[Beowulf] Re: GPU boards and cluster servers.

[Li, Bo]

Hello,
I have got the same opinions with you.
Dell's systems maybe cheap, but lacking of robustness or reliabilities. I did experience a few hardware failure with Dell's servers and they failed to give me any helpful supports except re-installing the OS.
Regards,
Li, Bo
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Prentice Bisbal" <prentice at ias.edu>
To: "Beowulf Mailing List" <beowulf at beowulf.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 2:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Re: GPU boards and cluster servers.


> Tom Elken wrote:
>> From: beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org
>> [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org] On Behalf Of Tom Pierce
>> 
>> 
>> ...  It is a cost effective solution, and Dell clusters keep
>> popping up at US Universities as well.
>> 
>> Tom  
>> 
>> The same is true at UK Universities.
>> 
>> -Tom
> 
> I think these trends have more to do with the cheap cost of Dell
> Hardware and Dell's sales force  and marketing to upper management than
> they do with any technical advantages Dell has over the competition.
> 
> I have no problem with Dell Hardware. There's nothing wrong with it, and
> Beowulf clusters are *supposed* to be based on affordable commodity
> hardware. I didn't see much basis for the earlier post disparaging Dell
> hardware.
> 
> However, If you're buying a "turn-key" cluster solution based on
> advertised "clustering services", I'd be cautious with *any* of the big
> vendors, where you're known mostly as a customer ID in their CRM
> database, and you're dealing with salespeople and not technical people.
> Especially if they offer any kind of "customization" -- more than
> likely, any customization will be at additional costs, and you'll still
> have to do some reconfiguration to get it set up the way yo want (and is
> therefore no longer a turn-key system). I've got a few stories, but the
> guilty shall remain nameless.
> 
> Getting back to hardware, I've always been impressed with the robustness
> of HP Proliant hardware
> 
> -- 
> Prentice
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