Theoretical dream farm - Page 3

GP2 · 2003-11-02, 20:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Lumly
And given this setup comes interesting choices. For instance, assuming all new hardware I'd end up with 30 40GB HDs, which turn out to be about 37MB with 1MB for the OS/APPS. So I'd have just over 1TB of HD storage just aching to be used and no effecient way of linking them together that I know of, but there must be a way.

There is an alternative: use a CD-based Linux distribution like Knoppix, with a 32MB USB flash memory dongle to hold your mprime directory and saved configuration info. Then you don't need a hard drive.

Disadvantage: it won't boot entirely by itself. I have to plug in a USB keyboard and then blindly touch-type (no monitor) "knoppix 2 config=/dev/sda1", wait, and then type "/etc/init.d/ssh start" to get things going.

Advantage: no hard drive means less heat, less power consumption, lower cost. You can buy a really cheap old CD-ROM from eBay, since it's only really used at boot time (whereas you wouldn't dare get an old, used hard drive because it might crash and lose your data).

GP2 · 2003-11-02, 20:16

Buying a cheap power supply is a false economy. They're less efficient, which means they use more electricity to deliver the same amount of power to your computer. So they actually cost you more money in the long run.

Also, the power they deliver is spikier and less clean, which could possibly shorten the life of your system or increase the error rate if you're overclocking on the edge. They may be underpowered, which can also cause similar problems. Finally, they tend to be noisy which can drive you nuts.

QuintLeo · 2003-11-02, 23:27

There's some sort of a distributed file system out there - I forget the details, though.

Check SourceForge, I think it was on there.

Alternatively, Boot via LAN (Linux Terminal Project or similar, or check the Prime Monster page since he's already got a working such setup) and one server to do all the file work - would save the cost of the hard drives on all but one machine, though the server box would probably want to be a RAID machine for reliability when dealing with the data from several other machines. Pair of 40 Gig mirrored drives should handle a LARGE farm comfortably.

PageFault · 2003-11-03, 01:12

Knoppix is becoming popular with some of the ars farmers, supposedly it is designed exactly for situations like massed DC.

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2003-11-02, 20:16	#24
GP2 Sep 2003 2·5·7·37 Posts	Buying a cheap power supply is a false economy. They're less efficient, which means they use more electricity to deliver the same amount of power to your computer. So they actually cost you more money in the long run. Also, the power they deliver is spikier and less clean, which could possibly shorten the life of your system or increase the error rate if you're overclocking on the edge. They may be underpowered, which can also cause similar problems. Finally, they tend to be noisy which can drive you nuts.

2003-11-02, 23:27	#25
QuintLeo Oct 2002 Lost in the hills of Iowa 2⁶×7 Posts	There's some sort of a distributed file system out there - I forget the details, though. Check SourceForge, I think it was on there. Alternatively, Boot via LAN (Linux Terminal Project or similar, or check the Prime Monster page since he's already got a working such setup) and one server to do all the file work - would save the cost of the hard drives on all but one machine, though the server box would probably want to be a RAID machine for reliability when dealing with the data from several other machines. Pair of 40 Gig mirrored drives should handle a LARGE farm comfortably.

2003-11-03, 01:12	#26
PageFault Aug 2002 Dawn of the Dead EB₁₆ Posts	Knoppix is becoming popular with some of the ars farmers, supposedly it is designed exactly for situations like massed DC.