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Linux Desktop Clustering - Pick Your Pricerange

Posted by timothy on from the cheapness-rocks dept.

crashlight writes: "A Linux cluster on the desktop--Rocket Calc just announced their 8-processor "personal" cluster in a mid-tower-sized box. Starting at $4500, you get 8 Celeron 800MHz processors, each with 256MB RAM and a 100Mbps ethernet connection. The box also has an integrated 100Mbps switch. Plus it's sexy." Perhaps less sexy, but for a lot less money, you can also run a cluster of Linux (virtual) machines on your desktop on middle-of-the-road hardware. See this followup on Grant Gross's recent piece on Virtual Machines over at Newsforge.

2 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Virtual macines??? by TheAwfulTruth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The purpose of running clusters is to increase processing power and/or fail-safety. How is running 8 virtual machines in any way a "less sexy" version of an 8 CPU cluster?

    --
    Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
  2. Re:under engineered. by benedict · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure, you could build it yourself, and your
    hardware cost would be lower.

    But what about the cost of your time, in terms of
    dealing with vendors, putting machines together,
    testing them, integrating them, and testing again?

    I'm guessing these machines come with support, too,
    though I can't tell because their web site is
    Slashdotted.

    --
    Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."