Re: new backend computer? (fwd)

[Frederick Gray <fegray@berkeley.edu>]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2006 at 02:04:12PM -0600, Peter Kammel wrote:
> Dear Fred,
> 
> FYI. Everybody agrees that your idea is good. Opinions differ
> a bit whether we get the most for our money with the 
> $3400 machine. What is the exact configuration you
> are envisioning.
> 

Hi, Peter,

The "$3400 machine" was intended as a starting point for discussion, and I 
would also hope that we can optimize the price/performance ratio.  I had been
looking at the dual Opteron 270 machine from the vendor that sold us cheetah: 
  http://www.swt.com/dualo5.html .  
With a 250 GB drive rather than the default 80 GB, the current price is
$3271 plus shipping. 

One of my KamLAND colleagues just bought an online processing farm of 
Dell PowerEdge 1850 dual Xeon 3.2 GHz machines.   I have not benchmarked
our software on a Xeon, so I don't know how to compare this configuration
directly.  I suspect that it is somewhat slower.  With 2 * 146 GB SCSI hard 
drives, it currently prices out at $3023.70.

Also, one reply to David's comment:
>Would a faster backend machine be a good investment?  MuCap is considering 
>purchasing a new machine for analysis that would be four times faster than 
>their Cheetah, [...]

Actually only two times.  The other factor of 2 comes from using both CPUs for 
analysis, rather than one for analysis and one for event building and
other tasks.

Thanks,

-- Fred

-- Fred Gray / Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher                 --
-- Department of Physics / University of California, Berkeley   --
-- fegray@berkeley.edu / phone 510-642-2438 / fax 510-642-9811  --