Cluster Computing Processors

[mad_engr]

Hey,

I am in the process of creating a cluster for running MATLAB and COMSOL codes (Computationally and Memory Intensive)... I have been doing a lot of research and was wondering what you all thought about the following:

-- a single motherboard with dual CPU xeon processors
-- two motherboards with each having an i7 CPU
-- some kind of AMD setup?

At this point money isn't really a worry. Currently we have a single computer with an i7 and it handles pretty well. Is there an advantage to running MATLAB or COMSOL code on a single computer with 16 cores or 2 computers with 16 cores?

Any insight would be awesome!

MT

 

[Peter.Cort]

the i7's are faster than the xeon's due to architecture and cache and all that good stuff, not sure if 1 i7 is better than 2 high end xeon's but that's something to research. AMD doesn't have much in the way of dual cpu setups for their newer cpu's.

Obviously if you can spread the load over a cluster of i7's it would be faster than just a single i7. Provided the code is optimized for multiple cpu's which since I don't know anything about MATLAB and COMSOL makes my opinion irrelevant.

 

[Burn]

If you are looking for crazy processing power (I'm not familiar with what you mentioned lol)... get a dual socket 1366 and through two of these i7 xeons in.

Newegg.com - Intel Xeon W3520 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Server Processor - Processors - Servers

 

[g_booto]

Go for something similar to an IBM x3650 M2 or x3500 M2
they have dual cpus (socket 1366)
Plenty of DIMMs for you memory
IBM System x - Hardware