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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Best hardware to run BOINC? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 13
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Faraday
Cruncher Joined: Jan 28, 2007 Post Count: 2 Status: Offline |
Hello.
I'm not sure where to put this question, but there really is no topic about hardware. My question is: I'm planning to buy 10-20 machines to run BOINC on it. It is the ONLY job these machines have to do. What hardware would be best as a compute node? Big RAM, parallel processors (XEON) or just cheap and easy-to-find standard parts? I don't want to pay money for things that are not really necessary (e.g. graphics). How does the perfect compute node look like? Windows? Linux? Thanks for Your discussion. Faraday |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hello Faraday,
Check out the Hardware forum on the DC Zone ( http://forum.thedczone.com/ ). There are a lot of opinions. My personal opinion is that an integrated graphics chip is good enough if you are not gaming and a KVM switch lets you run multiple computers with only one CRT while still using the full graphics interface that many programs run best with. Memory is cheap - use plenty of it. A cheap Core 2 processor is hard to beat. 2 or 4 cores? Look at fans, heating problems, costs and make your decision. Lawrence |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I am finding that dual quad core Xeon servers do a very nice job.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
.......at a price.
2 Q6600 builds would probably be better. Of course there are two schools of opinion: 1: best value. 2: best overall. For value I would say an Intel 2160 at the budget end and a Q6600 at the higher end. Wether one is prepared to overclock is a major factor too. I think overall, stock or overclocked you can't beat the Q6600 for a single box cruncher......shame I don't have one  |
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Faraday
Cruncher Joined: Jan 28, 2007 Post Count: 2 Status: Offline |
Okay.. this tends to be a basic education about PCs, which I didn't want to start. :-) The basics are clear.
What operating system should I choose for a compute node? Is Linux/Windows faster? What hardware do they use professionally? What processors are best for number-crunching? Blade-type or just regular Desktops? etc.. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Probably just a cluster of quads on matx with everything onboard running a Linux distro.
Gig of ram per core and a large capacity hard disc for the head node. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Given the money I would build something like this.
http://www.clustermonkey.net//content/view/211/33/ Using quads or core 2 duos instead of the example. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
...or check out what the top crunchers at the WCG are using...
 http://boincstats.com/stats/host_stats.php?pr=wcg&st=0 |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
after the HCC affair I'd not go close to any Xeon unless it has 4mb L2 and the Q6600 having 8mb and good overclocking ability, I'd go for that again were i to buy another cruncher.
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WCG
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
We've got some members running with Quad core Q6600. 1 gig of ram I believe. It's blazing fast and relatively cheap.
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