"Super Server" Idea

chidorimaster
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"Super Server" Idea Feb 12, 2014 12:17:15 GMT -5

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Post by chidorimaster on Feb 12, 2014 12:17:15 GMT -5

So, I had an idea recently about a sort of "super server" that overpowers your typical Xeon server, after reading about a modular datacenter made by the now-defunct Sun Microsystems. If I were to get the funding for such project, I would attempt to build a server that combines many supercomputer-like functions without using too many motherboards (basically, a supercomputer that doesn't take a whole server rack or more).

For how many "nodes", or separate computers in the machine, I would probably have less than 8 of them. Each "node" as I call them would consist of:

AMD Opteron 6212 2.6GHz 8-Core CPU per node
4x 2TB WD RE4 SATA III HDDs on RAID 10 per node
1x 120GB Samsung 840 SSD (OS files) per node
At least 16GB DDR3 ECC RAM per node
Motherboard TBA
Debian Linux 7 OS with RAID-ZFS partitioning

The only ideas I do not have at the moment is how to make it portable, along with how many nodes should the server have. What do you think? Contribute ideas if you want. ;)

Scorp
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"Super Server" Idea Feb 12, 2014 12:25:05 GMT -5

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Post by Scorp on Feb 12, 2014 12:25:05 GMT -5

How would you power this? I think it would be silly to have each node using its own psu but I don't think I have ever seena psu that would have the proper amount of voltage (let alone the proper amount of cables) to power all of it by itself

AMD FX-8350 8-core 4.2GHz (liquid cooling)
1TB western digital HDD
2x GTX 660 ti in SLI
16GB 1666MHz Corsair Veangence RAM
3x 23inch monitors for surround gaming

chidorimaster
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"Super Server" Idea Feb 12, 2014 12:27:12 GMT -5

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Post by chidorimaster on Feb 12, 2014 12:27:12 GMT -5

Feb 12, 2014 12:25:05 GMT -5 Scorp said:

How would you power this? I think it would be silly to have each node using its own psu but I don't think I have ever seena psu that would have the proper amount of voltage (let alone the proper amount of cables) to power all of it by itself

Anything is possible. Heck, I read about someone building a supercomputer out of an IKEA cabinet.

That's also another thing that needs figuring out.

Scorp
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"Super Server" Idea Feb 12, 2014 12:36:56 GMT -5

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Post by Scorp on Feb 12, 2014 12:36:56 GMT -5

That's true, as far as making it portable, that would definitely be tough. I think you could probably compress it all in a custom case small enough to be at least somewhat portable, but then I think you would probably run into some cooling issues there.

Maybe mineral oil? AKA the "fish tank" computer idea. make a really compact custom case and have the whole thing cooled with mineral oil. This (in my opinion) would really be the only way to go in making it portable. But there are 2 problems I could see with the oil. The weight of this thing would be tremendous with all that oil, further reducing it's portability. The 2nd problem being on how to seal this thing properly so you don't leak any of the oil but at the same time making the hardware accessible for modification/maintenance

AMD FX-8350 8-core 4.2GHz (liquid cooling)
1TB western digital HDD
2x GTX 660 ti in SLI
16GB 1666MHz Corsair Veangence RAM
3x 23inch monitors for surround gaming