codes. We also plan to have Linux cluster. Our study clearly shows that Infiniband is bettter. But the trouble is in the selection processors AMD 246, 248 (250 but expensive) vs. Intel's Xeon 64 bit version. Our study shows AMD performs better and scales better. Due to a variety of reasons, I can get Intel cheaper than AMD. We plan 16 node (32 processor) for now, but plan to expand to 256 processors. We plan to have 1GB of RAM per processor and 1TB of storage space. $60K budget and is tight. Any help will be appreciated. Need to make decision in a weeek. Chandra Professor Namas Chandra, Ph.D., P.E, Karamcheti Professor of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32312 (850) 410-6320 (V) (850) 410-6337 (Fax) http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~chandra -----Original Message----- From: owner-nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov [mailto:owner-nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov] On Behalf Of Herbert Fruechtl Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 5:00 AM To: nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov Subject: RE: Linux cluster design I wouldn't call 7x2 massively parallel. Lack of memory or local disk can be a showstopper. Gigabit Ethernet will be slower than Myrinet, but it won't limit the size of your calculations, and on this size of machine it should still scale reasonably. Cheers, Herbert > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-nwchem-developers@emsl.pnl.gov > [mailto:owner-nwchem-developers@emsl.pnl.gov] On Behalf Of > Giacomo Mulas > Sent: 17 December 2004 08:24 > To: pjstimac@umich.edu > Cc: nwchem-users@emsl.pnl.gov > Subject: Re: Linux cluster design > > > On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 pjstimac@umich.edu wrote: > > > Our proposed cluster will have about 7 nodes consisting of > dual 2.4Ghz > > Opteron processors. The motherboard we have selected has 8 > slots for > > RAM. I am looking for recommendations for how much RAM we > should get. > > Does anybody have any suggestions? > > well, for this kind of business it's easy: as much RAM as you > can afford. > Having more RAM can make a huge difference in the time it > takes for such > calculations. That being said, however, I would expand a > little bit on the > "as much as you can afford" part: if you plan to use the > whole cluster in > a massively parallel way, communication speed is at least as > critical. > Therefore, do invest part of your money on a Myrinet (or > something else > along those lines, i.e. fast and with low latency) > infrastructure, it will > have a large impact as well. > > Bye > Giacomo > > -- > _________________________________________________________________ > > Giacomo Mulas > _________________________________________________________________ > > OSSERVATORIO ASTRONOMICO DI CAGLIARI > Str. 54, Loc. Poggio dei Pini * 09012 Capoterra (CA) > > Tel. (OAC): +39 070 71180 248 Fax : +39 070 71180 222 > Tel. (UNICA): +39 070 675 4916 > _________________________________________________________________ > > "When the storms are raging around you, stay right where you are" > (Freddy Mercury) > _________________________________________________________________ >