[RegCNET] Computer system, RegCM3 parallel

[badrinath.nagarajan at elf.mcgill.ca]

Hi Marc Marcella

My 2 cents worth of cluster computing:

Two options as Bi mentioned in his message:

1) If you have the big bucks, then one goes for the brand name parallel 
machines.

2) If you are budget person, build your own machine. This is not that 
hard and way cheaper than name brands. I would say at least by a factor 
of 5 to 10 cheaper.

What is the catch ?

1) It is much cheaper if you are willing to buy second hand equipment.
I should add that we bought second hand and have a cluster operational since
2005 without major issues in hardware except for very occasional hard 
disk failures.

2) Depending how good you are say in Linux sys/net administration, the 
time taken to setup will vary. A good sys/net admin should have the 
thing up and running in about 1-2 weeks. To run the model is another 
story and may pose other challenges .

Cheers

Badri