A thing to look at is how much bandwidth the models require compared to the CPU load. You can redline gigabit ethernet with a 1GHz PIII and a 64-bit PCI bus. Opterons on a decent motherboard will definitely keep a gigabit line chock full. With dual-core you get the advantage of very fast processor-to-processor communication but you'll run the risk of choking on the ethernet connection. You might be OK if you can get dual-ethernet connections on the motherboard and run channel-bonding to increase the bandwidth, but your switch has to be able to handle it.
Damien > You might want to take this question over to the Beowulf list -- they > talk a lot more about cluster configurations than we do -- and/or the > mm4 and wein2k support lists (since they know the details of those > applications -- if you're going to have a cluster for a specific set of > applications, it can be best to get input from the developers who know > the applications best, and what their communication characteristics > are). > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: users-boun...@open-mpi.org >> [mailto:users-boun...@open-mpi.org] On Behalf Of h...@gurban.org >> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 12:23 PM >> To: us...@open-mpi.org >> Subject: [OMPI users] which is better: 64x1 or 32x2 >> >> Hi, >> >> I want to build an hpc cluster for running mm5 and wien2k >> scientific applications for my physics coledge. both of them >> use MPI. >> >> Interconnection between nodes: GigEth (Cisco 24 port GigEth) >> >> It seems I have two choices for nodes: >> * 32 dual core opteron processors (1 GB ram for each node) >> * 64 single core opteron processors (2 GB ram for each node) >> >> Which is better (performance & price)? >> >> _______________________________________________ >> users mailing list >> us...@open-mpi.org >> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users >> > > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list > us...@open-mpi.org > http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users >
