Interview the Next Cruncher!

[Rise]

more times than I can count. yesterday I spent 2 hours drawing up a system to make 20,000,000 PPD, Boinc - to see what I could make if I had as much money as the inventor of facebook. I decided I would need 800 rigs that could produce 25k RAC (top 2 crunchers on WCG) and MM estimated them to cost $30k in another thread. $24,000,000 would buy the systems, and I'd have to have a special complex to house 800 rigs with enough space for 16 rows of racs, 10 pc's deep. The enclosure would cost around $1,000,000 with the land, certified HVAC, structural, cooling (water ), and electrical requirements I would have (solar array). As well as software developed to manage the farm and create an app for my droid to check the status at any point during the day. I'd also have a few full time IT guys to keep it up 24/7. Estimated budget came in around $27,000,000 and I have some building drawings as well for how to manage the water cooling ^^

edit: since I took so long to write my reponse i'll repeat disturbed's question.

are you guilty of pushing a shopping cart full of ice cream to the middle of a superstore (wal-mart) and then ditching it and hoping that it melts all over the place?

[Bobsama]

I've done similar, except I looked towards a more budget-oriented setup. The general idea was to buy 100 Core i7-930's, 100 Giga X58A-UD3R's, and 600GB DDR3-1333. Also needed would be 50 Seasonic SS-850HT's and about 100 8GB flash drives. The entire thing would be water-cooled and networked with consumer hardware. Since one 72" long by 18" deep shelf would safely hold about 6 computers (on cardboard boxes) and would have 4-5 levels, the computers would be networked in groups of 24 or 30. (Preferably 30.) One computer (an older box--perhaps the PD805) would not be running WCG but instead be used for DHCP service and remote logins. I'd also need about a hundred USB header-to-port adapters so that the I/O panels only need the network cable. I'd end up with about 6 CPU's in a loop so one or two large radiators each rack.

To answer disturbed's question, no, I've never done that. I have left sliced deli meat behind in a grocery store since I told the guy cutting it that it needs to be as thin as he can possibly make it. He effectively handed me shingles of salami. I took one look at it, found the pre-packaged salami, and took that instead. No way in hell I was going to eat a pound of salami in millimeter-thick shingles.

New question: how many screens do you have attached to your main PC? How big are the screens?

[Kryja]

My main screen is a 26" sony bravia tv. Max res of 1200 x 1024 The pixel pitch is terrible and everything is stretched
I also have a 17" dell in portrait next to it which I swapped a usb wifi adaptor for. Looking to get a U2711 in December / January

What is your total disk space on your main pc and what's it made up of?

[nn_step]

16 terabytes, in 4 separate Raid6 arrays

what would be your desert island computer?