[ale] Dual core CPUs in cluster?

[Jeffrey B. Layton]

I think you are better off with the single cores. That way you only
have 2 cores per node hitting the NIC instead of 4.

Plus,  you can always upgrade to duals later - especially if AMD
gets their act together and lowers the price!

Jeff

>Here were our real working quotes between single and dual cores:
>
>Quote A $58881
>20 single core dual nodes for 248 Opterons at 2.2GHz
>Total 40 CPUs
>20 Ammasso cards
>
>Quote B $56116
>14 dual core dual nodes for 265 Opterons at 1.8GHz
>Total 52 CPUs
>14 Ammasso cards
>
>Upgrading option B to 275 Opterons would be 249.50 per CPU or $12974 additional cost.
>
>So Quote A = 40 CPU 248 Opterons = $58881
>Equiv Quote B= 52 CPU 275 Opterons= $69090
>We elected 40 single core 250 Opterons=$68281
>
>Unfortunately the configuration didn't have additional 248 based dual nodes as an option so I don't have a number for 52 CPUs in 248 single core Opterons.  That would've filled out the comparison.  Plus additional rack and UPS and switch would be needed.  24 nodes fills out the switch but would've required another rack.  Oh well, configuring this stuff takes a bit of a learning curve to get it right.  I deleted the cost of the 3Ware card at $450 to make the quotes equivalent in all included equipment.
>Dow
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: "Jeffrey B. Layton" <laytonjb at charter.net>
>Sent: Apr 28, 2005 9:09 AM
>To: "James P. Kinney III" <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
>Cc: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
>Subject: Re: [ale] Dual core CPUs in cluster?
>
>James P. Kinney III wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On Wed, 2005-04-27 at 18:26 -0400, Jeffrey B. Layton wrote:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>James P. Kinney III wrote:
>>>   
>>>
>>>  For the AMD dual-core the L1 and L2 caches are all separate.
>>>There is a cross-bar in the chip though to help with memory
>>>access requests, etc.
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Good! Thanks for the info. I need to read more closely (or at least
>>before 1 am).
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Of all of the pundits out there that discussed the dual-core
>Opteron and Xeon, my favorite was at Anadtech
>(http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2397).
>The article took some time to point out the horrible pricing that
>AMD has chosen for the dual-core Opteron (in some cases you pay
>3 times the single core price for the additional second core!).
>However, they did also say that the pricing for the dual-core
>Athlong 64 X2 is much better than the Opteron pricing. They
>also mention that the Intel pricing for the Pentium D dual-core
>was much better than AMD's pricing.
>
>Of course there was some testing in the article and the dual-core's
>look pretty spiffey. I just can't get over the high prices.
>
>Jeff
>
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>No sig.
>
>  
>