Thanks Mike!
To undertand power use in the past I have found it very helpful to look at
OEM motherboard manuals. For example the Intel OEM motherboard manuals
typically include a table listing expected power consumption for a system
built around the motherboard. The table includes standby, normal and peak
power use for all the major components: cpu, memory, disk, chipset,
networking, etc. It's helpful to get a quick overview and to develop a
feel for where the power is going.
It's my experience that when building large clusters, issues of space,
power and cooling are often harder and more time-consuming to resolve than
actually getting the cluster itself purchased, commissioned, and
operating. For example I've recently taken up a new position in Hannover
Germany where as part of my start-up package the MPG is building a cluster
room (450 square meters floor space, 500kW cooling, 800kW UPS, with the
option to double cooling/power in four years). The design of the room
began in September 2005 and construction is now underway; the room is
scheduled for completion at the end of this year. So total design and
construction time is 2.3 years. In contrast, I am just now starting some
serious benchmarking for the cluster itself, which will probably arrive
early next year. Total design and construction time will be about 0.5
years. The cost of the cluster room is about equal to the cost of the
initial cluster that will go into it. But the ratio of time to completion
(and design time) is more than 4 to 1.
Cheers,
Bruce
On Thu, 12 Jul 2007, Mike Davis wrote:
That's excellent information. I was surpised by how close to the documented
power use my number were. Knowing that even high disk use adds little power
usage is important to though of us fighting the power/cooling wars.
Mike
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