[NTLUG:Discuss] Transport tool - opinions

[Kyle Davenport]

From: Terry Hancock <hancock at anansispaceworks.com>
>On Monday 24 March 2003 12:17 pm, Kyle Davenport wrote:
>>       I have accumulated a bunch of links in anticipation of my own
beowolf
>> cluster, but my threshold is <$200/node using the latest hardware.
>
> How did you come to the conclusion of "<$200"?  I mean, why
> would you want, say, 4 x $200 instead of 1 x $800 (or since
> we know you mean a cluster, 16 x $200 instead of 4 x $800)?
>
> This is not a rhetorical question.  I'm really uncertain
> how you make this decision, even in the rough.

chuckle.  and I won't give you a rhetorical answer...  It's based on a very
complex multi-variate analysis of utility, value/cost, depreciation, and
market trends.

until business wises up, it's a question of my money and my time and how
much I could accomplish on the hardware before it was antiquated.  You can
only "throw nodes" at the problem when you've whittled it down to
completely parallizable - and most interesting problems are not.

so for example, if I waited for that nForce2 node to drop in price until it
hit $250, it might very well be that a newer solution has come along by
then that is more than twice as fast for $500.  Of course you would buy the
$500 node then, but will you get enough use out of it (and that's _a_lot_
of computer to depreciate) before a newer solution is faster and cheaper
still?

Kyle