[geeks] Are these servers that bad?

[Patrick Finnegan]

It's 64GB of RAM (not "megs").  The system boards have 8 dimm slots each,
for a total of 64 per server.  With 4GB DIMMs (fairly cheap these days),
you could easily take it to 256GB ram.

64GB isn't bad for 32 cores.  2GB/core is the minimum config we usually
build HPC clusters at Purdue with.

Pat


On Thu, Jun 19, 2014 at 9:14 AM, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> That's a lot of cores (32) for 'only' 64 Megs of RAM - and I suspect
> increasing the RAM any further (if even possible) gets insanely expensive
> rather quickly.
>
> Then there's the power issue and the noise issue - either of which will
> keep
> it out of most uses.
>
> As a box to spin up for fun, it's a great deal, but for any extended use a
> more modern system could easily out-perform this box for less money once
> power
> costs are added in.
>
> It uses as much as 1.9KW, according to the documentation:
>
>
> http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19121-01/sf.x4600/819-4342-18/html/z40007eb1005069
> .html
>
> Also, consider licensing costs - depending on software licenses an 8 socket
> system command a premium license. For example, were you to want to run
> Windows
> Server on such a box with all sockets running would require purchasing 4x
> windows licenses (standard or datacenter), and I can't imagine the costs
> for
> licensing something like Oracle Database...
>
> (Licensing costs are, IMHO, the reason a box like this shows up on the
> market
> at what I'll call 'scrap plus' prices.)
>
> Lionel
>
> > On Jun 18, 2014, at 10:13 PM, Jonathan Katz <jon at jonworld.com> wrote:
> >
> > Trying to figure something out...
> >
> > I saw this on e-bay, and have seen similar deals over time..
> >
> > http://www.ebay.com/itm/171360350238
> >
> > That seems like a LOT of horsepower for a low price. I was long-gone
> > from Sun by the time these came out, so I don't know about any quality
> > issues or horror stories, but why so cheap for 16 cores and 64G of
> > RAM? To me that should still command a premium even if it is older
> > hardware. Shows what little I know about current hardware these days,
> > anyway.
> >
> > I still have a dream of getting a Thumper (X4500 or X4550) and loading
> > it with SSDs. You know, one of these, with 48 2.5" SATA slots?
> >
> > http://www.ebay.com/itm/291157702209
> >
> > Those have gone up in price, surprisingly. The last time I saw one it
> > was like $500 or less.
> >
> > --
> > -Jon
> > Jonathan Katz, Indianapolis, IN.
> > _______________________________________________
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