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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Hardware Chat Room
Thread: Used server racks? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 22
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Even though I have two modern PCs running 24/7, its starting to occur to me that i'm majorly outgunned just due to the shear number of PCs some people have, I see amazon and ebay have some quad core xeon server racks for sale cheap, it seems as though they would make excellent budget crunchers, is it a decent option?
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nanoprobe
Master Cruncher Classified Joined: Aug 29, 2008 Post Count: 2998 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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IMHO the answer to your question is no. Most of that older/ outdated server equipment is not very power efficient when compared to what you already have. You have to decide if the extra crunching power is worth the extra power consumption.
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In 1969 I took an oath to defend and protect the U S Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and Domestic. There was no expiration date.
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7846 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Even though I have two modern PCs running 24/7, its starting to occur to me that i'm majorly outgunned just due to the shear number of PCs some people have, I see amazon and ebay have some quad core xeon server racks for sale cheap, it seems as though they would make excellent budget crunchers, is it a decent option? If you do buy, make sure you buy the rack mount servers and not just the racks.  And Nanoprobe is right, the older equipment can be pretty power hungry, which can be somewhat mitigated, but the new systems are much more power efficient. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
The frustrating thing is my college has an entire media lab full of i7 4970s, :D. Do you guys use server racks? or just several new PCs?
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7846 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I have some regular PC's and some 1U and 2U rack mount servers. I only plug in one of the power supplies, have rechipped one to a low voltage Xeon and run one on only a flash drive (no HD) to save power. I don't mind the power bill up to a certain point, but try to only run what I can afford.
----------------------------------------Good luck Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I use racks. It makes it easier to mange the servers especially if you have more than just a few. I bought 2 15U racks on casters and put 5 2U servers in each rack. Each rack has a shelf that mounts on top. I have two regular PCs on top of each rack. It makes cabling and maintenance a lot easier.
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noderaser
Senior Cruncher United States Joined: Jun 6, 2006 Post Count: 297 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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The frustrating thing is my college has an entire media lab full of i7 4970s, :D. Do you guys use server racks? or just several new PCs? I know that at least one of the departments at my school was participating in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search and the distributed.net RC5 challenge at different times, although there are definitely lots of untapped resources out there sitting idle most of the time. Over the years, I've been hoping that the people in charge of such labs would have gotten on board with grid computing, but it sadly seems to be the exception and not the rule. |
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ThreadRipper
Veteran Cruncher Sweden Joined: Apr 26, 2007 Post Count: 1324 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I actually asked the supercomputer centre here if they could run WCG on unused servers (they were throwing out loads and loads of them "old" ones) at least until they replaced them with new ones arriving.
----------------------------------------The reply I received was: "Sure, no problem. Just get us the funding for the electricity bill for them and we will happily participate with those server clusters (thousands of cores). That cluster costs about $1 000 000/day to run in electricity". So yeah, not really much I could do about that sadly :/  Join The International Team: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=CK9RP1BKX1 AMD TR2990WX @ PBO, 64GB Quad 3200MHz 14-17-17-17-1T, RX6900XT @ Stock AMD 3800X @ PBO AMD 2700X @ 4GHz |
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nanoprobe
Master Cruncher Classified Joined: Aug 29, 2008 Post Count: 2998 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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The frustrating thing is my college has an entire media lab full of i7 4970s, :D. Do you guys use server racks? or just several new PCs? I use 2P server boards that run caseless in a cabinet I built in one of my upstairs bedroom closets. I vent the heat they generate into the attic space. I removed the closet door and covered the opening with foam AC filters which keep out about 95% of the dust. I've modified the cabinet several times over the years as I've changed hardware and am getting ready to do it again. Just don't tell my wife about the holes I cut in the wall to mount the exhaust fans.
In 1969 I took an oath to defend and protect the U S Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and Domestic. There was no expiration date.
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KerSamson
Master Cruncher Switzerland Joined: Jan 29, 2007 Post Count: 1684 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Just don't tell my wife about the holes I cut in the wall to mount the exhaust fans. Very good  |
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