Rack mounted systems.

[Greg Lindahl]

> - what is the minimum width of a 2-way node? (1U, 2U?)

You can buy 1U nodes. 2U nodes are still cheaper. You can also buy half
depth cases such as the ones from rackable.com and get 2 2U cases in 2U, or
2 1U cases in 1U. racksaver.com seems to be selling 3 systems (potentially
dual intels) mounted in 1U.

> - how many nodes can reasonably be put in a standard
>   10" rack? i.e. can the rack be fully loaded or is
>   some spacing required?

If correctly designed, no spacing is needed. Note that a standard rack is
19" (typo) and they come in a variety of heights. Normal is 42U, I think,
but I've purchased as tall as 50U.

At that many nodes, you should check how much excess air conditioning you
have in the room. When you build a machine room you guess how much cooling
you'll need, usually set by the volume. If you then put in unusually dense
computers, you'll run out of cooling.

-- g