Farming Question

[rob725]

Has anyone come up with a minimilist way to farm, short of server racks? I was thinking of something like a pizza or bread rack i could "slide" mobo trays onto and hang fans off of.

[[XC] leviathan18]

pizza boxes mmm where do you put the cpu cooler? maybe its a good idea... try it and let us know xD

[[XC] riptide]

I got cheap shelving in a flat pack down in a shop at the weekend. 4 shelves high. Good room on each for HD, PSU and MB etc. On top is a monitor and a coupla keyboards that i rotate around the nekked machines if I need to ;)

[[XC] serlv]

Some cool links here (http://www.nelliott.demon.co.uk/distributed/). I'm sure there are more if you look around.

[Haltech]

My old farm, back when the slut a athlons came out, i bought 40 of the AMD 550's which had the 750 cores. I OC'd each to 950mhz with 1/2 cache. I took the mb's, which were the MSI and screwed them down to plywood. I had used a metal 6 shelf high rack with wheels and affixed the plywood to that. Set the Psu's next to each MB and ran multi outlet strips on the side of the racks. Worked well. Pretty expensive for its time but i was gobbling dudes up with the celeron 400s and weak ass P2-233 farms.

[DAK1640]

C'mon rob725, are you trying to run DDTUNG down? Can't wait to see your solution...:toast: pix, pix, pix...

[-Acid-]

pics soon to follow
watch this space

[rob725]

C'mon rob725, are you trying to run DDTUNG down? Can't wait to see your solution...:toast: pix, pix, pix...

I wish. :D My goals are a bit more modest. I am running out of space and a case is a wasteful heatbox for crunching-only machines. Don't have a solution yet, but I really appreciate the ideas and links.

[gearhead364]

rob at my school they have a small farm which consist of 4 or 5 pcs(plenty of room for more) for small calculations. They are all on a roll around cart with plenty of breathing room and I think it was relatively inexpensive, I will try and see if I can get some pics.

[rob725]

Thanks gearhead!

What I really would like...

Does anyone remember the old s100 passive backplane? I can see a hd controller managing a multipartioned 250gb drive and multiple cpu/ram cards all driven by single psu. A poor-man's edge/san configuration. Oh well, it's nice to dream.

[[XC] mysticmerlin]

I can see a hd controller managing a multipartioned 250gb drive and multiple cpu/ram cards all driven by single psu. A poor-man's edge/san configuration. Oh well, it's nice to dream.

Can you do that? Sounds interesting to me. I am trying to get a Knoppix cluster thing going and run the farm that way.
My Idea for storage was to get a cheap plastic shelf unit thing and put 90 deg brackets and attatch the mobos to 1/4" plywood standing up on the bottom shelf the mobos and on the top the psu's and drives. And set a 20" box fan behind it on low for air flow.

[[XC] mysticmerlin]

I can see a hd controller managing a multipartioned 250gb drive and multiple cpu/ram cards all driven by single psu. A poor-man's edge/san configuration. Oh well, it's nice to dream.

I say can you do this? Any one got a linky? I am googling but no deal.
Knoppix / cluster linux hates my NIC's and keeps spitting at my like a mad camel :(

[rob725]

Sorry, but I don't think so. Back in the early 80's there were solutions such as these taking shape, but the rapidly increasing capability and reduction in price in cpu's, memory, and network systems obseleted most of those solutions before they ever got going.

The closest thing now suffers from the inflated pricing (though improving) that is attached to corporate server solutions, ie. edge cards and sans. It would be nice if there were a home directed version with 6300 edge cards with standard ddr2 and a hot-swap sata san, but I don't thinks it gonna happen.

The closest I think we're gonna get is the linux diskless workstations that brot is talking about.

[[XC] mysticmerlin]

The closest I think we're gonna get is the linux diskless workstations that brot is talking about.

Or Linux cluster based on Knoppix that is giving me fits. Oh well no one said linux was easy. I will feel like I did something if / when I ever get it figured out.

[NickS]

People should really post pix of their Farms. :) Someone make a thread lol.

[[XC] mysticmerlin]

People should really post pix of their Farms. :) Someone make a thread lol.

Go for it, Mine is all over the house. In different rooms.

[littleowl]

Go for it, Mine is all over the house. In different rooms.


same here!

[[XC] leviathan18]

my farm is a laptop LOL

[mike047]

my farm is a laptop LOL


And a FINE farm it is.

[WesM63]

Okie.. i'll start a thread then :P