custom cluster cabinets (was Re: 1U P4 Systems)

[Velocet]

On Tue, May 22, 2001 at 05:47:52PM -0400, Robert G. Brown's all...

> > 1) I don't want to spend $200 US ($300 CDN) or more on a case.
> 
> Martin, I'd have to echo this frustration.  Pretty much all the XU cases
> I've found are more than $200, some quite a bit more.  Then you've got
> to buy the rack.  Compared to $50-60 for a standard mid-tower case this
> is painful beyond measure when buying in volume, especially when the
> total node cost might only be $600-750 outside of the case.

Anyone build custom cabinets for their clusters? I am wondering if
there are any pointers for it. We've hooked up with a sheet metal/aluminum
guy and he is going to be able to house our entire cluster of 40-50 machines
for somewhere around $2000. Thats around $40/box ($CDN) which is quite
cheap, in the same range as the cheapest cases, but in a much smaller
space. (It may well even be cheaper, we've budgeted $2000).

Space is a concern for us, we need to keep things down to a very small
footprint. Using commodity PC cases are just way too large, and
1U or 2U rackmounts are just way too expensive.

Seems everyone is building clusters out of full PCs (hardrives, cases,
power supplies) - just wondering if anyone has gone and removed any
of these items... ie diskless clusters, custom cabinet, and even more
rare, custom power.

/kc
-- 
Ken Chase, math at velocet.ca  *  Velocet Communications Inc.  *  Toronto, CANADA