The CFD and the Matlab comments should be considered separate. We use Fluent for CFD, but the only benchmark software I can run on both PC's and different vendor workstations is Matlab. I was trying (poorly evidently) to get the point across that Mhz is a somewhat meaningless measure of performance. When we evaluated 4 vendors machines, the SGI's actually had the lowest clock cycle, but were only beat out by the Alphas. Actually, we had to hunt around and optimize the code for the Alphas before we could get them to beat the SGI's. With the SGI's we just compiled with -O2 and away they went. So back to my Matlab reference. Working with rockets we have some rather large scripts running double precision math, and again the SGI's just sing right along. We have a multitude of multi-processor and single-processor SGI's and they have all worked hard and fast. We are starting to get more Suns in house, and the NEWER ones are holding up pretty good too. Very solid memory architecture as well as a rock solid threaded kernal. The HP's that I have tested and our company has evaluated have not been up to snuff with the SGI's and Suns. I wish I had more eval time on the Alpha's since I believe they would also be up to the task, but alas I don't.
We do some heavy CFD work at my employeer too (Orbital Science Corporation). In the past, we have stuck with the SGI's after getting samples from each manufacturer and reviewing all of the offerings. SGI was bested only by the DEC Alpha machines (nothing like raw clock cycles), but the future (2 years ago) looked a little bleak for the Alphas, so we went with SGI's. They have held up well, and bely their meager clock cycles. SGI systems are always tuned to work as a system, and with CFD you are going to need it. High speed access to memory, cache, etc. Given the specs you mentioned, I would think the performance would be a wash (my 'educated' guess), so I would definately go with the lower price. I can't imagine you could go wrong. The newer PC on my desk is technically spec'd out to be twice as fast on a Mhz basis, but the SGI will absolutely clobber the PC on large computationally heavy Matlab scripts run on both machines.
We are starting to comtemplate our next upgrade, and are leaning towards the UltraSparc III's. We have some beefy II's around here and they are doing real well. I'd at least look at Sun's offerings.
It all has to do with infrastructure. If you search around the web, you'll find numerous sites that deal with alternative fuels, electric vehicles, and fuel cells. But they are all niche products just waiting to hit the mainstream. The very large problem in Arizona is the availability of alternative fueled cars that people can get their hands on. Honda's car is backlogged for about a year. Ford trucks, Crown Vic, etc vehicles are backlogged at least 6 months. The people that have done propane conversions are also backlogged 6 months and the lists are getting longer. At least the fuel source in plentiful. (US centric mode ON)The US gets about 95% of the propane and natural gas it uses from internal sources, very little is imported. I consider this a great thing since we don't have to worry about OPEC hiccups.(US centric mode OFF) Since I personally live in Arizona too, I'll be trying to get in on the rebate deal. From my research, it looks like propane and natural gas run vehicles are SLIGHTLY less costly to operate. The internal combustion engines are also said to have less wear and tear. Oil actually still looks golden after several thousand miles, etc. The real kicker that wasn't mentioned in the article was the $30,000 rebate for vehicles greater than 12000 lbs. I've never wanted to own an RV so bad in my life.
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The CFD and the Matlab comments should be considered separate. We use Fluent for CFD, but the only benchmark software I can run on both PC's and different vendor workstations is Matlab. I was trying (poorly evidently) to get the point across that Mhz is a somewhat meaningless measure of performance. When we evaluated 4 vendors machines, the SGI's actually had the lowest clock cycle, but were only beat out by the Alphas. Actually, we had to hunt around and optimize the code for the Alphas before we could get them to beat the SGI's. With the SGI's we just compiled with -O2 and away they went. So back to my Matlab reference. Working with rockets we have some rather large scripts running double precision math, and again the SGI's just sing right along. We have a multitude of multi-processor and single-processor SGI's and they have all worked hard and fast. We are starting to get more Suns in house, and the NEWER ones are holding up pretty good too. Very solid memory architecture as well as a rock solid threaded kernal. The HP's that I have tested and our company has evaluated have not been up to snuff with the SGI's and Suns. I wish I had more eval time on the Alpha's since I believe they would also be up to the task, but alas I don't.
We do some heavy CFD work at my employeer too (Orbital Science Corporation). In the past, we have stuck with the SGI's after getting samples from each manufacturer and reviewing all of the offerings. SGI was bested only by the DEC Alpha machines (nothing like raw clock cycles), but the future (2 years ago) looked a little bleak for the Alphas, so we went with SGI's. They have held up well, and bely their meager clock cycles. SGI systems are always tuned to work as a system, and with CFD you are going to need it. High speed access to memory, cache, etc. Given the specs you mentioned, I would think the performance would be a wash (my 'educated' guess), so I would definately go with the lower price. I can't imagine you could go wrong. The newer PC on my desk is technically spec'd out to be twice as fast on a Mhz basis, but the SGI will absolutely clobber the PC on large computationally heavy Matlab scripts run on both machines. We are starting to comtemplate our next upgrade, and are leaning towards the UltraSparc III's. We have some beefy II's around here and they are doing real well. I'd at least look at Sun's offerings.
It all has to do with infrastructure. If you search around the web, you'll find numerous sites that deal with alternative fuels, electric vehicles, and fuel cells. But they are all niche products just waiting to hit the mainstream. The very large problem in Arizona is the availability of alternative fueled cars that people can get their hands on. Honda's car is backlogged for about a year. Ford trucks, Crown Vic, etc vehicles are backlogged at least 6 months. The people that have done propane conversions are also backlogged 6 months and the lists are getting longer. At least the fuel source in plentiful. (US centric mode ON)The US gets about 95% of the propane and natural gas it uses from internal sources, very little is imported. I consider this a great thing since we don't have to worry about OPEC hiccups.(US centric mode OFF) Since I personally live in Arizona too, I'll be trying to get in on the rebate deal. From my research, it looks like propane and natural gas run vehicles are SLIGHTLY less costly to operate. The internal combustion engines are also said to have less wear and tear. Oil actually still looks golden after several thousand miles, etc. The real kicker that wasn't mentioned in the article was the $30,000 rebate for vehicles greater than 12000 lbs. I've never wanted to own an RV so bad in my life.