12 Opteron 275s in 3u of rack space... possible?

[Minotaar]

Does a dual core opteron release more heat than a single core opteron?

OK, so my university just bought a bigass cluster. And talking to some of the peeps at cray (cluster was built by cray) the machine is composed of 3 u chassis which have 6 mobos inside them, for a grand total of 12 Opteron 275s each.

(info on cluster: http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/citi/research.cfm?doc_id=7355)

After having a look at the box (I was allowed to visit the data facility that they are running this in) its got 3 120mms in the front. I cant tell you if there are more fans inside, but even so... can these machines possibly be sufficiently cooled? AC and all Im scared for these folks.

 

[Jhhnn]

"can these machines possibly be sufficiently cooled? "

Yes. In a cluster environment, noise is a lot less of a factor, so they're free to use very powerful fans, and they can also have dedicated climate control for the room, too..

 

[ribbon13]

My machine has no problems with cooling even with all the fans off except for PSU, CPU, and the Wildcat.

http://www.amdcompare.com/us%2Den/opteron/Default.aspx
Opteron 275 TPD is 95w

 

[Remedy]

Minotaar, Your link seems to be brokeb with Mozilla 1.5.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Minotaar, Your link seems to be brokeb with Mozilla 1.5.

Wow man, are obvious things like removing the out of place ) and the end of the link really beyond you?

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: ribbon13

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Minotaar, Your link seems to be brokeb with Mozilla 1.5.

Wow man, are obvious things like removing the out of place ) and the end of the link really beyond you?

*smh* You got to love Anandtech forums. Always one in the crowd. Thanks for heads up though. Really appreciated it.

 

[JEDIYoda]

tooo funnyeee!!

 

[Minotaar]

Does lowering ambient room temperature help that much? I was in the room and it was about 60-70 degrees in there.

 

[Jhhnn]

" Does lowering ambient room temperature help that much? I was in the room and it was about 60-70 degrees in there."

It's not so much about lowering the temp as removing the heat created by all that equipment. Without a dedicated climate control system, the rise in ambient temps would rapidly stop system operation... The fans get the heat out of the computers, the climate control system gets it out of the room...

Some of the Cray supercomputers were actually immersion cooled using fluorinert. The liquid was circulated directly thru the computer, and then thru a heat exchanger with a conventional refrigeration system. The cooled liquid returned in a loop to the computer, and the refrigerant was compressed, cooled and condensed in its own loop...

 

[ribbon13]

If you want amazing minotaar, imagine the cooling necessary for 10880 Opterons