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Mini-ITX Clustering

Posted by michael on from the there's-no-i-in-team dept.

NormalVisual writes "Add this cluster to the list of fun stuff you can do with those tiny little Mini-ITX motherboards. I especially like the bit about the peak 200W power dissipation. Look Ma, no fans!! You may now begin with the obligatory Beowulf comments...."

6 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Some preliminary performance results by JimmyQS · · Score: 5, Informative

    We studied 3 mini beowulf systems a while back, here at University of Central Florida, one of which was a mini-ITX beowulf. Here's some info and preliminary results: http://helios.engr.ucf.edu/beowulf/miniature.phtml

  2. Re:Floating point performance by J3zmund · · Score: 5, Informative

    They might be on their way. Here's a 1.7 GHz Pentium M.

    --

    It's all Hood
  3. Re:Floating point performance by -tji · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are P4 Mini-ITX systems available: Pentium 4

    But, most mini-itx systems are very small in size, and strive for quiet or silent operation. So, there are obvious problems with the P4's heat/power requirements. Perhaps a better solution is the Pentium-M in a mini-itx form factor. It has pretty good performance, at a low power/heat level: Pentium M. But, most of the Pentium-M boards are intended for industrial or OEM use, so they are hard to find in retail, and are pretty expensive.

  4. slashdotted already? by cetan · · Score: 5, Informative

    sheesh that didn't take long.

    I managed to get it mirrored here:
    page 1:
    http://www.phule.net/mirrors/mini-itx-cluster.html
    page 2:
    http://www.phule.net/mirrors/mini-itx-cluster2.htm l
    page 3:
    http://www.phule.net/mirrors/mini-itx-cluster3.htm l

    --
    In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
  5. Re:Floating point performance by mi · · Score: 5, Informative
    the floating point performance (why else would you build a cluster?)
    • To crack encryption?
    • To compile big projects?
    • To compress huge files?

    The floating point is just a convenience. Almost any algorithm can be modified to work with fixed point precision -- and without loss of performance.

    Of course, many people will insist, they need FP to be able count dollars and cents -- they don't even think of counting cents (or any other fractions of the dollar) with integers, for example.

    These are, usually, the same people, who have troubles defining bit...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  6. Re:Inexpensive for testing purposes, by jepaton · · Score: 5, Informative

    A beowolf of mini-itx boards is probably the cheapest way to get bragging rights. As a practical way of fast and cheap parallel computation they are not.

    However, I have purchased three (V10000 boards) thus far and intend to add more to my network as low power (as in Watts) servers.

    I worked out that given the power of 10.78W (source: mini-itx.com's power comparison tool) for the V series (probably the one with the slowest CPU in the series, board only), I could save a fortune on electricity compared to a more regular computer.

    The electricity company sells electricity at the rate of 0.63 ($1.18) per watt per year. Compared with a standard PC of 100W, I can regain the purchase costs (in savings) of the board and memory within two to three years.

    Also, I found rack mount chassis available cheaper than one for a regular sized case. This influenced my decision a little - who doesn't want a network of rack mounted computers?

    Overall, because of the low price and low power the mini-itx boards are a no brainer if and only if the CPU power of each computer isn't important.

    Jonathan